Cafe Byzantium

Overall, the quality was better years ago I feel. Not bad, but not my favourite either

Oh my God! Cafe Byzantium has the best Egg's Benedict in town! Service is good, coffee is good, Food is EXCELLENT! YOU MUST TRY THE EGGS BENEDICT! I had a stay at the local apartment hotel (Quest)!There had a obviously been new management, so the reviews some people wrote earlier on, are outdated! Have a try at the Eggs Benedict!

DO NOT GO TO THIS CAFE

Unfortunately the glory days of this favourite Auckland establishment are long gone. I see the 2006 reviews speak of eggs to die for - yep I remember them but I am sorry to say they are merely that - a memory.

OK so my recent experience was New Years day when venue pickings were slim, however - the cafe was not full and they still imposed a 10% surcharge, which would suggest some contingency was in place to deal with, you know, customers.

I waited for 5 min to actually place my order while another couple asked for a refund on their coffees which never arrived, even though their food finally made it after about 45 minutes. That should have been my cue to go home and cook my own eggs. But I thought it might be a one off and that it was supposed to be a relaxing day so I persevered.

We ordered our eggs, and waited, waited and waited for at least our coffee to arrive. After 40 minutes I enquired of their whereabouts and the barista replied - "what did you order, I will make it for you now".

After an hour we finally gave up and demanded a refund. This seemed to come as no surprise to the cashier who had likely done a few that morning. His first attempt failed to calculate the surcharge and when he went to retrieve the docket with our order on it, it was still sitting where I had seen him place it after we ordered.

At no point were we warned of a wait or checked in on while staff breezed passed us for an hour. I did note that a 11ish year old boy who obviously belonged to the proprietors (as he was holed up on a table all day with his laptop) received a plate of eggs while paying customers - including those at tables around us were left waiting and starving.

So obviously dealing with squeaky wheels and letting the attrition of fed up people thin out demand is the customer service approach.

Hopefully someone buys this place which is in a great spot and restores the great reputation. But do not spend any money there unt

Hopeless is the key word for this place. went to this place as was staying in quest ponsonby and based on reviews in the past (i did not check how old the reviews were - 2006) from http://www.viewauckland.co.nz/info_Restaurant_14746.html, i thought it was a safe choice.
obviously there has been a change in management since as the reviews raved about their scrambled eggs, semi vegetarian menu and organic choices.
i saw on the menu that the scrambled eggs came with whole meal toast so i checked if they had ciabatta bread. the cashier promptly said 'yes' and i said great, i would have it with ciabatta bread. the order finally came after a long wait. the bread was soggy wholegrain bread served up with scrambled eggs that i could have cooked better myself. it was runny and lumpy without much taste. when i questioned the wait staff about the bread, she did not understand what ciabatta bread was and proceeded to ask me to pronounce it 5 times before she went down to check with the cashier lady. then she came up and said, no it only came with whole grain / wholemeal - no ciabatta! I was apalled at the whole situation / response and did not say much more after this.
my husband had ordered the chicken curry and salad . this appeared after a while and he was served chunky chicken breast pieces cooked with a bright yellow thin sauce and very mediocre old salad. he had thought that it safe to order curry since the cook / kitchen staff were asian and the serving staff were also asian. what a let down!
we are asian ourselves so this is not a jibe against them but we understand and enjoy food so this is not what we expected of the place. the whole experience is a big thumbs down!
the coffee was the only positive rating that i could give it. 7/10 but below 5 if you are comparing it to other ponsonby cafes !!

Great coffee and excellent, warm and friendly service. Stumbled into Cafe Byzantium over the weekend for two reasons: one, to avoid hypothermia on a particularly nasty Auckland 'summer' day; and two, because I had heard great things about Cafe Byzantium.


Nice, comfortable surroundings and cheery staff make this place a worthwhile stop!

The Eggs Benedict at Cafe Byzantium are absolutely to die for! I have eaten eggs bene all over the country and have not found one other cafe/restaurant even in the same league.

The most amazzzzzing scrambled eggs!