Columbus Coffee Air New Zealand

What a disappointment! I truly like Columbus Café, but this particular location gives the line of Columbus Cafes an embarrassing compliment. I went in after 11AM and was hoping to order a breakfast meal, but at this Columbus Café, they seem very proud at halting their signature breakfast meals by 11AM. The pastry case was virtually empty of any treats, and their fruit bowl with müesli was shown to me relegated and packaged in a plastic cup, not offered where they go to prepare it in a bowl. And there really wasn’t much else they could offer. The apparently lazy Kiwi behind the counter wasn’t remotely apologetic either for his shabby service. When I asked if they were different from the other Columbus Cafes, his inaudible «enunciation» couldn’t clearly explain if they indeed were and were not.
Ultimately, I left with immense disappointment. Thankfully I know I won’t be returning to this horrible Columbus Café again! I look forward to my neighborhood Columbus on Queen Street.

Franchise cafes often aren’t that great. This Columbus is definitely an exception to that rule.
The coffee is consistently good, and if you are here regularly, the staff will probably remember your order. I come here most weekdays and I still have yet to have a bad coffee.
The food gets a big thumbs up — every day there is a great selection of salads to choose from, as well as a good range of sandwich options from the cabinet. What the team here do really well is rotate the food selections: no two days are ever the same, but there will always be some familiar staples alongside some different options. Big thumbs up to the Caesar salad, the tomato and bacon risotto, and the pecan brioche.

I do like Columbus Coffee — they generally do consistenly good food and coffee. My wife however is not as enthusiastic as I am. The reason for this is that they have cocked up her vegetarian dishes several times there. We were in the branch on Lincoln Road and the ordered one of the breakfast dishes with no bacon — lo and behold it came out with bacon. I offered to eat it but Kylie was adamant that she wanted a new breakfast as the bacon juices had obviously gone over the rest of the breakfast. (I know, I know, she’s fussy and is strict about being a vegetarian). So they they made a new one from scratch and she ate it. We came here again about six months later and ordered the same thing. We emphasised on a neon sign that we didn’t want bacon on her dish when we ordered but, you’ve guessed it — there was bacon on the plate. I have to say the cooked breakfast in Columbus is quite good and I am fan of it. If however you are a fussy vegetarian you might want to look elsewhere.

The best thing about this place is definitely the service. The girls are absolutely lovely, one of them remembered my name on my third or fourth visit and she now starts making my usual coffee before I even order it so I get my coffee super fast! How awesome is that?! The coffee can sometimes be a little burnt tasting but never so burnt that you can’t drink it and the cabinet food they have is really good too. I really like their pesto, feta and pumpkin pasta salad, it’s absolutely delicious. I’ve tried making it at home a few times but I can’t quite get it tasting as good as they do it here. All in all this is a great place to stop for a coffee before work and one of my first options to buy lunch when I’ve forgotten it at home.