Podium Cafe

"I had a fabulous long black and delicious, freshly made Monte Carlo cookie...yummm! My husband had a really good flat white in a gorgeous English pottery cup and saucer. Very worth cycling from Leamington for!"

"Nice looking cafe, and good atmosphere but unfortunately, the food was quite astounding and the wait staff we dealt with were extremely rude. We ordered iced chocolates, to which they came out as just a cup of milk with minimal if any chocolate flavoring in both with a hunk of ice cream on tip. Not mixed, nothing. Asked them and they made us one new one to which was not mixed either, and just had chocolate sauces excessively squirted in. This was dumped down on the table, and we weren't spoken to. Long black delivered to the table and we requested a small cup of cold water, to which the waitress went to get, then as delivering to our table, dumped it down hard, causing it to spill all over the table to which she said nothing and walked away. We ordered a sausage roll, pork pie, hot chips, eggs benedict, big breakfast, and keto fried chicken. The eggs on both meals were so overdone even though they were requested as being poached and the mushrooms on the big breakfast were absolutely burnt to smithereens and unedible. Was mentioned to wait staff, and they shrugged it off, no comment made or even an apology. Their kids menu consisted of bacon and eggs or waffles. Nothing else so definitely not a "kid friendly" Cafe, considering there's a playground right outside, we would have thought they'd offer more options. Service was extremely poor, and considering our meal was a couple of hundred in cost, it was very very disappointing."

"Enjoying the day at Karapiro, so decided to have some snacks at the Podium. I ordered a salmon sandwich, which came with salad. The salad dressing was amazing. Loved the salmon. My wife had the keto pie, delicious in her opinion. Worth a visit!"

"Shocking customer service and over priced. We waited for 20 minutes for someone to clean our table from last customers’ dirty plates, spoke to two different waitress to clean our table, no one came, ended up clean the table ourselves and deliver the dirty plates to their counter. The worst is instead of a thank you we were given a good stare at by the female staff I handed the dirty plates too. The same staff also slammed our coffee on our table without saying a word to us. Two regular oat flat white with a fluffy and bowl of chips for $27 ($2.7 for a fluffy?!) a bit pricey? Food is okay but sadly with the non-exist customer service we won’t return and will not recommend this cafe to friends or family."

"Situated on the shores of Karapiro this makes a great destination cafe, especially on a nice day. I can recommend the cabinet food which was very tasty and will be back to try the menu. Highly recommend the sausage rolls and the cakes were next level too. The cafe itself is on the smaller side and can be noisy, but has great views of the lake and plenty of outside seating with the adjacent playground, ideal for families and adults seemed to find it equally enjoyable. Access from the Cambridge end as the dam bridge is often closed. Signage isn't good. Look for the office and go right instead of heading down the path, especially if you need easy access."