Bang Bang Cafe - Ponsonby

I know its supposed to be kid friendly - but is that an excuse for it to be filthy!!!!

DH and I went along yesterday for lunch, thinking it would be a good place to take O too, and they did have a good kids / babies menu and the adult food was okay...but the place was filthy and really messy.

Also whilst we were there, every single staff member went outside for a smoke....not a good look for kiddi-cafe?!?!

Can cross it off my list - I wont be going back.

Yeah, I read that you guys had a good meet up there, so we thought we would give it a go. We were pretty dissappointed, but thats okay....you have to try these places....!

 

I'm really surprised to hear this -- we had our Pirate Party photo shoot there for the July issue of the magazine, and I visited on my own beforehand to get a feel for the place. Both times I was there it was clean and tidy. For the shoot we were there at the end of the day and there were the usual sorts of crumbs and stuff on the floor (as you'd expect after a busy day), but they were swept up and things were left in great order when we left. I wonder if a particularly messy group was in before your visit and made more of a mess than the staff could contend with?

As far as I'm aware they're still owned and operated by the same people -- and I really like the staff there, as they're all lovely. Not sure about the smoking issue, though I know the location doesn't exactly have any "discreet" places for smoking to occur... unless the staff go up the road somewhere!

We've been to Bang Bang 3 times now - once for the Jan meet up and a couple of other times when Rowan wasn't on best behaviour but I needed a Cafe coffee . It's always been clean when I've gone and I didn't see staff smoking. What a bummer that you had such a bad experience.


Edited by Bobbie

simsam maybe we should all go together and then pick it apart...

Simsam .. I would ring and talk to the management about it hopefully they would invite you back to "fix" your impression of their establishment (and they may not work weekends and not realise what happens).

From memory they were quite busy when we were there. We didn't eat, but had a coffee/juice... oh and a muffin. They took ages with the coffee and then forgot the muffin. The girl was a wee bit flustered... I think they were super busy so we forgave them, looked like they didn't have enough staff. But then, since owning a cafe, our cafe experiences are forever ruined cos we're always critical lol so try not to be!!

Interestingly enough - they HAVE changed owners recently. I got an email from the old owners, saying they were going to forward my email onto the new owners....so maybe its just a teething period for them.

 

we are doing some work for Bang Bang cafe at the moment

the boys were there last week - and they said was pretty average (for boys to point out must be) they heading back next week to finish off job..

the young boy did say good Coffee LOL - so hopefully just teething probs - fingers crossed