I had an especially atrocious customer service experience recently.

Firstly, we walked in and went to the counter to order, however we were told to take a seat and someone would come to take our order shortly. Half an hour later and we were forced to return to the counter to place our orders as no one had come to attend to us. There were maybe 6 other people here at this time, they weren’t busy, no excuse.

Upon returning to the counter to place our order, I asked for the sweetcorn and haloumi fritters and was told “we’ve run out of sweetcorn so we can’t make the fritters”. It was 11AM on Saturday, I thought this unusual. While I scanned the menu again, my companion then placed an order for the beef burger, to which she was told “oh we can’t make that, actually we can’t make anything off the lunch menu”. No explanation of whether this was a one-off situation or if this is the case every Saturday. Note, the fritters were also off the lunch menu, yet there was no mention of this previously.

A hasty scan of the (breakfast) menu for both of us, my companion requests the muesli and is declined AGAIN due to a shortage of a key ingredient. By this point we are more than a little frustrated! We both reluctantly settle for the mushroom and pork sausage omelette and retire to our seats.

Another half hour passes, during which time two more couples arrive, order and are served their food — one even ordered the same omelette as us — and no sign of our drinks or food. During the wait my companion accidentally knocks her glass of water off the bench — no response from the staff who are milling about at the cash register, unoccupied. I have to visit the counter to request someone comes to deal with the broken glass and the water spillage (there are no serviettes in sight). When someone eventually comes, all they do is put a couple of tea towels over it and move the broken glass to a corner!

By this point we are at the end of our tether, when our omelettes (and drinks) finally arrive, complete with burnt toast. They are mushroom and feta, no sign of pork sausage, and an item that is not even on the menu! I return them to the counter and let them know and make them aware of our obvious disgruntlement, but try to be polite about it.

So, we continued to wait again for our omelettes, which took another 20+ minutes to arrive. During the wait, there was no follow up by wait staff to see if we would like a complimentary coffee, or even a snack while we wait, to compensate for the (several) inconveniences. Terrible service.

And then.. our omelettes arrive. To our complete incredulity and bewilderment, they are mushroom and feta AGAIN. I can’t believe this happened. I quickly returned them to the counter and told them how crazy this is. Little was done to apologise for the poor service, merely a lackadaisical response to fix the problem. After another 10 minutes we finally got our mushroom and pork sausage omelettes, which I will say, to the chef’s credit, were delicious.

When we finally left, all that was done to smooth over this terrible dining experience was the staff member at the counter gave us one of our coffees free. Wow.

Needless to say, I will not be going back there. And will be telling my friends.

I’ve been won back to Federal and Wolfe. My first experience last year was unfortunate and regretfully principally attributed to the infamous “too cool for school” guy. At the time I felt incredibly agitated at spending $20 on lunch to have it chucked down with a sneer by a hospo hipster. The experience wasn’t aided by the portion size of the bruschetta that day – each slice was lined up in such microscopic proportions I didn’t know whether to ask for a knife and fork or a 20 pound note to snort it with. Regretfully that experience took it off my CBD lunch spot suggestion list.

Today, however, I agreed to meet a friend there at her request and was thoroughly won back. The staff were upbeat and welcoming and the prawn and smoked fish risotto was herbacious, lite and ample in portion. I will gladly go back now – but if the scenster nonchalence returns, regretfully it will have to come off my CBD lunch suggestion list indefinitley.

I had completely the opposite experience from some of the other reviews. I didn’t eat, only had coffee. The guy behind the counter was awesome, asked if I wanted a loyalty card. Asked what my name was then asked if I wanted a second coffee at the right time (on a first name basis) I was impressed and felt there are not enough cafes around that operate like that. I have been going to my local cafe down the road for 2 years and they still haven’t asked my name or acknowledge I’m a regular.

Very cool cafe, great layout amazing looking walls, awesome menu too, coffee was great. Staff, not so much. The guy behind the counter was too cool for school. No words from this dude at all. No “Good Morning”, “Thank you”. The reviews below are pretty much spot on.

Update, been back two times since I wrote this and both times the staff have been great. Have updated my review.

I was visiting Auckland for work yesterday and went to F&W after reading about in the Metro left in my hotel room. Yes it was funky, but again what’s with the cool attitude from the “man on the till”? So again, no signs to tell you it was table service so I went to the till to order and when asked where I was going to sit I pointed to a table by the window and was told I couldn’t sit there and had to dine on a communal table (I was eating alone) this was at 11.30am and the place was near empty. My salad was ok, fresh, obviously organic but experience ruined by feeling belittled by “man on the till”. Take a tip from Wellingtonians F & W – you can be cool and pleasant all at the same time

I agree with comment below,awesome design etc menu looked good, great to see someone actually doing the “gate to plate” thing, makes the world a better place.
However doesn’t mean the person on the till doesn’t need to smile let alone look you in the eye when serving you? Whats with the attitude? You are a hospitality industry correct? So be a bit hospitable. Seems that NZ has taken this leap forward in the hospo scene of late (a good thing) unfortunately there is this weird ego attached to this evolution cut it out.

Not able to give half star marks but F&W was actually better than 3 stars OK but I’d hesitate to give it 4 stars I’m a fan, based on one visit so far. It’s certainly very funky and eclectic in decor and location, with an enticing if not extensive selection of food available both from the menu and from the cabinet and display cases (milk crates if I’m not mistaken). I had soup of the day, a delicious conconction of cauliflower & mustard – yummmmm. However, a soup spoon rather than a regular dessert spoon wouldn’t have gone amiss. The devil is in the detail after all. Also, it was very busy – a good sign – however the one floor waiter was fair rushed off his feet, which may explain his slightly brusque service. Upon approaching the counter to order and pay we were rather abruptly advised to take our seats as it’s table service. Righto, good to know after we’ve embarrassed ourselves – perhaps mention that when seating people in the first place. Also found the acoustics with an almost full cafe made it difficult to chat without almost shouting – imagine it would be difficult if dining solo to concentrate on reading the paper or your book. But, all that said, I’m still keen to return albeit at a quieter time of day, and try a coffee which being a Kokako-operated cafe, I anticipate will be great.