Fine Fettle Cafe

We lunched here a few days ago. There were a few vegan options and we went for a classical: creamy mushrooms on toast. The mushrooms were tough, the sauce salty and not creamy and the toast very plain. We did not finish our plates. The cappuccino did not earn our recommendation either.

Updated from previous review on 2017-01-22

They have a separate vegan menu with a few options. I got the vegetable panini and it was alright. But some of the veggies weren't cooked very well and it wasn't very tasty. Also got some crostini bread but it was very hard to eat. I was worried I'd break my teeth. I probably wouldn't go back here.

Really lovely service and delicious vegan options. We returned twice in less than 24 hours. Ask for other vegan options as not everything is listed in the menu. We had a vegan Christmas tart too :)

Had the vegan breakfast. Really good. And great range of teas. Very enjoyable. It also states that vegan / vegetarian food is prepared separately.

Nice café with lot of space both inside and outside.
There are some vegetarian options available but there the range of meat containing options is far bigger though.
Taste of the food more or less average. Coffee absolutely fine. Staff a bit sleepy but it was morning so understandable.

I would highly recommend this cafe to vegans travelling in the area. Although it unfortunately serves meat, it is nevertheless a haven for vegetarians in a cruel world! After leaving Auckland and driving around in volcano country for a few days, we thought we would not get a decent breakfast again until Wellington. Dry toast and bottled 'juice' was our typical fare. Most cafés in the tourist areas did not even have soy milk!!

At Fine Fettle all this changed. We got freshly squeezed juice. And fresh wholemeal bread straight out of the oven, made from organic flour they grind themselves. They have a separate menu listing all their vegan items, so you can feel completely confident in what you order, without worrying about suddenly getting a mouthful of mayonnaise in your sandwich, as happened in other places!

The full vegan breakfast had delicious flavourful sautéed mushrooms, grilled tomato, house made baked beans, salt and pepper crispy slices of tofu, hommus for the toast and, saving the best till last, the yummiest hash browns. They were actually like a crispy thin mashed potato cake with lots of finely chopped parsley. On a future visit I would ask for a whole plate of these! The coffee was mellow and rich flavoured. My only suggestion would be that they switch to a non-sweetened brand of soy milk, as it gave the coffee an odd taste.

The rest rooms were also very nice and clean, but this seems to be the norm in New Zealand (unlike Australia).