Eggshell Green

Restaurant Review: Café Pica

*Sigh!*

There was nothing about this café located in the Porirua MegaCentre that made me enjoy my first, and definitely my only, visit.

All the doors were left open and you could see the cold wintery breeze pushing dustballs across the icy floors. It was uncomfortable despite being a few feet from the fire place.

The food was just bad. It wasn’t even average.

The girls had pancakes with banana, bacon and a choice of maple syrup or “orange syrup”. I chose the orange syrup because it sounded interesting but what come on the plate looked and tasted like watery orange juice…

The pancakes weren’t even home made – WHAT!? Looked like they were layered with cheap bacon and banana and microwaved till the banana was a chewy grey. Tasteless. It didn’t help that we only got a wee amount of fresh cream and syrup. Ms Constantine asked for more maple syrup for the both of us and we both agreed the maple syrup was watered down and tasted a bit off.

The boys had a cooked breakfast – you know, the typical bacon, eggs, sausage, hashbrown, tomato and toast. How hard can that be? Just as hard as pancakes it turns out.

The “toast” was not toasted – WHAT!?  It was just a thick slice of plain cold bread. The poached eggs were overdone – eww! The half tomato was hard and uncooked. The bacon was again the cheap type, and looked like it was just heated rather than grilled. The “lemon hollandaise” as it says on the menu was nowhere to be seen.

The best thing apparently was the hashbrown, which Café Pica claimed was their own. Not even! It was one of those preshaped triangular things that you buy frozen in bulk. Thankfully it wasn’t home made as it might have tasted as bad as everything else.

If you can make a better breakfast at home on a Sunday morning, then something is  seriously wrong with the café. Pancakes and cooked breakfasts are not fancy pants food!

Not going back, ever.

(I just looked online and saw all the reviews for Café Pica on MenuMania were just as bad – so I added another one.)

Tags: cafe, restaurant, review

11 Comments to Restaurant Review: Café Pica

Ms Constantine
July 27, 2009

I lamented Cafe Pica on twitter when we got home yesterday and apparently it was good a couple of owners back.
I was also told that Pica is a disorder where a person eats non nutritional objects.
That may explain some things!

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Chickie Little
July 27th, 2009 at 3:08 pm

Haha! Well yes, that seems to be more than coincidental.

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Ms Constantine
July 27, 2009

I just left a review too :]

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Ms Constantine
July 27, 2009

O and I just saw they’re in the Entertainment Book too, so I’m going to leave a review on there, along with the other poor ratings it has already received.

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Chickie Little
July 27th, 2009 at 3:39 pm

Ooh good idea. I’ve done the same now :)

And your comment at MenuMania is awesome. From the sounds of the other comments, the chef doesn’t give a shit anyway. All the more reason to never go back.

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Charlie
July 27, 2009

LOL yes Pica is a disorder where people will eat bits of rubbish and stuff. I hate getting a bad breakfast – ruins your whole day!!

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Kaz
July 27, 2009

blimey. I’ve seen that place before but never seen anyone in it, so I kept away. Seems like a good thing to do after reading all the reviews.

Places like that should be shut down.

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Ela
July 28, 2009

LOL, toast that is not toasted?
A friend once went to a breakfast place and was so happy to find *blueberries* in her pancakes – thought it was a nice touch…yeah, blueberries not so much…mold. ewwww

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Chickie Little
July 28th, 2009 at 11:43 am

Hahaha! That’s so funny. Pancakes should be made on the spot – not in advanced and heated! Seriously, it’s not that hard…

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Holly
August 2, 2009

Ew. That is disgusting. I am glad I now know never to go there.

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