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There are lots of interesting things to watch at the Areo Club Cafe

When we went out to Ardmore on Thursday for me to enjoy my 30 minutes at the controls of a small trainer, we had a light lunch at the Cafe there.

The view from the Aero Club is great, not great scenery, but the people getting into their aricraft, doing the checks, then taxiing away to take off, or the reverse. Across the airfield fromk time to time there will be someone practicing flying a small helicopter in a straight line following a taxiway… In short there’s always something different to watch.

The coffee was not bad, not the very best, but average to good compared to cafes in our part of Auckland. Service was friendly and quick, even though the cafe was a busy place, nearly as busy as the aero club office next door ;)

The food menu was unadventurous, but also workmanlike. Barbara’s corn fritters were tasty but almost too corny and unusually came with the bacon cut up and mixed into the mixture.

Executive summary: come for the view, not the food, but worth a visit if you are in the neighbourhood and want a cup of coffee or a light meal.

River Haven Cafe is on SH1 entering Huntley from the N

The Riverhaven Cafe is set between State Highway One and the Waikato River, on the long straight as one enters Huntley from the north, where the road runs between the railway and the river. For many years it has offered restaurant and shopping facilities to tourists and coach parties.

The cafe sits behind the shop, so benefiting from views across the river to the power station, which is much more attractive than it sounds (see photo, right :) The cafe offers decent coffee. The food is unusually cheap and the portions are also generous. The quality overall seems somewhere between what one expects from a cafe and from a coach stop. It provides excellent value.

The coffee was fine, good but not excellent. We both had corn fritters, which (as seems often the case) would have been tastier with more corn and less batter, and could have benefited from more seasoning. The bacon was delicious and there was plenty of it :) It was also pleasant to have a small salad beside the fritters and bacon. A sharp salsa might have been a more interesting topping than the sour cream, though this also worked nicely.

View from the River Haven Cafe

Our neighbours were somewhat put out that the dishes from the coach party, which was still leaving as we arrived, had not been cleared quicker from  the prime tables by the windows. My take is that (if you avoid coach parties) the service is good. Their helping of scrambled eggs was huge, and we all enjoyed the views.

Coffee: Fine.
Food: Fine, excellent value.