Geeks on Sainsbury

I visited GoS carrying a mixed bag of expectations: hopeful Unilocaler’s reviews; top 10 of The Denizen’s 2015 best new café opening; versus not so flash customer service and inconsistent coffees feedback on their own facebook page. Nevertheless, I was keen to taste with my own buds.
Cool suburban location = 1 star (love how they utilise their indoor/​outdoor flow and the reserve bit out front).
Up-​to-​date décor = 1 star (tasteful, on point with the current cafes trend).
Good coffee = 1 star (my soy mocha was delicious, yes, I take soy and chocolate with my coffee, sigh. No complaint on my friend’s cappuccino).
Good day-​time café/​bistroesque menu = 1 star (carnivores/​vegetarians are well catered for).
Offering of Petite and Full size options = 2 stars for these guys (you don’t know how much this means to those of us who need room for an ice cream post our scrumptious weekend brunch)!!!
Sadly, customer service (admittedly all due to one single staff) = negative 3 stars (we waited for a good half an hour to 45mins for our food to the point of wondering whether we should order another coffee. When asked, our waitress said «oh there’s bit of a wait maybe if you just wait for another 15mins». I had to subtly suggest that she checked on our order with the kitchen. She promptly walked away reciting the wrong table name (ours was L, yet I could distinctly hear her repeating I). As expected, she had to come back to double check on our table name/​number. And then just like magic, our food arrived. No apologies from the staff.)
Overall 3 stars.
Perhaps it was the case of a reluctant staff working on Auckland Anniversary weekend? I might reconfirm one day. I just know it’ll be a pretty hard case pleading with my friend to return there with me anytime soon.
I do hope GoS give their customer service a facelift. Building on a loyal local customer base might just be the key to their survival :)

Grounded in Morningside (for life) and founded by Asian hipsters or as they have signposted themselves Coffee Geeks and Kitchen Geeks (I quite like that).
First up, this café is thoughtfully designed (most likely by Design Geek), from the alphabet letter table system (nice touch), to the signage, shelving and a solid ⁹⁄₁₀ café restroom, this place is a wonderful experience.
Secondly, support this place, wonderfully situated for you to spend all your Briscoes savings from just round the corner, it may just make shopping there bearable. I’d say after saving 50% on all Manchester and Homewares, you can bet your sweet ass that I’m blowing what I saved on those 1000 count Egyptian cotton sheets on some sweet Geek action. Don’t buy that useless single purpose bench top appliance, this isn’t the 80s and that shit wasn’t cool back then either. You don’t need a sushi roller or corn popper, you need some Geek food.
Ok, let’s get the basic stuff out of the way, coffee. Tick. Asian love heart, cool mini steel thing for long blacks, red rabbit espresso (indie coffee brand points). Not orgasmic, but not far off from it.
Food, I had the Eggs Benedict with Pokeno bacon. The good — kale, beetroot purée, potato all solid twists on a Benedict — I come from the «must have wilted spinach» camp — so the kale makes me feel trendy without wanting spew puy lentils (they will never be good). The not so good, slightly hammy bacon, not enough hollandaise (health geeks will disagree) and eggs overdone. The wifey ‘s granola was short on yoghurt but they were happy to provide more (no charge, no moans). I’m gonna put that down to one off execution /​supply issues. All in all more of a solid 3.6 with Unilocal rounding, but I’d say these guys are easily capable of 4s and 5s.
I’ll definitely be going back.
Well done Geeks, well done.

The pros: good service, a good looking set up, attractive presentation of food, good coffee and it’s close to my workplace.
The cons: no daily specials. If I was to go here more often I would want more variety. Also it says on the menu not to ask for any variance on the menu. It’s not a cheap lunch café so I don’t much like that attitude.
Having said that the BLT and the tuna bagel are good!

A bright spot in the middle of the Morningside-​Mt Albert-​St Luke’s area. We went here for coffee and a cupcake this gray Sunday morning. The menu looked good so we’ll definitely come back to try breakfast.
It had a great vibe. Service was good. Interiors were unique and they have a great view of the small park outside. If it wasn’t chilly outside, I’d rather sit outside. This will be perfect for summer.
I love the name — whether they are being earnest or ironic.

Like Rhea, I’d been drooling over the steady stream of pictures on Instagram ever since they opened and decided I had to check this place out.
Initially I thought the map marker on Unilocal was wrong. All I could see from the road was some dark and dingy shops beneath Lollipops. Once out of my car though I noticed the tables and chairs around the corner — success!
The first thing I noticed is that Geeks on Sainsbury has done a beautiful job with the interior, especially for such an obscure shaped space. There’s lots of greenery, light wood, white tiles and light box signs — it makes the rather small space feel substantially bigger.
As for the menu, it’s full of exciting, out-​of-​the-​ordinary options. I ordered their pork salad with shredded apple, roast veges and chutney. The pork was minced and came in pattie-​form coated in sunflower seeds perched on the salad complete with a flower garnishe. It looked pretty as a picture but the pork was a bit dry and i’m also not sold on the combination of minced pork, roasted capsicum and kumara.
I haven’t lost faith though, these guys have just opened. The service is awesome and the coffee on point!

After having seen countless beautiful photos of the food served at Geeks on Sainsbury, I was super excited to finally head over to Mt Albert to check this place out for lunch. The café itself is a beautiful little modern gem, in a more industrial area of the suburb. The food, though, although undoubtedly beautiful and incredibly photogenic, was disappointing; a feast for the eyes that didn’t quite follow through. Pictured below in the foreground was the preserved fruit waffles, with lemon sorbet and raspberry coulis. The waffles were nothing special, the flavour of the overall dish was lacking and the lemon sorbet was more akin to lemon ice. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t something I’d go back for either. In the background was the pork salad with sunflower crusted seed pork on an apple and rocket salad, which sadly also only hit the average mark. All in all, fabulous place for a coffee date, as it really is a beautiful spot, but probably will not return for a meal.

We decided to go to Geeks and Sainsbury on a whim. It had been on the back of my mind and the name reminds me of the Big Bang Theory! I could just imagine the waitors in lab coats measuring out the amount of coffee beans with a test tube. Not quite! There’s much to boast about their coffee lineup though. They serve coffee from Wellington boutique roasters Red Rabbit Co, famous for their labyrinth of flavours in a cup.
The first choice on the All Day Breakfast menu was Granola. It sounded delicious with white quinoa, glazed strawberries, roasted almond with pumpkin seeds. Nothing like the chew-​til-​your-​temples-​hurt type that I have in a box at home. That set the tone of being healthy over geeky. The eggs benedict had the option of pan fried tofu with poached eggs. Heck, even the Waffles had granola in the ingredients list.
The pork salad obviously was no normal salad, beautifully plated and garnished on top. The sunflower encrusted shell the a standout element. Light but full of crunch, the house made chutney and shredded apple was tantalising to my sweet side.
The eggs benedict comes in the option of Petit and Regular so you can easily satisfy your brunch craving after a round of gym. Again keeping it light, layered agria potato takes the normal place of a hash brown.
With an open bright space spilling out into the sunny outdoor setting, it’s an attractive place to be all year round. The décor is determinedly geek chic. A blackboard diagram details how seriously they take their coffee extraction method, and shelves look like they belong on Pinterest. They show the same dedication to their food. Presentation is exact, pairings are purposeful.
It’s a shame to hear that the Shore could have boasted this café gem. While it reminds me of Little King, it could easily take out the backsliding quality of the food there. Service was a bit unsure — there were moments where I got excited by food coming my way, only to have the waiters step on their brakes. That however, was minor and played no part in the rest of the experience. Geeks on Sainsbury, you are doing great things for Sandringham, looking forward to hearing more from you!

In Auckland we are so spoilt for choice on good cafes to visit. There is constantly new ones popping up all over the city. All offering something new and exciting! This morning I stopped in at the newly opened Geeks On Sainsbury just down the road from St Luke’s. This is a cool little café that would probably drive by and miss if you didn’t know it was here. So serious attention to detail had been paid here with its white and natural wood design. The menu has great options and the food looked amazing! I ordered a long black which was a bit on the big size but was still made nicely. They use Red Rabbit Coffee Co. and this was the Hopper Seasonal Blend with intense sweetness. medium silky body with flavours of black doris plums, 80% chocolate, orange citrus and allspice. If you are looking for a new café to try for breakfast and are in the area definitely stop by. The boys at Geeks offer great service and food