Catalina Cafe (Hobsonville Point, Auckland, New Zealand)

If you love vibrant pink hollandaise sauce, then this is your place. Yup, Catalina Cafe in Hobsonville Point offers them, I am not sure if it is natural at all, but the colour is so vibrant I it looks like it was coloured with a food colouring. We came here several weeks ago after we visited Herald Island and walked around it twice and it was our first time visiting this place after planning for ages. It was actually a really nice suburb, big houses and it seems like everyone knew each other, a small community with just 275 households and six fantastic reserves. It’s a nice place to live in as its very near to the city but feels so far away and it is very quiet. It’s not a big island, in fact a walk in this island with beautiful views of the Waitemata Harbour in all directions is just 2.7 kilometres hence we did go around twice, in different directions and it was still not enough but lunch was nearby and there are no restaurants near the place, the nearest one was in Hobsonville which was 6 kilometres away.

There are many places to eat in Hobsonville, so there is a lot to discover here for us, as a bonus its quite near to our place so it’s very accessible. One of the places I wanted to visit here was this Catalina Cafe so it will be the first restaurant to give a go in this vibrant suburb. Catalina Cafe is located in the centre of Hobsonville Point, just in Buckley Avenue, it’s a place you will not miss, it’s also the sole restaurant in this corner as most of them are in the Wharf Area.

It was around 11:00 when we visited here, early for lunch but were in luck since they specialise on brunch. There are plenty of parking if you enter via Hastings Street plus most of the diners here are residents that just walk nearby so I am pretty sure you won’t have issues in finding an empty spot. The place is quite vibrant, very bright and with high ceilings, which I find very inviting specially in the mornings. We initially sat down outside but it was getting cold, so we went in to be warm and cosy. As we seat, we ordered our coffees, my usual Long Black (NZ$4.50) and the wife’s Mochaccino (NZ$5.50).

While waiting for our coffee we checked the menu and everything looks good on paper, we also saw a lot of people order this vibrant pink hollandaise topped Eggs Benedict which definitely grabbed our attention. As the coffees arrived, we are firm with our choices, so we ordered. We grabbed one of those Eggs Benedict which they call Sakura Eggs Benedict (NZ$19.50), made with Poached Eggs, Potato Rosti, Spinach, Homemade Hollandaise and Bacon.

For the second order it was this Treasure Bun (NZ$24.00), prepared with Special Flavour Duck, Cucumber, Quinoa, Bell Pepper, Cherry Tomatoes, Lettuce, Plum Sauce and Chinese Duck Sauce. Both dishes when they arrived, looks amazing, very well plated and the serving size was bigger than expected but how was the taste? Let’s start with the Eggs Benedict, this one was OK nothing too special apart from the presentation. The bread used was sourdough, which was toasted and we find it quite tough a total opposite of the English muffin, eggs were perfectly cooked and hollandaise, taste like hollandaise, I was expecting more due to its pink colour. The rosti feels more like a hash brown, it also feels battered as the outside layer was quite smooth.

The Treasure Bun on the other hand, was quite tasty but the bread does not match the filling. The flaked duck filling was quite runny which made the English Bun quite sloppy, the radish gave a nice crunch but the quinoa was questionable, I am not sure what it does to the dish as it did not add texture and flavour at all, it’s just pretty to look at. What would be better if these two swapped breads, the sour dough would be better for the duck as it will soften the hard bread while the English muffin for the Eggs Benedict, there’s a reason why traditionally its done that way, soft bread on runny egg and hollandaise works really well together.

As for the coffee, it was OK, the long black that I ordered came in an espresso cup with extra hot water, how in earth I can top it up to make an all-black? Usually they give you a big enough cup so that you can add that hot water, but for this one, you sip first, add water, sip again then add water again, this makes the coffee taste not uniform as you dilute them every time you sip. Mochaccino was OK, heavy on the chocolate and not too much of a coffee flavour.

Overall, food was just OK, its palatable but nothing to rave about. If the price is much lower then its more understandable, but the prices are quite steep for the quality of food we had. Bad first time for Hobsonville Point.

Catalina Cafe
Address: Corner of Buckley Avenue And, Hastings Street, Hobsonville Point 0618, New Zealand
Phone: +649 950 6551
Website: https://www.catalinacafe.co.nz/