Puhoi Valley Cafe and Cheese Store Review

Lovely and quiet... Good cup of coffee and the cheese is worth the travel

Great ambiance, great view and great fooooooooooooood. worth driving for, but the service is just toooooo sloooooooooooooooooow.

If you love cheese the is the place to be. Great setting

If you want full scoops, don't order any of the flavours that look like they are running low on.

Ordered 2 scoops of ice-cream, got 1.5. The second flavour was running low, but there was definitely enough to give us 2 full scoops. I asked for a top up of the second scoop to be of similar size to every other scoop they were making, but was denied.

It seems like they don't bother topping up the ice-cream as most of the flavours had run out. It left a sour after taste to an otherwise sweet visit to Puhoi.

The hours should start at 9am but they are a bit late when they opened the store. Nonetheless, the cheese are great especially the washed rind and the brie. Don't forget to taste their yummy ice cream as well!

Excellent cheese, long wait time for food. Good place for the kids to run around.

Great food excellent friendly service thanks Michelle

Absolutely stunning place. Great food, awesome service and the food is to die for!

Very pleasant view, very suitable for family and leisure

Nice place for brunch or afternoon tea. Variety of food to choose from. It has a playground in the front so children also have something to do there.

Fantastic setting, playground for kids, nice outdoor tables, pond. good food choices. Ice cream flavours were a little strange and the vanilla had run out. - no phone reception in the area.

Great place, very nice food, lovely cheeses and friendly staff.

Had a wonderful lunch with friends. The staff were attentive. The menu has a reasonable price. Love cheese board and enjoyed local craft beer and wine.

The dairy products in the place taste amazing! We tried the ploughman s platter -the ham and chorizo were heavenly, and needless to say the cheeses as well. Everything is in point and was done in perfection. We tried the ice cream too -coconut choc and kiwi yogurt both taste great. The place is a bit crowded during lunch time, but still a good place to relax. It s a short drive from downtown Auckland, but the traffic congestion can take up to 1.5 hours!

Great food and great cheese deals. Get there early as it get busy during peak times

Had a delicious lunch here with my girlfriends and the food and service was excellent. Will definitely be coming back one day soon

Great spot, friendly staff, tasty cheese, definitely recommend! we'll be back :)

Food was great and
Nice place
We bought a lot of cheeses here

Went on a very busy day and hard to park but enjoyed a savoury tart with side salad, coffee and a share of a cheese platter. Lovely setting. Would go again.

Amazing place. Great coffee awesome food and friendly staff. Very busy on weekends so make sure you have time to enjoy while waiting for your Puhoi coffee.

Great and delicious ice cream (try the Turkish inspired - with rose flavour!) ; great cheese (tasting)!

Nothing beats a delicious cheese platter and these guys know their cheese. Great spot for catch ups with friends and playground for the kiddies.

Nice and unique experience here and enjoy the various verieties of cheese available in this restaurant.

A nice spot for a break or a detour especially for cheese lovers as you will be impressed by the selection and the cheese cellar. Others may choose to enjoy their creamy ice creams, fresh yoghurts or just a cuppa while sitting in an open park setting surrounded by greens with a playground and fountain.

Great location of the cafe, good for kids, good views. However, Its very difficult to find car park on the weekends; queues for food ordering are long, finding table is a challenge too.

Not as much cheese to buy as you'd think and also more expensive than the supermarkets

Cheese-heaven. Great explanatory information boards, literal window into part of the process from the dining room, great service, nice meals. And their gelato is great!

Good food and relaxed atmosphere. Good for kids with playground outside

Great locality with awesome food and amazing cheese. Only down side is shortage of parking and seating.

Peaceful surroundings with a gastronomical delight. Their cheese platters are filling and we'll presented. You can also watch cheese being made.

Horrible, humiliating experience - My friends and I had lunch at Puhoi Valley Cheese Co. today to celebrate my birthday and we had a most horrible experience. After waiting for almost an hour for our food, my friends' 4-year old son began to complain of hunger so my friends decided to give him some biscuits which they always carry in the car for the young child. As we continued to wait for our food, one of the cafe's attendants passed by and noticed the biscuit packet. The attendant then pointed her finger at us and shouted in an angry voice, "Bringing food here is not allowed!" I explained that the little boy was very hungry as the food was taking so long. To this the attendant replied, "I don't care. Food is NOT allowed. It is like bringing beer to a pub!" The people around us looked at us because the attendant was very loud and angry. We felt so humiliated and demeaned. It was just horrible.

Beautiful Puhoi.Sunny & always special.Coffee good but food average.

Lovely place to stop for coffee and cake. Has wonderful cheese.

What a shame that such a lovely cafe in a beautiful setting is ruined by the rude staff, no hello, no smile and when asked for sugar to go with our coffee's we were told to go and get it ourselves from the counter after spending a large amount on cheese coffee and morning tea I thought this was a bit on the nose. The young girls behind the counter certainly need some training in customer service.

Good dessert/coffee, but terrible service. We came in around an hour before the close time, and felt very unwelcomed.

Excellent cheese but stated home made bread on menu but told no bread and ended up just giving us crackers

Lovely visit to the cafe. My Dad is visiting from the UK and thoroughly enjoyed his stop here.

Imagine that it took more than 90 minutes to serve simple meal e.g. Pre-made pie, etc. no doubt that they make great cheese and dairy product but their cafeteria (sorry I won't take them as proper restaurant as they don't qualify even for my low entry standard) hospitality and services really need improvement from ground up.

I must confess that I visit them on queens birthday weekend but that not a good excuse if they are keen in retail/restaurant business.

Pretty good if you are into cheeses.

However it can be quite busy, so don't expect it to be quite or quick.

Great place to visit for delicious cheese. A selection of Yoghurt, Chocolate milk & there is a Cafe there too.

Welsh rabbit breakfast is simply awesome, cheese lovers delight!

Where is the love!?
The last two times have fallen well below expectation.
*No hello or smile when ordering, instead the price was abruptly stated after we mentioned food, we had to say "sorry, we would like drinks too"
*Poached eggs were over cooked to resemble hard boiled.
*Coffee appears to be single shot (New Zealand standard is a double unless stated otherwise)

Positives!
*Rest of the meals were decent
*Our guests really enjoyed the ice cream

For the price of the food and drinks you would expect a better level of customer service and attention to all aspects of the dish.
Attention should also be directed to the worn out furniture and kids playground as the fence it literally falling apart.

Nice location and great place to take the kids. Has an enclosed play area and beautiful water feature in the gardens. There were ducks out the day we went so perfect to keep the kids amused whilst we waited 40min for 2 mains. Went there on a Thursday and ordered at 1.20pm received our 2 mains at 2.06pm. We had bacon and eggs and a small ploughman's platter. Staff were not very friendly and seemed exasperated to be working. There was no cutlery in the box so I asked politely if I could have a set of cutlery. They said it was in the box, to which I replied it was empty. Another girl overheard and quickly went to fill the box. There was an older customer standing there who thought he was quietly saying to her..."what about the chopsticks", and they had a quiet laugh to themselves. Obviously I'm Asian but given his Pommy accent and her age I'm pretty sure my 41 years and born in NZ would trump there's. So for the below average customer service and mediocre food, I have cancelled my midwinter christmas lunch I was organising there. But thumbs up for a child 'friendly?' cafe.

A great spot to eat way too much delicious cheese and then try to walk it off

Nice little cafe with some great cheeses as well to purchase. They cheese room itself not very exciting, but lively staff let you taste through all of their products wich includes some excellent cheeses.

Beautiful place. But we waited for more than 90 minutes just for a small cheese platter. I guess they ferment dairy from the beginning when you place an order.

A great place to get fresh dairy produce. Highly recommended!!

Well worth a visit. Nice cafe with good choice which has grounds to walk through and relax.

Staff working there can learn to be more welcoming.

Nice place, great atmosphere but I felt a little pushed.

Nice place with cool grounds quite kid friendly but pretty busy

Friendly staff, great outdoor setting and good coffee.

This is always a great place to visit, so lovely to sit outside for a bite to eat relax and enjoy great for kids to run around outside.

Delicious ice cream! Only problem with the Cheese tasting was we ended up buying everything we tasted because it was so good. Lovely country setting...worth the drive. Nice selection of food.

Getting there is part of the enjoyment, prices are okay for the quality of the food. Service is a bit lacklustre though, gone multiple times and orders seem to get lost.

Icecream was great, cake was okay, service was very slow

Out of the way, but well worth it for the excellent cheese.

Great place for cocktails, extremely versatile and flexible staff. Order the spare ribs off the secret menu. Don't forget your blue cabled charger.

Amazing cheese platters! Great play area for kids. There's usually a wait for the food to arrive.