Went there for lunch. Great service, friendly, polite. Yummy food, we had the Chicken sandwich on turkish bread and the Caesar Salad – the chicken in both was superb! Would recommend and go again.

STAFF HAVE NO CLUE- How does it stay in Business?
First, we sat outside waiting for someone to give us a menu, eventually went inside. I had visitors from overseas who all ordered hot drinks and various cakes. I ordered a hot chocolate , which arrived luke warm, I took it inside and told the waitress, who said something to the guy making the coffee. He told her ‘I can’t understand you -why didn’t you say hot?’
We sat with our drinks, waiting for our cakes, which never arrived, despite reminding the waitress. Eventually, when everyone had finished their drinks, I went inside to pay and I said we never received our cakes so won’t of course be paying for them. There was no reaction from the staff member just-”oh” No apology or explanation – I can assume this place doesn’t rely on return customers, just passing tourists.
You would assume cafe staff would Know people want their cake at the same time as their drink.

I had lunch here with my son recently, having eaten there before and the food was nice. I ordered the Chicken Pie and my son the lamb burger. The lamb burger was ok but my chicken pie was dreadful. The pastry ws soggy and the filling was more like chicken soup. The pieces of chicken were not very nice. The service was terrible inspite of the fact that the restaurant was busy but not full. My son had to go to the counter for another drink and I had difficulty getting a waitress to get me a glass of wine , in spite of the fact she was looking right at me and ignored me.
I told the waitress when she cleared away our plates that the pie was awful, she said that she had not had any other complaints about the pie.
There are many nice cafes and restaurants in Devonport and rest assured we will not be going back to this one.

Food has always been mediocre here, not bad, bad not great, just very average.

It’s not that fod that I give it such a poor review, it’s the way the staff deal with customers….

As a local we have used Manuka on a number of occasions however as of today, we won’t be back.

Am fed up with going into a largely empty restaurant and being shown to the nastiest table in the place. Having to walk past a whole bunch of tables with reserved signs on them (oh and btw, Manuka won’t take reservations, go figure) and shown to one lonely table by the back door.

Who the hell are they saving all the good tables for?

Today we walked in, the server nodded in the direction of some tables, didn’t show us to a table, just nodded. We sat at a four top table, there was only two of us, when the server did come over, first thing out of his mouth was, if four people come in you will have to move. He pointed to the only two seated table which was way at the back by the exit door to the car park (door was wide open also), a last sell table for sure.

We said we wouldn’t move, he said we would have to, so we got up and left.

As this is not the first time we have been mucked around at Manuka, seems to happen everytime, we will not go back. If food was halfway decent, we might put up with their crap, but as it isn’t…..

(btw avoid the pork belly, it’s nasty, had it the other week)

Devonport has some great cafes to eat at such as Five Loaves and Torpedo Bay Cafe, all with way better atmosphere and staff.

If this place has had bad reviews in the past things have changed! Best dining experience of the year! Food was flippin awesome, staff friendly, atmosphere warm and inspiring, and i felt good value for money for the caliber of food in Auckland. Highly reccomended

We popped into this cafe one Saturday morning on our way to check out the sights, we sat outside as it was a lovely sunny morning, Ordered the Blueberry Pancakes … yummo .. I’m a big fan of a really nice Mocha and I wasnt disappointed, will return next time we are in town,

Now that Manuka are expanding lets hope they will make a few changes to their menu.
I don’t think the menu has changed in about 10 years. They must be the only restaurant that has a specially printed specials menu that never changes week in week out. Why don’t they just have one menu.
Ever heard of a blackboard that changes at least weekly.

Went there for dessert and coffee, desserts were very good. However the wait for them was too long about 25mins? We received our coffees straight away but couldnt have them with our desserts, so that spoilt it.Prices are a little steep too!

Have eaten a few times in here now, portions are nice and filling. Dessert was very rich, again portion size just right. Toilets were being renovated, but still clean and tidy.
Staff gave us plenty of time to choose and then change our mind.
Would eat here again.

We had a wonderful evening, the staff happily let us sit at the window despite it was a large table and we were just three. The food was excellent quality and quantity, Thank you. My only small complaint is the rush to clear the table. On two occasions the plates were cleared before one of our group was finished making her feel pressured. On saying that I’ll be dinning there again.

I visited this restaurant late January 2011. I was waiting outside of restaurant to be guided to one of a seat at front of the restaurant with my 3 years old son, however none of the staff came to us and asked for service for few minutes. I decided to take a seat and waited for service and also other 2 ladies took a seat just about 1m away from us. 2 serving staff walked out and in several times then passed the menu to other table but not us. They were even standing at the door to look through outside tables but just ignored us. We were seating there almost 10 minutes and still didn’t have a chance to talk to waitress. I decided to talk to duty manager before we leave the restaurant. I told him that we were seating there more than enough and explained the situation. He replied only three words “MAKE YOURSELF KNOWING”, twice. I felt that he had no intention to apology at all. This is worst restaurant I ever been in Auckland. Do we have to go inside of restaurant and every time shout “excuse me, can we have service?” so serving staff recognize we are there? Well, it seems like this restaurant expect that from their customers.

Best casual dining in Devonport – food is great, and the staff are polite and welcoming, and you don’t have to wait for ages to be served.

I agree with Jay below – I have been to Manuka several times before for dinner and brunch and am usually most impressed.

However last night time I went (mid nov 2010) was disappointed with the eggs benedict as the taste was completly killed by the salmon

WARNING: This is one of those places that has started to switch from hollandaise sauce for some revolting mayonnaise-like substitute out of a bottle. How can a restaurant claim that this is Eggs Benedict and charge the same price? I’d rather have had honest poached eggs on toast thank-you. On top of that, when I complained (politely) to the owner as I was paying my bill, he got super defensive, telling me that it was “cost effective”, ironically as he was taking my money, and started to turn on me saying “what would you do?” and “well don’t ever run a cafe” etc etc and “I’m sorry you won’t be back for the hollandaise” … Instead of listening to a paying customer who felt ripped off,he continued to tell me that he always asks his customers “how was everything?” According to him the Eggs Benedict is his “biggest seller” and “everyone else says that it is the best they have ever had, so who would you listen to?”. He clearly isn’t listening, or has a very selective memory. And we all know that most people are too scared to say when they are unhappy, they just don’t come back. I won’t be back and nor will anyone who I get the chance to speak to about this. What a shame.

Stopped in here last week while visiting from Sydney, I ordered the shanks and went for 2 thinking I’d share them with my partner but I polished the whole thing off and wanted more- although my belly was screaming for me to stop. He had the steak and raved about it. We also managed to fit a apple and rhubarb crumble and a caramel slice they had on display in – absolutely delicious and completely indulgent. Loved it – would go back for sure.

I love the pizza and beef both very yummy, its the one place we always go back to and take out of towners to. My only dissapointment lately was the amount of bread on the bread and dips for the price and we ordered garlic bread and got parmesan and even the garlic bread wasn’t entirely too garlicy. But one of my favourite places none the less!

I had a great night there with friends, the food was all good, the staff were excellent, and the place has a bustling atmosphere, we watched a cruise ship leave the harbour from the corner window. Very enjoyable…

was disappointed because i booked a table 3 weeks prior to the date i required. I booked a table for 12 people and they approved it. 4 DAYS before my booking they called me up and told me my booking had to be cancelled because of the number of people evn though they approved it initially. The person who called me up was not apologetic either and was quite rude

Excellent pizzas [albeit not very filling], pleasant place to go for modern Kiwi/Italian food. Excellent kids’ menu. I didn’t like the squid salad.

This original review was written in 2007. I have to say four years later that I’m dying for Manuka to change its menu. I really have got bored with the existing menu.