Palmerston North Restaurants

The Vavasseur Restaurant is a high end restaurant that is a great place to go for special occasions. Booking reservations in advance is essential.This classy restaurant is located in a small historical house and has a very warm and cozy atmosphere.

Favorite Dish: Beef fillet ( fill-it as Kiwis say).In the USA it is called fillet Mignon (fi-lay min-yon) Any way it is very tender and flavorful, no matter how you say it ; ) and is served with mashed potatoes, a medley of broccoli, capsicum (bell pepper) and green beans.

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This grand old ex farmhouse is on the Massey campus, about 2 miles out of town. When it was gifted to Massey it was used for lectures, then as a staff club, but now it is a function centre, with an extremely nice cafe.
I drop in quite a lot because the atmosphere is superb, the coffee is great, and the food is delicious and very reasonably priced.
And the gardens outside are just lovely. The whole of the campus is well treed and well cared for, but this little spot seems to be extra well groomed.
If you are out that way, do drop in.

PS It is only open from 8-30 - 3 Mon to Fri. And during the winter it is open for Sunday brunch. They seem to have a lot of events, like there is a Jazz & Shiraz evening coming up, but I haven't been to one fo those yet.

I was wandering in the Downtown Arcade which runs through from Main Street to Broadway Ave - where the cinemas are - and a noticed a crowd of people queuing up to get into a cafe. So I went to have a sticky beak and people were queuing for ice cream. So I had one. Oh my goodness it was good. As good as any I have had. And I am a bit of an aficionado.
$3-80 for a single cone, one flavour. I prefer that. I don't like to get my flavours mixed up.
They have local type flavours like feijoa (pineapple quince) and in fact were offering a special deal. Bring us your feijoas off your tree and we will give you ice cream.
So far my favourite flavour is caramellised fig and on my next visit I will probably try nougat.
But they don't seem to offer Sicilian cassata which is my all time favourite with bits of orange rind.
Anyway - they are well worth a visit.
PS I should say they are an ordinary cafe too - but who goes there for coffee? Not me.

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We do not suffer from lack of coffee. Or snacks and cakes and light meals. Of the ones I have tried I like Bethany's and Stage Door but my favourite is Barista in George Street, near the library. The people are nice and the ambience is artistic (live jazz and mural painting of a Saturday night) and they stay open late! They close at 11pm. Very very late. For Palmerston North. In fact I liked it so much I asked if I could hold my Tuesday Poetry Sessions there. 5-7ish, bring a poem, or just come to chat. So I mostly go there. To support the cafe that supports poetry.
Just one tip. In this cafe a flat white costs $3 (think it is as cheap as it gets in Palmy) and a cafe latte is $4.
And a few places have a cheaper flat white than latte. Don't quite know why, though the flat white seems to mostly come in a smaller cup) we don't get this price difference in Australia. It's just a local oddity I think.