Never judge a book by its cover. Everything about this restaurant seemed great but In the end it was a huge disappointment. The service was extremely lacking. We waited for our food for half an hour before asking how much longer it would be, and were told food takes 25-30 minutes to prepare, but then 10 minutes later we were told by a different waiter it would be another 15 minutes till we got our food. At this point, we were in a time crunch because we had to check out from our hotel in 20 minutes, and the food was not in sight. Another waiter said we could come back after checking out and our food would be ready, so we did just that. We got back 20 minutes later and still the food wasn't ready. It should be mentioned the restaurant wasn't even that full when we were there, easily less than a fourth of the tables were seated. Then after another agonizing 20 minutes the most basic food you have ever seen gets to our table. Poached eggs came with dry toast that looks like something from a school cafeteria nightmare. My bagel with salmon, cream cheese and avocado was alright but was ruined by a cream cheese that appeared to significantly sweetened. The BLT another at the table ordered seemed pretty good, but it's fry's we're flavorless grease bombs. The crowning jewel on an already frustrating meal were the straws.
Straws are really just a huge pet peeve of mine that always brings down a restaurant in my eyes, especially when they bring them opened from the package in the drink with no prompting from the customer, because even if you say you don't want them at that point, their just going to throw them out anyway because they have your drink all over them. They really show a restaurants inability to get with the times and though serving plastic straws isn't enough to bring down a restaurant completely, it certainly doesn't help. The one good thing I can say about this restaurant was the view. The patio looks out on the beautiful lake Taupo and it is well shaded. I really wish our experience could have been better, Maybe the restaurant staff were just having a rough day, but in my eyes, a restaurant that makes you wait over an hour for basic uninspired breakfast food has some serious issues. read more