Tuitui Museum Bistro & Café

11/Dec/2022， It was a very bad experience. Six of us, including a baby, came to lunch at 2pm. We first sat at a table for four people and asked the front desk, she said she could let us move to the table after the guest for six people left. Later, I saw two adults and two children sitting there. I confirmed with the waitress again. She told us in a very bad tone that they were still waiting for someone. We didn't see anyone at that table until about 40 minutes after we finished eating. The other waiters are very nice, only that one affected the good mood of the day, as a service industry, this kind of people work is very unprofessional. One of the waitress is very rude and unfriendly. I will never back to that cafe again. A total of six main dishes were ordered, all of which were small. This plate was called.. steak is a vegetarian dish with a lot of fat.

Had lunch. Regret. Pork Sliders had horrible sauce on it. Fries were just eatable..abit over cooked. Waitress was nice. Chefs need training in NZ cuisine afterall mostly tourists go there. Im embarrassed as a Kiwi that our visitors have to eat that stuff. Need to update the menu..i think they may leave food in fridge too long..pork was dry too. Trying to be classy but missed the mark big time. If your planning on a museum visit take your own lunch and have a picnic on the grounds or there is a room inside you can use. I paid $75 for 2..what a rip and also felt sick the next day.

The lady who was taking our order was day dreaming. She was not even bothered to look at us when we were placing the order. Me and my wife had to get her attention twice before she could say hi to us. This is not a level of service expected at such a beautiful place.

When i first came to the place, I thought the food was going to be awesome. The way the place was decorated was lovely but when the food arrived I was shocked. First of all, The food and drinks are way too overpriced. 5 dollars for a small can of coke? Ur kidding.. the least you can do is put it in a glass full of ice. Second the chicken nuggets are AWFUL. Dry and bland. And the chips.. Oh my god.. the only thing that saved it was the tomato sauce. Felt like my 8 year old brother could make that.

Aggressively friendly maître d once we got to the front of the queue for a table, but she totally ignored the queue of people waiting to devote time to being cheerful to whoever was front of queue. The wait staff were in chaos, tables weren’t cleared or wiped down, and matre d seemed to be having to spoon feed other staff instructions. Getting in and out for a bowl of fries and an icecream for our kids took almost an hour.

Staff and waitress very kind and welcoming.A very clean and an oasis from the cafe outside which was very noisy.To be honest, the menu is very limited for adults wanting a light snack, morning tea or brunch.My suggestion would be to the Cafe add more light brunch type platters and more children friendly healthy options.Ie a breakfast platter to share - ie scambled eggs, bacon, sausage, garlic bread and you could add a family platter chips, nuggets, toasted standwhiches, crossaints with cheese and ham, mini pizzas with cheese and ham which would be low drama for the kitchen and probably suit a lot of families.The adult food looked good from what I saw and generous portions, the tacos, T. rex short rib, shared Mediterranean dish looked fresh and yummy.I do feel they could add more simple things to the menu to extend it out. In the end everything looked too heavy for me for 11 am, I ordered Mango Sorbet and a coffee- turns out they had run out of the sorbet so I had nothing as there was nothing light, small and healthyPartner had the Short Rib - looked good, big and plenty of food - main commented a “little chewy” and there was bits of tendon or intercostal muscles that came with the short rib I recommend he did not eat. Cold slaw was nice.I feel the menu needs more items and more of a range of items or smaller little $8-9 sharing plates you could order 2-3 to share for an early lunch on the go. It doesn’t have to to be complicated dishes.The coffee was great, atmosphere was lovely, kids menu looked reasonable and the people around us with children had high chairs etc and families looked relaxed in the cafe, and little ones were welcome.

The place is heavily understaffed, they are usually super friendly but today it was total caos, orders take ages, and tables didn't get cleaned, people started putting their dirty plates on one empty table because even though the staff was doing their best there was no one to get the plates.

We had lunch here today & the first thing that impressed us was the friendly service. We were welcomed like old friends, which was a very pleasant start to our meal. Seats were comfy & the table not too close to others. It took very little time between ordering & arrival of food & it was beautifully presented. Our choices were the chicken pot pie & the duck tacos. The pie was complete comfort food, tasty, hot & nutrious. The duck tacos were absolutely scrumptious. I could eat them every day for the rest of my life! The hoisin had a kick of chilli/spice which balanced beautifully with the duck & salady bits. A very delicious meal experience. Thank you team Tuitui!

I must admit, I can not accurately rate the food here. I had a coffee, my friend had a hot chocolate and my husband had a Danish.What I can rate is the service, and if I could rate it a zero, I would. It was horrendous treatment today by women with whom I will not mention her name publicly (but would happily share with management privately) towards our group.My friend brought some snacks for her toddler. So we made our way to an available table in the lobby area to feed him. There were no other seating areas because there were several school groups visiting that day. We sat to feed her toddler while my husband stood in line to get drinks for us & a Danish for himself. My friend also has an 8 week old new born with her. In her arms, sleeping. She unpacks a sandwich for her toddler & while he's eating she uses the opportunity to enjoy part of a muffin she has packed for him also. She was hungry, she'd packed snacks and she just finished feeding her sleeping 8 week old baby. The regular room for no-paying customers was filled with atlest 50 rambunctious & loud school kids (not a setting for an 8 month old sleeping baby).This incredibly rude employee comes up to my friend and informs her she is not permitted to eat her muffin because they are a privately owned establishment. She assumed we were not buying anything (she must not have seen that my husband was part of our group). When I questioned her concern for a mother having a bite of muffin between feeding her baby and feeding her toddler, she was argumentative towards me and somewhat aggressive with her body language and stance standing over us. I informed her we were buying something and she made sure to remind me that we could ONLY eat what my husband brought back for us. She was about to put me in my place verbally, so to avoid a scene or embarrassing my friend I reluctantly conceded to her behavior.I was mortified. My husband returned with our coffees & his Danish. The toddler ate his sandwich. My husband hate his Danish and we took our hot beverages.I am a visitor to New Zealand from Canada. But this is certainly NOT an experience I will soon forget from someone- towards a mother of 2 young children at a museum. Absolutely disgusting behavior and I do hope that employee is addressed for her lack of compassion, empathy or care for others.