Had lunch there today. Service & attention were satisfactory with drinks order arriving promptly.They were very busy with lots of tables occupied (both inside & out) so not surprised that we had a bit of a wait for our meals. The Prawn dish & the Fish of the Day were very acceptable.
This restaurant is obviously still very popular despite the negative comments from others.
Worth giving it a go.

Rude, offhand, lazy service.
Dirty tables, dirty bar, dirty bathrooms. Dirty glass.

Here’s some basic tips hq – smile at your customers; serve them promptly; don’t throw their credit card back at them across the bar after they have paid; say goodbye when they do upon leaving. Oh and clean things. It really is that simple.

Won’t be back to find out if you take this advice, but hope you do for the sake of others.

average service, uninterested and not customer centric

Brilliant breakfasts though – no need to eat until dinner

Looked ok when we decided to pop in for a snack at 3pm on Sunday but after being ignored for a while by the 4 wait staff chatting to each other one finally approached us and said they were thinking of closing…after asking if we could just have a coffee instead despite there being people dining there at the time she looked around shrugged and said “nuh”. Unfortunately cant comment on the food but the total lack of service put us all off going there ever again. Went to Swashbucklers instead and it was brilliant.

Seems to have trouble keeping the standard constant. Due to the location we eat there often for breakfast and once in a while for lunch.

Generally the service is quick and attentive. The food can vary on the day and the coffee can be a bit average. Last time we sent it back twice. The Caesar Salad, while large was filled with poor quality ingredients.

Pizza’s are good.

I’m really having trouble recognising the restaurant that the negative reviewers are describing here.

Every time I come here, the service is quick and efficient, the coffee is great, the waitresses are quick to offer refills.

We live on the North Shore, and its a great location just off the Fanshawe St. exit which makes it an easy choice when we want to meet someone on the south side of the bridge.

I am more a fan of the lunch and evening menus than the breakfast menu, but the smoked salmon hash brown and the french toast are pretty good.

The lamb salad in the evening is nothing short of amazing.

WE went to Headquarters for lunch on a Friday,
the waitress took our orders, and came back with the wine and beer after a while. The food took close to an hour to come, we ordered a pizza and lamb shanks. the pizza was burnt around the edges and the base and the lamb shanks were stringy and old looking on a stale potato base. None of our group enjoyed the meal, we waited so long, that we were starved by the time we got it and weren’t prepared to wait another hour for a fresh pizza.

When this was pointed out to the waitress, her response was, I’ll tell the chef.

And That was it! No other response.

We won’t be coming back again, the food was very substandard and we wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. A pity as we had good meals there in the past, but not prepared to pay and risk it again.

Having just returned from a weekend in Auckland staying with friends I had one of the best experiences at brunch I’ve had in years. I live in Sydney and I wish I had a local like this place.

We arrived on a busy Sunday morning and managed to grab a seat outside in the sun. Coffee was fast getting to us and fantastic. I had one of their hash brown creations that the waitress told me they were best known for. Portion sizes were great and everything was cooked to perfection. (I was a chef in a past life). My pregnant girlfriend ordered the eggs benedict with hard eggs, once again perfectly cooked as she had requested.

Overall, a great setting with fantastic food and friendly fast service. This is a busy little place and we’ll definitely be back next time we are in town. I would’ve given them 5 stars except for the screaming toddler sitting next to us, hardly their fault tho!

Waited 5 minutes, no service, seated ourselves. Waited 15 minutes, no service, got our own menus. Waited another 15 minutes, no service, walked up to counter to place our own order. Waited another 30 minutes for a meals that had: watery/burnt hash brown, bacon with a reservoir of oil (about 2 tbsps) sitting on top, a cold sausage and what appeared to be yesterday’s (soggy and chewy) toast. Have been to HQ a few times with this experience (yes, we are idiots for going back and we will not make the mistake again). To top it off, waitress asked how our meals were; when we gave her our honest opinions in a gentle manner, she disregarded this entirely . The three waitresses we had were all dripping with attitude and not a single smile among the lot!

In mitigation of all this, it is a nice place to sit and at least we had the newspaper.

In short: you can get much better food, much faster, for the same $$, with friendlier service at numerous other places in the neighbourhood.