My husband and I love this place. We stumbled across it one afternoon and had a beer and the chickpea & mozzarella chips and we fell in love. The ambiance is so different to anywhere else in Auckland and the view is amazing. The food is of an international standard in my opinion. You can taste the freshness in the ingredients. There is always a vegetarian option and the option of a smaller size portion for the pasta dishes is nice for those with a smaller stomach. Going here is definitely a treat for us and we like that we can always expect good service and food. You can’t say that about a lot of places these days. We went back for my husband’s birthday last spring and brought some friends who really enjoyed their experience as well. We just really hope they keep delivering such a great all-around experience!

Was really surprised about the bad reviews on this site about The Refreshment Room. Have been there many times and have always found the food excellent. The chefs and management are clearly passionate about food, use high quality fresh ingredients and know what they’re doing in a kitchen. The menu frequently changes and is always interesting, original and invariably tasty. In the past we have had a couple of service experiences that I’d describe as more awkward than unpleasant, but in recent months it’s been friendly, professional and fun. Living in Titirangi it has become our regular go-to choice for my partner and I.

Have enjoyed two special occasion dinners at The Refreshment Room in the past two months. The menu is great and changes regularly. The food was sensational..flavours popped and were a pleasing alternative to the boring old standard restaurant fare elsewhere. They have a great selection of non-alcoholic beverages available too (being pregnant, this was great!) Service was very friendly. Totally recommend!

We were seated at a table with the hot sun glaring into our faces and when we asked to switch to a more shaded table were told that wasn’t possible. The maitre d’ was very unhelpful and not forthcoming with a solution. Her explanation that it is hard to predict if there might be clouds or not left us bewildered – maybe have a few umbrellas on standby, duuuh??The waitress, although very friendly, was obviously an amateur – placing the cutlery down by holding the prongs of the forks (very unhygienic) and forgetting some of our orders. The main courses were all swimming in oil/butter, which is quite bizarre in this health conscious day and age. Didn’t feel like trying a dessert after that. Won’t be coming back as there are much better places at similar prices!!

Come here quite frequently. Not always for a full meal.
No gimmicks here. A clear identity of what they are.
Great decking in warm weather.
Food is fresh and prepared well. Staff know what’s on the menu.
A few minor issues…
1) Pricing. A bit too pricey for what is in effect Mediterranean peasant food. The pricing means we don’t come here as much as we would like to support this business.
2) Noise. Inside, when the doors are closed its incredibly uncomfortable to have a quiet pleasant meal. You need to somehow find a way to dull this down.
3) No local beers on tap. Yes I like Emersons, but why no local brews when all your food is grown locally and your philosophy seems to be based on low food miles. In fact if I remember correctly there are no beers on tap at all.
4) A shandy for a teenager means I have to buy a beer and an Italian bottled fancy lemonade and mix it myself. At $13 for a shandy I find this a rip off.
Apart from a few minor tweaks I like this place. Certainly beats the pretenders in the Titirangi village.

Came here for dinner on the recommendation from a friend on Saturday 19th January 2013.

The restaurant itself is quite small and the tables are extremely close together with not much room in between, you can hear everyone else’s conversation around you.

We ordered the Chickpea and mozzarella chips with tomato sauce for $10 and the Cured meats and cheese with bread and pickles for $24. We couldn’t believe it when the meat plate came out. It was a small white dinner plate with 2 pieces of cured ham, 4 pieces of sourdough, 3 olives, a tablespoon of pickle and 1 piece of cheese the size of a match box. For $24 it was extremely poor and for the price you’d expect more. The Chickpea chips were large, starchy and extremely bland. Unfortunately the salsa which accompanied it didn’t make any difference.

For our mains we ordered the Risotto and the Orecchiette with Angus meatballs and roasted vine tomatoes. We again were extremely disappointed with our meals, so much so that we sent the Risotto back. It was bitter, hard, and the mushrooms were quite slimey and didn’t taste right. The Orecchiette was rubbery and the vine tomatoes were obviously not fresh.

We ordered the Scotch Fillet instead. Unfortunately the waitress didn’t ask how I wanted the steak cooked so I had to follow her with a request for medium rare. Thank goodness this was cooked right. It came with a few spinach leaves obviously from a bag and no dressing.

When we went to pay for the meal ($108 in total) the woman on the counter who was acting as the maitre d’ was exceptionally rude and questioned why we sent back the Risotto. I told her it wasn’t enjoyable and wasn’t how Risotto was supposed to be cooked. She fought with us and told us the Chef was ‘from London’ and knew how to cook. Unfortunately being from London doesn’t mean a lot really and we were most annoyed that she was so rude. Hospitality 101 you do not try and fight with yoMoreur customers, you take feedback graciously and try and do better next time.

It wasn’t a pleasant experience and we won’t be back and definitely won’t be recommending this restaurant to anyone. For the prices they are charging for mains ($27/$30) you just expect more. Shame on you Refreshment Room.

We headed out to The Refreshment Room for Sunday lunch as we wanted a bit of a drive. It was well worth it, however I would book as it is busy.

The service was fine, but what made the place for us was the food. Both the crepe’ and gnocchi dishes were fantastic and they come in both a large and small serving that suited us.

Good selection of wine.

Well worth the drive to find.

Tried to book here and the lady that took the booking could not speak English. As a result our booking was messed up and it took several minutes for me to provide my phone number as she could not understand. When we arrived at the restaurant we were told that we had a booking for 3 instead of 4 so they could not accommodate us. I was made to feel that it was somehow my fault. At this place the customer is certainly not always right.

The older lady never apologised but just asked who had taken the booking. She told me that we could have a table but would have to be out early as they had other people arriving. The manner of the older lady was dreadful and not something you would expect in a great restaurant. They sat us on a long table next to 4 other people. A few minutes later they realised the mistake and dragged the tables apart to give us and our neighbours some privacy. From then on it seemed like they were in a hurry, asking for orders, forgetting to ask for drinks, plonking cutlery in the table. Attention to detail was very poor. When we left, again they did not apologise.

But the food was very good (would have got 4 stars) so if you don’t care how you are treated then you will be happy here. They had a good selection of mains and it was all prepared very well. We did not stay for dessert as we decided to go to another restaurant in Titirangi because of the way we had been treated.

If you want a great night then I would not recommend this place until they sort out their front of house. It could be a great restaurant.

It may be different if you are local as they seemed to know many of their customers.

Four of us dined here and we shared two entrees (olives, chickpea and mozarella chips) and had a main each (the steak, fish risotto, vegetarian ravioli and the gnocchi and pork shoulder). The menu was well thought out and there were easily two other mains I would like to have tried.

All mains were priced at around $26 and we all enjoyed our dishes. With two glasses of wine, one beer and the above courses the meal was around $150 which we thought was reasonable.

The wine list was good but please note the correct spelling of Marlborough on your wine list.

The service on the other hand was a bit amateur with the basics of waiting tables in a restaurant overlooked, i.e, not taking drinks orders first, plonking cutlery in the middle of the table and not checking if we’d like to order another drink. Would like to give it four stars on the food alone but the total experience was let down by the mediocre service.

Love love LOVE the food here. Great little restaurant with a great atmosphere. Service is friendly and intimate.

The menu is regularly on the move offering regular customers a “bite” at lots of different cherries. My favourite being the cured meats and the chickpea chips with salsa.

If you are not a local, it is worth the drive to get a bit of this!

I’m hesitant to review this place as I would like to keep it a secret for myself as it is that delicious!
However i think they deserve the glowing feedback.
Its a cool place, with excellent, welcoming and friendly service, but most of all the rustic italian food is super yummy! and we’ve been back several times already.
The mozarella and chickpea chips are special, the braodbean and mint mash on bruchetta with sundried tomato are just delicious.
The steak with herb butter was better than the Engine Room’s (and that is like dying and going to heaven), (and its cheaper too).
I cant wait to go back and sample more from the menu.
Good on you folk, we needed a quality local, and now we’ve got one!