This is definitely not the kind of place one goes for a romantic evening out. On the other hand if you’re hungry, keen to grab a quick meal and would prefer to sit down and eat rather than head home with a takeout, then this cafe at Highland Park Shopping Centre could well suit.
Opened just before Christmas, it is “Billy Basic” – clinical white laminate walls, plastic chairs and sheets of fly-away plastic to keep tables clean. I was a bit doubtful about the latter but I did notice patrons, us included, tended to drop a bit of mess so the ease of just gathering up the plastic and binning it afterwards was a practical move if unbecoming.
We arrived en route home from an appointment in Howick and within minutes of sitting down were handed a large, complimentary glass of hot tea. The café doesn’t have a liquor licence so the tea was a nice touch.
Not there to linger we ordered two dishes to share – spicy chicken and sweet and sour pork. Both were generous and tasty although I did feel the onion in both dishes and the cabbage in the spicy chicken could have been cut more finely.
Not being especially hungry we ordered from the regular diner menu but noted that there was a second ‘dinner box’ menu of reasonably priced bigger meal deals that included soup and rice.
We paid extra for rice but could not complain about our total bill, which came to just $30. What’s more, we ate our fill and still took home a doggy bag for son.
