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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)