Reviews Chocolate Frog Cafe

Have been here a few times and food has always been good and flavoursome usually quite busy but fast service and not a long wait time for food.
Will be back!

This is one of my favorite cafés in Wellington. Only down side is it can be very busy, buy that's because it's really good! :-) Generous serving sizes and most importantly friendly and polite staff!! :-)

Constantly great food. We just ordered a Chocolate Frog Milkshake and a Fruit Smoothie, but the food in the past has been tasty and well priced. Our Chocolate Frog milkshake was amazing, and the fruit smoothie was really good. The slices in the cabinet were huge, some of the biggest I've seen. And again the place was very busy.
Nice clean cafe, with polite friendly staff.

A popular café within Palmer’s garden centre in miramar. But can they make a cup of tea? This was my 11th stop, after Bon Gusto in Miramar in search of a decent cup.

The most noticeable thing about this café was that it contained five times more people than the garden centre in which it resides. Clearly it is popular independently of the foliage.

Slightly rumpty but cosy interior, cramped and warm with a gas heater going on one of Wellington’s rare cold days.

Counter cabinet contained the usual cakes and slices with my eyes resting on a slice of Louise Cake. This is a traditional layering of shortcake, raspberry jam, coconut and meringue. A good one equals any pavlova in taste, and its NewZild pedigree equals that of the flabby meringue. The trick is to get the right balance between the layers. It is not as simple as it looks, and cafes vary wildly in their abilities to generate a good one.

Only one black tea – English Breakfast Tea. So I ordered a Louise cake and an EBT.

The demographics on midday Thursday were primarily middle aged and elderly women holding loud and rather interesting conversations.

The Louise arrived quickly, delivered by a very nice young lady. The tea followed reasonably quickly.

The tea was loose leaf in a small round pot. It came with a warm thick-walled cappuccino cup and a small pot of milk. It poured a good colour, nice depth of flavor, malty with a gentle astringency and a nice sipping temperature. It had real character and “tasted like tea”. One of the first that I really enjoyed drinking. When asked, the lady told me it was t-Leaf tea.

The Louise was rather thick on the shortcake and thin on the jam. It was OK but not delicious.

So for the tea:

1. Specialist tea offerings (the variety of unflavoured teas): 1/5
2. Brew temperature (the likelihood that the tea was brewed with boiling water): 5/5
3. Cup temperature (how much of a heat sink was the cup – a thick, cold pottery cup scores 0, a warm thin china cup scores 5): 2/5
4. Milk requirements (was I asked about milk and what type of milk): 0/5
5. Strength (too weak or strong =0, just right = 5): 5/5
6. Taste (bad=0, excellent=5): 4/5

Chocolate Frog’s Total 17/30

Scoreboard:
Soho Brown : 8/30 (Harney’s – sachet)
Sweet Bakery and Cakery : 9/30 (Harney’s – sachet)
Bon Gusto : 10/30 (Twinings – tea bag)
Bellagio : 11/30 (Twinings – tea bag)
K and S Cafe : 11/30 (Harney’s – Satchet)
Astoria : 11/30 (Enzo – loose leaf)
Rosina’s : 11/30 (Bell - tea bag)
Hey George 16/30 (Stash – tea bag)
Chocolate Frog : 17/30 (t-Leaf – loose leaf)
The Little Tea Shop : 18/30 (Tea-Total - loose leaf)
Louis Sargeant : 19/30 (?Harney’s – loose leaf in large sachet)

Next tea stop (by accident really) – Ombra in the CBD.

Looking for a nice place for brunch with a friend or two? Look no further than here. The food was impressive, great selection and perfectly presented. It's super busy on the weekend but well worth the wait.

Fast service. Great food kids. Great kids menu. Food consistently great.

Play area with seating for parents to eat at.

Covered outside area. Heaters for cold days.

Chocolate Frog is in Miramar. It's not the same place as Chocolate Fish in Shelley Bay. This review is with regard to Chocolate Frog Cafe at Palmer's Garden Centre in Miramar.

I highly recommend the Popeye Slammer (spinach, bacon, mushrooms & a potato cake in a stack drizzled with hollandaise sauce with roast tomatoes on the side), The Eggs Royale (poached eggs, spinach & salmon on 2 bagels with toast - photo added), the Eggs Welly (steak, spinach & poached eggs on a potato cake with hollandaise sauce & toast), the Banoffe Smoothie, the Pear & Blue Cheese Bagel (served with onion jam, cream cheese, blue cheese & fresh pear slices for you to assemble on bagel pieces as you wish) & the Drambuie Porridge (oaty porridge served with banana, rhubarb, cream & a sloshing of drambuie - photo added). In fact, everything on the menu is superb! All the food is presented beautifully and you can tell its made from fresh ingredients. The service is quick and friendly. I would recommend anything on the menu & every time I've been, and it has looked packed, I've always got a seat.
They do the best eggs anything in the country!
My few little moans are (1) due to windy Wellington and the fact that the cafe is in a garden centre, it is often quite cold ... maybe a more permanent structure is in order, and (2) the school room-like chairs are a tad uncomfortable at times. Patrons do tend to drag them across the floor regularly & it rips through your soul like fingernails down a blackboard.
I tried the drambuie porridge only recently here and it was simply divine - my fiancee & I share a bowl at least once a week now ... :-)

My husband's point of view:
A place we try to get to every weekend, or at least every second.

At the risk of doing them a disservice, I compare Frog to a certain Scottish Hamburger restaurant - you know what you'll get every time you go, and if you're a fanboy like me, this consistency is only a good thing. And we drive in from the middle of the Hutt Valley, passing 20 cafe's to get to this one, so that says something.

Haven't ventured too far around the menu, as the usual suspects are so good. The drambuie porridge, with caramalised banana and rhubarb is what get's us there, and the mains are what keep us going back. The Eggs Welly is superb - all the goodness of an Eggs Bennie but with steak!

The decor/ambience is probably the only downside, however that's quibbling as the food and service is so good it's easy to overlook. And if you can score the table in/under the pergola (is that what it's called?) then you're away from the hustle and bustle of the main seating area. Romantic might be stretching things a bit, though there are goldfish, but at least you can have a conversation.

Pricewise it's on a par with most other places of its ilk, though it costs us a bit more if we factor in petrol to get there and back, but again, it's worth the effort.

If, like me, you can now enjoy adult time without having to take the kids, then try to get there before 9:30am. We make a point of getting there (weekends) early to leave between 9:30 and 10am as this tends to be when the parents arrive with their little bundles of joy, and things sometimes get busy and noisy.

ps: a useful tip: if you order the drambuie porridge, and you should, then ask for it to be sent before the main meals otherwise they all arrive at once and you'll have to sacrifice one warm dish whilst you enjoy the other. It seems to cause a bit of are-those-missiles-in-Cuba? chaos but stand your ground.

And ...

After a brief hiatus to fund a wedding Management and I returned on Monday - Queens Birthday.

We didn't consider a late opening, and were waiting at 10am when the gates opened, and so was everyone else! This place must be a goldmine, and with good reason.

Not a review as such, more an addition to my previous review after a while away.

We had the usual drambuie (sp) porridge, Eggs Welly and Eggs-something-with-salmon and all were as perfect as they've always been. This place has consistency down pat. A few new staff members, maybe roped-in for a busy day, and I met some resistance when asking for the porridge to be sent eralier than the mains, but yet another brilliant experience.

It's no wonder we drive from the Hutt all the way to Miramar. It's worth it. Every time.

I love the Chocolate Frog Cafe! They do beautiful, home made food that is packed full of flavor and great portion sizes. I highly recommend this cafe for a coffee and cake, the sweets are the best in the Wellington Region.

Updated 01/06/2023 So good I had to come back for their Scones, Keto Benny, and their Caramelised Onion & Cheese Toastie. This time, I had the toastie with Sourdough Bread (2nd order). Super delish and satisfying 😍 Loved the vibe of the place and definitely the friendly staff who obliged my requests for "extra toasted, extra chocolaty and extra butter." The Date Scones, extra toasted was so so so good. OMG. Heaven in my mouth. The Keto Benny with Cheesy Muffin was also very, very good. The cheesy fragrant was wafting the air. Had these with a side of black pudding too. Very good. And greedy me also got a Bacon, Cheese and Caramelised Onion Toastie. The Caramelised Onions were da bombs. Best I ever tasted ever!!! Thanks fit a fantastic meal!!

Ordered the Corn Fritters with Halloumi at opening time on a Friday morning. Three thick corn fritters were a good portion size. Topped with two large strips of halloumi, salad leaves, grilled tomato, and tzatziki sauce on the size. The fritters were seasoned well.

Always busy & good quality food. They made extra effort to cater for my Celiac requirements

The food here was great. The Eggs Benedict we're very tasty, and the beef mince was fantastic. They also have great desserts and coffees, plenty variations of cakes and pastries. Definitely recommend their chocolate mousse cake. The restaurant itself is located inside the store to the left. They have a small indoor and outdoor area. Definitely recommend for a tasty breakfast, brunch, or lunch.

Delicious, amazing food. Exactly what you want even if you couldn't imagine it. Coffee is fantastic. The atmosphere is relaxed without being boring. The signs are funny and the staff are fantastic! We were offered a high chair because we were holding our baby which was really thoughtful and helpful. All in all the perfect spot for brunch, especially on a sunny day but it's covered for all weather

Really nice cafe.. The chocolate cake was yumm.. I had the soup of the day which was pumpkin n was delicious 😋..The service was quick even though it was fully packed..will definitely return to try out other things in the menu

Great variety of beautiful tasty soup. Smoke fish Kedgeree (also a special this week) was awesome and filling. Friendly, helpful staff. Thanks

Set in Palmers Garden Centre, the Chocolate Frog Cafe is an idyllic setting, convincing me that every garden Centre should have a cafe - or vice versa. I went for the corn fritters which were delicious, perfectly matched with halloumi. I would give top marks but unfortunately my coffee was extremely bitter.

I really like the food and the staff are very friendly and helpful and I really like the chairs here a photo of one Chair and the writing on than we had amazing customer Service we will be back again thank you