Reviews for Cafe Cuba

by cafechic
16th May 2012

Cafe Cuba is one of Palmys iconic cafes. The best eggs benedict ever, and coffee is always amazing!! Love the selection and there is something to suit everyone, so ideal for a big group. Open 7 days days a week, day and night. Great wine list, and the dinner menu is great! Keep it up Cuba, looking forward to my next visit as I always do

by Greta
30th April 2012

People tend to make a bigger deal out of cafe cuba than what it really is.

I only really like it because of the atmosphere and like the outside area with the plastic that shield the wind!

But other than that, Everything is average and what you can get from any cafe in Palmerston North.

Staff aren’t all that friendly either… It only attracts people because of its alternative modern art deco feel…

by Maree
30th March 2012

Consistently the best hot chocolate and coffee in Palmerston North for over 8 years. Love the atmosphere – kinda casual and dark. Staff are always friendly and obliging. The meals tend to let this place down. And someone (poss the manager?) keeps writing notes on the whiteboard telling the kitchen staff off – and customers can read it! Bad image guys. Customers don’t need to know the issues management may have with staff – keep it in house.

by Hacked o.
17th March 2012

If it wasn’t for the silk cake which my wife adores I probably wouldn’t choose to visit this place. As per some of the other posts the staff seem uninterested in customer service, lack basic food handling hygiene skills, and make the whole experience of going there the least bit desirable.

by Lilwonder
24th February 2012

Silk cake to die for and best coffee in town and blondie coffee maker also best in town, keep up the good work

by Sam M.
8th January 2012

An absolutely fantastic little Cafe, it’s easy to see why it is constantly busy, the staff do a great job considering the popularity of this Cafe. The food is excellent. I have been there for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and have had beautiful food every time. Certainly this has got to be Palmy’s best Cafe!

Great place on a nice summer’s day, with outdoor seating to soak up the rays.

Big thumbs up Cafe Cuba, ill be back for sure!!!!

by Lois F.
4th January 2012

usually very good. Love their mochas, and the fact that you can get half portions of their wedges.

bit disappointed recently though.
1. The staff doesnt seem that interested in serving you.
2. They used to charge half price for a half strength lemon honey and ginger. No longer. disappointing, as they are only using half the syrup
3. Had beef nachos this week – no chilli in the mince. Just a nicely cooked plain mince with beans. Nice texture, but my husband had to go to the counter for a bottle of tobasco.

a pity, as it’s my favourite cafe. What happened since November? New owners? New staffing?

by B W.
29th December 2011

Love the food especially the eggs Bennie’s and the coffee usually always is consistant and great quality.
The staff are usually always nice and chatty but maybe should smile more………

overall fantastic always have been.

by Maarten B.
19th December 2011

usually very busy, so sometimes you have to wait a long time for your food

the staff are sometimes wonderful and friendly, and sometimes plainly stressed and overworked. Get more staff when you’re busy!!

the food is quite good, and the prices have gone up, so what used to be excellent value is now reasonable

nice place to go and will see us again

by Fiona
6th November 2011

The food continues to taste great, the prices have gone too high,the staff have deteriorated considerably, maybe you need to employ more mature people who are focused on good customer service…..food for thought…

by JC
28th October 2011

My experience of cafe cuba has normally been a good one and have been going there for years. However the last few times i have been there as recently as today the customer service has really let them down. I got given the wrong item and not what i asked for, when taking it back was met with blank stares from all the staff and then the person who served me asked if there was a problem. Then told me i got what i asked for to which i said no this is not what i wanted so then they walked off mumbling something so i just went and sat back down not knowing if it was going to be bought to me or what then the coffee girls had to make a comment like “what was her problem” in front of all the other customers etc. I probably had a confused look on my face because i didnt know what was going on and was treated like a nuisance but I think im entitled to ask for a replacement, i wasnt rude – but will not be going back there at all! Its become overpriced aswell and the coffee was burnt! How dare i ask them to replace something they got wrong?! you’d think i was asking for a free meal or something! Not cool Cuba – sort your grumpy staff out. If they dont want to give customers service maybe the should change jobs!

by Aaron L.
14th October 2011

Always good food and excellent coffee. It’s the most popular cafe in town and always very busy. The staff are often a bit disorganised, and sometimes it takes a long time to get food. But, I still have no hesitation about going back.

by Sarah
13th August 2011

Food is usually pretty good, and there is a good range of option, regardless of time of day. I do object to the increasing price of the cakes. Silk cake is great, but I don’t really think $9 a slice is justified. The thing that lets Cafe Cuba down is their consistently poor service. We have already had to wait a long time for our orders – both dine in and takeaway. Orders are regularly messed up, and waiter attitude is really indifferent. No mattre how good the food is, if the service is poor that’s enough to turn me away.

by Renee t.
26th July 2011

we had a work leaving dinner at cafe cuba on sunday the 24th of july. three people including myself ordered the beef scnitzel which was $19 i asked the lady if we could
all SWAP!!!! our salad to veges and if we could SWAP!! the fries to mash potatoes, she said yup you can swap thats fine. so we all get to the check out and the lady has charged us a extra $9 each. i then rang up the next day to enquire about this problem and the staff member was extremly rude to me and said well the waiter should of told you and we hope next time this wont happen. well there wont be a next time. i understand that mash potatoes and veges are $3 extra but they swapped are sides for these but still charged us extra as in we still got the salad and fries. we only got our Schnitzel mash potatoes and veges and got charged 28 dollars each. very dissapointed.

by Sam H.
26th May 2011

Its not hard to see why this Cafe is so busy, whether its for Coffee, breakfast, lunch or dinner, we always get greeted with a friendly smile and fantastic service from the staff, and i have found that their quailty of service is hard to beat in Palmerston North

The food is excellent and great value for your money. We went in as a group of 6 for dinner, and there was something on the menu for everybody, a great atmosphere in this Cafe, it was absolutely buzzing.

Great job Cafe Cuba, we will be back for sure! A+++

by Carla
25th May 2011

I too wonder why this restaurant is so busy. We ordered lunch. My husbands bacon and eggs came and i was told that mine would be there in a minute. Coffee’s arrived. Husband has finished his meal and we are still waiting. It seems odd as i had ordered from the cabinet and mine only had to be toasted. Finally gave up and went in search of my meal. Amazing there were no customers waiting to order. Two pretty blonde’s standing chatting and three plates of food behind them under heat lights. Yep, mine was one of the plates. No apologises, just dumb looks. I then had to eat in front of my husband with no coffee left. Food was okay but the whole experience was less than enjoyable. Owner needs to get staff that are ‘on to it’.

by JKrud
23rd May 2011

I ordered fish and chips and for close on $20 I expected better. There was a heap of fish – too much in fact, but the salad was pathetic. It was all lettuce with a “garnish” of sprouts and a quarter of a tomato. I wouldn’t bother eating there again.

by Rob
23rd May 2011

We were far less than impressed with what Cafe Cuba had to offer as far as dining goes.

We ordered the Fish and Chips, and the Spinach and Feta Ravioli. We asked what the Napoli sauce was as we had never had it before, and was told that it was “a really creamy sauce”.

When presented with our food, it turned out that the Napoli sauce on the Ravioli was mainly tomato based, and was very sweet, to the point where it collided with the smooth flavor of the Ravioli. The fish in the Fish and Chips was cooked perfectly, but the coating was almost the consistency of half cooked batter with no seasoning, and if I’m paying $19.90 for fish and chips, there is NO reason why they couldn’t have made home made chips, instead we got chips you’d expect to get from your local chippy.

The last straw was waiting for a desert menu. And waiting.. and waiting.. and waiting. In the end we gave up, paid our tab and went across the road to Grandma’s Roast House for coffee and desert.

And lastly, to add insult to injury, I placed the review above on a page where their representatives have a degree of control over, and it was removed. I have emailed them asking why this was removed, but to date, I have not received a reply.

We might go back to Cafe Cuba for coffee, but that will be about it.. sorry guys, you need to pick up your game.. both on the food front and on your public relations.

by Rich
11th May 2011

I’m only occasionally in Palmerston North but this is my 1st choice when I’m there. I have always had great food and service and it its always a good atmosphere. Whether its a quick coffee or a meal I highly recommend Cafe Cuba.

by BJ
8th May 2011

Breakfasts are consistently excellent. Rather good value for money considering the size of the meals. Im not a coffee drinker but the thickshakes are the best in town.

by James
2nd May 2011

I have always been puzzled me why this café is so busy, I guess it has the sunniest outdoor aspect or all the cafes in town. The food is reasonable but not great, the coffee is consistently good, the staff however are half asleep , away with the fairies, and frankly are so busy chatting with each other it’s a wonder the place functions at all. Big room for improvement, I do buy coffee here occasionally but only as other friends ( mainly smokers ) insist on returning. Room for improvement if the place was managed better.

by jayne
16th April 2011

The children’s pancakes are well loved by my daughter but every coffee I have ever gotten has been bitter.

by Hayley
1st April 2011

Delicious food, great staff. This cafē will go out of their way to provide good service. Sometimes the wait can take a while but that’s to be expected in this industry. Great coffees, even going out of their way to tailor a drink to suit my needs.

by lovee
16th December 2010

There ice coffee is yummest in Palmy. Other cafes should learn from them how to do it. Yummmmm. I have never tried anything else we go there often for ice coffee. But my flatmate tried most of the food from there and she like it.
5 stars for these but


We went there for dinner on my bday must say not good at all never ever think of gng to cuba for dinner. And also the meals were actually not very inviting just looked very plain and made by someone not very experienced. All the 8 meals not appreciated. I would give 0 star for that.

That makes average of 2.5 stars. Approx 3 stars.

by Nicole R.
14th December 2010

The desserts are to die for especially the silk cake but when I have come for a meal i have been disappointed every time.

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