Reviews for Governors Cafe

by Rob M.
28th February 2012

Weekday morning calls for coffee at Governors give me more than just a great caffeine fix.It may not be all glass and stainless steel, but friendly and engaging staff are like a blast of morning sunlight. Thanks Suz, Olivia and Sarah. Then there are the fabulous muffins! See you tomorrow.
Rob

by thomann
27th February 2012

I have been travelling New Zea land for 3 months and was a daily costumer at my stay in Dunedin. a friend recommended it and i was not disappointed. within a few visits, i had the feeling to belong to a big family. I was always welcomed, had a little chat with the staff about this and that and was informed about specials or food i should try, and the food was always great. When I had to leave the staff and manager even helped me with my travel plans.

I recommend it to all my friends going to New Zea land to have breakfast there.

by Masa
16th February 2012

I have been a “loyal customer” to Governors for 7 years (since the owner was Tim). It is fair to say that they are usually friendly and the food and the coffee are just great (and the cashier girls are gorgeous).

Highly recommended.

by Nicole777
16th February 2012

I went here after a friend recommended it and was not disappointed! The service was friendly, and the food was great!

I had the Bacon Eggs Benedict which was delicious and very filling, with just the right amount of sauce! My friend had the Chicken Salad which she said was good too! (I’m not a salad person myself hahaha)

The drinks were great too! I definitely suggest trying an Iced Chocolate!

Comment from Simon & Tiffany M. of Governors Cafe 16/02/2012    Hide »

Thanks very much! We are gald you enjoyed your meals, the Eggs…    More »

Thanks very much! We are gald you enjoyed your meals, the Eggs benedict is our most popular dish. Maybe next time try one of our new iced drink flavours like the caramel, white chocolate or gingerbread latte yum, yum, yum!

by Sarah L.
14th February 2012

Went there for breakfast in the weekend, staff pretty much ignored us as we looked for a table, had no menus on the table ,had to wait 15 mins just to order and it was only half full, i think they were under staffed. The new menu looked very good but when the food arrived it certainly didn’t live up to our expectations. firstly the food arrived warm if not cold i had ordered the vegetarian grill, the fried potatoes were soaked in oil & there was no spinach on the plate, when i asked about the spinach the lady simply said “we have runout” with no apology or replacement item. My partner had the english breakfast and could not eat the black pudding simply because it tasted and smelt off. We pretty much left there out of pocket and still hungry.We didn’t bother to complain because the manager looked in a bad mood already. Definitely way better places to go for breakfast in Dunno’s than this place.

by Celia
29th December 2011

The staff here desperately need to work on their customer service!!

A group of us (including 2 toddlers) tried to have lunch there today. It wasn’t too busy with all the centre tables empty. We went in and asked if there was a high-chair available and told yes by someone working the coffee machine. We were completely ignored for the next 5 minutes as one of us stood at the counter waiting for service or even some acknowledgement (and to ask whether we could actually use the highchair which was tucked away behind a fridge) while one staff member operated the coffee machine with her back to us the entire time and another 3 stood around in the kitchen. After being completely ignored by all the staff, we left and went and had lunch elsewhere. Come on guys – how hard is it to turn around and say “sorry, I’m a bit busy but I’ll be right with you” or something along those lines?. I don’t normally post reviews but thought something had to be said.

by Irine
15th October 2011

I work at governor’s cafe for a year now and I eat there all the time, even when I am not at work I go in with my friends to enjoy the relaxing atmosphere. The coffee is really nice and the new owners are great and make-sure that customers get the best service, food and coffee.
My Favorites and highly recommended are: Soup of the day, wraps, all day breakfasts.. (EGGS BENEDICT!!! yum) and the iced chocolates!

by Leeroy
29th September 2011

We live near Governors and decided to pop in for lunch today.

I had the Moroccan Lamb burger and my girlfriend had the chicken and bacon wrap.

The burger was very good. A nice blend of flavours and textures and about the right size for a light lunch meal.

My girlfriend also enjoyed her wrap. She thought it would be even better if they’d warmed the wrap before serving. The fillings were warm but the wrap itself was cold to the touch.

They also use ‘chicken tenders’ in the wrap. Seems a little strange to use frozen, processed food in otherwise fresh and tasty ingredients. If they used cooked, shredded chicken it would be much better.

Staff were very friendly and food arrived promptly. Nice atmosphere and a good spot for people watching. Would be nice if they played a little more downbeat, chill music to suit the cafe atmosphere – there’s only so much Whitney Houston and Robbie Williams you want to hear when eating your lunch.

Comment from Simon & Tiffany M. of Governors Cafe 16/02/2012    Hide »

Hi Leeroy, thank you so much for your feedback! point taken bout…    More »

Hi Leeroy,
thank you so much for your feedback! point taken bout the wrap, we now warm them up before serving and we are looking into changing the chicken from tenders to fresh and you might be happy to hear that we updated our playlist
You are absolutely right that a wonderful meal is lessoned by bthe ue of processed food and we proud ourselves by using only free range eggs and homemade breads and baking so fresh chicken fits better with our food philosophy. We hope to see you again soon!

by winniethepooh88
12th September 2011

Went to this cafe and experienced a relaxed atmosphere with good food and good coffee. The place was relatively full when we arrived but the food still came out swiftly and tasted great! The Iced Mocha was particularly delicious. All of the staff working were friendly and polite, I will definitely be returning to try out something else on the menu.

by S. D.
10th September 2011

I go to Governors for a cooked breakfast most weeks because the food tastes really nice and comes in good sized portions. They have really friendly staff, delicious coffee and a warm inviting astmosphere especially on grey Dunedin days.

by Natasha S.
30th July 2011

Good service and not much waiting time on the food. The place was clean, especially compared to Capers. However this could be because there wasn’t a lot of people there and it should have been the lunch time rush crowd.
Let down was the food, my friends hollandaise sauce was sour and really did swamp the plate. We both had eggs brunch meals that were served with ciabatta as the bread, which was very hard and in my opinion unsuited to the type of meals they were.

by Max W.
14th April 2011

I am a local and live a short walk from this cafe. I go there mainly because it was close… but how I wish it was far away.

These are my observations from having ordered things there several times:

(1) Often I have ordered things from the menu and been brought out an entirely different thing – and then been made to feel unwelcome when I complained. For instance I once ordered a greek salad which on the ingedients list said it had feta/olives/redonions – sounded good. When I got it I had a green salad full of grated carrot with no feta or olives… they very begrudgingly tried to remake it but lacked the ingedients so it was still basically just a random salad. Other times I have specified not to put mushrooms on my breakfast and had a half plateful of the things brought out.

(2) They NEVER clean the tables. Whenever you go in there are dishes piled up on the empty tables and then are not clean… even when the place is empty and no one is doing any work.

(3) Again lack of basic ingredients… I went in to order an eggs Benedict in the morning and they told me they did not have any eggs… a joke??? No they were serious. And rather than quickly rush out to get this most basic of ingredients they just left me to wander down the road to a REAL cafe.

Its a shame because it is a nice looking building – if the people who worked there actually put in any effort it might be worth visiting.. as it is avoid!

(This is not based on one visit but on going in there many times)

[Since i wrote this review the place seems to have changed ownership? Or at least has been changed in some manner. The massive piles of dishes on the tables are still there however. And in response to your :why do I come back? Well... I tend to go to Everyday Gourmet these days which is better in every way... especially since you got rid of the $1 refills on the coffee.. which was the only reason I kept going back there! I am happy that your menus now more accurately reflect the actual ingredients you use in salads now however.]

Comment from Simon & Tiffany M. of Governors Cafe 16/02/2012    Hide »

Hi Max, If you don’t like us at all fair enough, but why do you…    More »

Hi Max,
If you don’t like us at all fair enough, but why do you come back? Not that we want to promote other cafes but if the only reason you come to us is that we are close, just go to one of the 2 cafes right next door!!! If it was true that we never clean why do you think the city council that takes hygiene very seriously and has the highest standard on food safety would give us an “A Grading”. We operate on an approved Food Control Plan by the NZ Food safety authority and our system and cleaning was rated excellent! You are right though we had a few issues with getting stock from suppliers after the Earthquake but to be honest with only 2 people working one in the kitchen and one out front we cannot just quickly run to the supermarket to buy what we need even if it was very handy! But who would look after the cafe meanwhile? So it is a bit different from shopping for yourself. We always try to improve our customer service with regularly held staff meetings to present the nice looking Governors in the best way possible!

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