Tuihana Cafe. Foodstore

Great service, very attentive and friendly. Food was very tasty and portions were generous. Pricing was reasonable but when you factor in that I ate my leftover omelette for lunch too, pricing is on the cheaper side!
I’ll definitely be going to Tuihana again!

Tuihana Café is an airy and bright eatery at the end of Dominion Road (Town end). I came here as part of ‘The Bloggers Brunch Club’ with a great group of other bloggers from Auckland.
What a great experience they offer. We were lucky to have the owner speak to us about the continuity their café provides and how tech savvy their café is. They offer awesome features such as ordering through email, txt, and twitter (thats a first!). When hiring new staff they ask their current staff what they think of new applicants. I thought this was a great idea, how often do we end up working with complete dummy’s or bully’s?
They offer a large selection of menu items for both breakfast and lunch. I went with the creamy shrooms on toast, as again my other option that didn’t have eggs on the menu were the pancakes, and the toppings shouted too sweet for me personally for breakfast. What i thought was a cool point of difference was that they served their dishes with a maori bread, traditional to the owners of which they handmade themselves. It was really delicious and just gave a different texture to your ordinary bread, as I think he mentioned it was potato based. The mushrooms were cooked well, but I don’t think its necessary to serve butter on the side, as its already a creamy dish and the flavour could just be a bit more developed with less cream and more sautéing of the mushrooms, maybe a few herbs like rosemary or thyme added too. The banana smoothie I had was nice but it could have been a bit thicker with more banana as it was a bit more milky tasting.
Staff were very friendly and the owner is an easy going, down to earth chap.
Rating
Food: 6.5÷10
Service: ⁹⁄₁₀
Value for Money: Very Good
114 Dominion Road, Mt Eden
Opening Hours:
Mon-​Fri 7am-​4pm
Sat, Sun 9am-​2pm

If you blink you’ll miss it. Tuihana Café is located on Dominion Road, but it’s nestled into the bottom of a commercial building at the junction of View Road. If the sign writing doesn’t draw your attention, you’re likely to continue on towards the famed Dominion Rd strip of Asian eateries. But you’ll be missing out.
When we stopped off for a lunchtime feed on a public holiday, we were given a very warm welcome by the friendly staff. This café embraces Kiwiana: rewana bread is on the menu, gorgeous tiki-​inspired art graces the walls & they serve organic kiwi Phoenix drinks. Sweet as.
There are several other things that set this place apart, and that the owners pride themselves on. One is the warm, friendly service that makes you feel like you are a long-​lost friend. These guys are building a community with their customers.
Secondly, they make & cook everything from scratch on this menu. No pre-​made sauces, pre-​cut chips or frozen battered fish here thanks very much. This is AWESOME news — so many places rely on mass-​produced rubbish filled with additives & preservatives. If you ask what’s in a meal at Tuihana, they don’t check the packet to find out; they ask the chef. Bravo.
Lastly, this café is a tech-lover’s paradise. Free wi-​fi, text to pre-​order your food & coffee, watch the twitter feeds slink across the screen on the counter, or join them on Facebook for the special of the day. It’s no surprise to learn that one of the owners, Nate, has an IT background. Because of this, Tuihana is one of the most social media-​savvy eateries we’ve come across, and in today’s digital world they’re leading the way in this area.
But computer know-​how don’t mean a thing in the kitchen. Since I am still on a seemingly lifelong search, scouring Auckland for corn fritters as good as my mother’s recipe, I went for the Corn Fritter stack with Crispy Bacon, Chunky Tomato Salsa & Guacamole with Poached Egg, Balsamic & Watercress. The fritters were damn good. Not quite Mum’s standards but probably the closest estimation I’ve come across yet in Auckland’s café culture. And that’s high praise! But the tomato salsa & guacamole — yumarama! The salsa was delicious & chunky with tangy pickled cucumber, and the guacamole added that lovely rich avocado creaminess. The egg was perfectly poached with a lovely runny yolk.
The Scotsman went for a man-​sized meal: the Kiwi Classic burger loaded with a housemade beef pattie, egg, beetroot & horopito relish & Tuimato sauce, served with kumara fries. The burger was tasty but a tad chewy. The condiments were tasty additions and the kumara fries were crispy & salty.
The rest of the menu has other Kiwi favourites such as Fush & Chups (no spelling mistake!), Salt & Pepper Squid and Eggs Benny on Rewana Bread among other goodies. Tuihana has a liquor license too, so you can enjoy a cheeky champers or beer with your meal.
We love the ethos behind this place. The owners Nate & Leslie are young, full of enthusiasm and have a great vision for what they want to achieve. Leslie’s rewana bread is home-​baked delicious-​ness, and the inclusion of typical Kiwi ingredients like horopito & kawakawa on the menu is to be applauded. The fact that they make everything fresh in their kitchen is bloody brilliant, and something that foodies who appreciate flavour, freshness & attention to detail should seek out.
«Tuihana» was originally taken to mean «a bird in the hand». Although that may have been a mis-​translation, this place is definitely worth two in the bush. We know we’ll be back.

This café is a favourite of my boyfriend and I, we never usually order mocha coffees, but here… we do. They are so rich and delicious and really satisfy a chocolate craving, but the coffee in them is also nice and strong, satisfying a coffee craving, win win! It’s also a lovely café to sit in, we like to sit right in the corner by the big window. Their cabinet food looks delicious but so far I have not yet had to oppourtunity to try, maybe next time will be the time. The service has always been friendly and inviting, making each visit very enjoyable. They also have their own parking which makes life just that little bit easier.