The Mango Café

The renovated premises of The Mango Café are a vast improvement over the old cafe: 2 stories now, air-conditioned, with a pleasant balcony along one side, and lots of glass and light. The atmosphere is relaxed and informal; the decor: muted.


Mango café offers breakfast, lunch and dinner menus ... and a sandwich bar. Whilst we've tried the lunch menu (the burgers and pasta dishes are good), this review is mainly concerned with their all-day breakfast menu.


Big Breakfast is hearty, but a little on the expensive side at almost $15.


A good bruschetta, available in vegetarian (shown above), chicken and bacon versions. The recipe is localised by way of a large hunk of long loaf as the base. This is the largest bruschetta I've ever seen, though the recipient feels a half-loaf would be appropriate given the long wait for service.


Eggs benedict with salmon: divine! Again, a little touch of Fiji in the form of long loaf slices instead of English muffin.


Italian eggs ... Kania Tiko praises these as the best scrambled eggs he has had in a long time. The sausage (cabanosi?) adds a nice contrasting taste and visual.


These coffee cups are beautiful, but a real ergonomic pain ... to the point of being a bit silly. Form follows function (or should for kitchenware); it's difficult to drink from this cup, and novelty of the design doesn't make up for that.


This little item is on the kid's breakfast menu as 'Toad in the hole'. If you come from British stock and know what a real toad in the hole looks like: redirect your righteous anti-American anger into hunting down the multitude of other names for the 'Egg in the hole/basket/nest'.

Whilst we have nothing but praise for the food, the front-of-house staff always seem to give us pause. The first time we were offered an iced drink on the house as an apology for delayed service only to have the offer withdrawn a minute later: "Sorry; that was meant for the next table."

The second time there was an ordering problem involving too many dishes and items that had been excluded from the order. This took 2 attempts to disentangle. Whilst we're a little puzzled as to why the waiter thought 4 dishes per child was a sensible interpretation of the order, the issue was solved to everyone's satisfaction with a minimum of fuss ... but it still took about 45 minutes for all the food to appear.

We're withholding a thumbs-up until the service issues sort themselves out, but the good food and pleasant atmosphere mean a thumbs-down would not be justified either.

In Summary

The Mango Café

Ratu Sukuna Rd, Nasese

Opening Hours:

Mon - Sun: 6:30am - 9:00pm

Spend:

$7 - $20 per person

Roma's Hook and Chook

Closed seems like the old owners have sold out and there is a new establishment at the City location on the corner of Gordon St and Joske St which we will investigate soon enough.

We've been forced to reopen the books on where to get good fish and chips in Suva, and barring any new discoveries, Roma's Hook and Chook is currently filling that gap in our lives.

The first shop in Samabula was the basis for this review, but Hook & Chook has just opened shop number 2 in the centre of Suva, on Gordon Street, right next door to a certain curry house.

The Samabula shop offers an express lane for pre-cooked, kept-in-the-warmer chicken, chips and anonymous fish ... and the 'Student pack'

All else is pick & point: cooked on demand; starting from $5.50 for the fish cakes, and climbing up through the various fillets to Ulavi, somewhere around the $10 mark. The choice of regular or spicy batter is a nice touch in our chilli-mad nation.


I was excited when I first saw scallops on ice, but my enthusiasm has been somewhat dampened. Scallops should not be dipped in batter and deep fried. They should be seared ... or if you really must fry them, then roll them in breadcrumbs.

That aside, the other bitsy seafood packages live up to their calling: calamari, mussels, and the cheap anonymous seafood equivalent of sausage: 'seafood sticks'

The "chook" part of this eatery's name deserves but a brief mention: there is little anyone can do to make chicken and chips sexy ... and Roma's doesn't try. And in any case, if chicken and chips is your thing, then you need a serious injection of culinary verve.

Also on offer: salads. These appear to come from an MH deli (convenient, okay, but sometimes on the trailing edge of fresh).

Extra tomato and tartare sauce sachets are available if the included condiments don't meet your requirements.

In addition to the standard range of soft drinks, there is an espresso menu.

Both shops are small and rather cramped with seating at a premium - plan to eat takeaway.

It heartens me greatly that the serving staff were able to tell me how fresh the different fish options were ... even more heartening was that most of it had come in that morning.

For good fish & chips, and a choice of venues, Lunch in Suva gives Roma's Hook & Chook a thumbs-up.

In Summary

Roma's Hook and Chook

Waimanu Road, Samabula

Gordon Street, Suva

Opening Hours:

?

Spend:

$5.50 - $12 per person

Kahawa @ Ra Marama House

Kahawa's Ra Marama House shop has closed ... the sandwhiches are still available, you're just going to have to go to Suva Central to get them now.

The Kahawa name is shared by two coffee houses in Suva. Kahawa @ Ra Marama House probably has the nicest atmosphere of any of the various coffee houses of Suva. It truly is a nice place to sit and wind down. Free wireless internet is just the icing on the cake.

One thing Kahawa excells at is sandwiches. We're talking about rolls here: big rolls, about a foot long, and very well filled too. I also love the fact that you can almost always get a wholemeal roll. This makes them major heros in my books, but it gets better!

This is the only place in Suva where a half roll is half the price of a full roll. Half the price for half the product! Even though I never buy a half roll, but this really warms the cockles of my heart.

My favourite is the Chicken Salad roll, $5.80 for the full sandwich, $2.90 for the genuine half-roll, dainty-eater version.


Tuna Salad, Steak & Cheese, Italian Meatballs, and Chicken & Bacon round out the sandwich options. At just less than $8, the Steak and Cheese is the most expensive of the lot, but is still very good value for money and tummy.

The sandwich can be accompanied by the usual dose of caffeine, or with fresh fruit juice; or on hot days, an iced-drink.

All orders can be eaten at the scene or dragged back to the office.

Kahawa also offers the usual range of coffee house mini-savouries and sweets, should you not feel like a sandwich. I have not had any luck with their pies: puff pastry has never given me joy, and I'm sure it's harmful to the ozone layer.

In Summary

Kahawa @ Ra Marama House

Ground Floor, Ra Marama House, 91 Gordon St

Opening Hours

8am - 7pm weekdays

Spend

$3 - $8 per person

Verdict

Thumbs-up

Sweet-T-Pie Coffee Café

This Nasese eatery has closed ... well, it's been closed and sold and is currently under renovation by it's new owners. We will doubtless see further action at this location (it's too close to the new FIRCA hq to go to waste), but in the mean time, take yourself to the new Cakes 2000 digs on Butt St.

Cakes 2000 has had more locations and incarnations than I care to remember. Their latest incarnation in Nasese takes the form of a combined cake-shop and café-style eatery, alternately branded Cakes2000 and Sweet-T-Pie Café.

Their lunch menu consist mainly of:

• A BBQ/Grill section

  The grill has never made me happy ... steak not tender enough, chicken breasts not quite cooked ... or maybe I've just been on all the wrong days.

• All-Day Breakfasts

  A range of protein-rich, 'get-me-started' meals from $6.50 - $11. These have never let me down. The omelettes in particular are always good. Absolutely recommended.

  

• Miscellany at the counter

  A very boring selection of sandwiches, a couple of very heavy stuffed-croissants, a couple of salads, and quite possibly the best fresh fruit-salad in Suva. If you're lucky, you might visit when chocolate éclairs are available, otherwise there will be a small selection of deserts and cakes.

Drinks are a little limited. There is a small selection of fresh fruit juice & smoothies, and a limited espresso stand. A request for anything beyond that will get you a recommendation to visit the soft-drink fridge in the corner shop next door.

I am unable to recommend eating-in unless it is pouring rain, or you turn up very early in the morning to partake of the breakfast menu. The only tables available are outdoors, and under a heavy canvas awning, which does a wonderful pressure-cooker impression if the sun is anywhere in sight. This recommendation may change ... there seems to be work on a new premises on Butt St in the heart of Suva, which promises a large indoor eating area.

Update by kania tiko on 19th April: While the omelettes in general are good, the notable exception are the ones with cheese in them - they use some nasty processed kraft-like "cheese food" substance - prompting me to ask "what's wrong with good old Rewa Cheddar?" In their defence, Picky Eater swears he got the good stuff when last he ate there.

In Summary:

Sweet-T-Pie Coffee Cafe (aka Cakes 2000)

Ratu Sukuna Rd, Nasese

Opening hours

7am - 6pm Monday to Friday, 7am - 3pm on Saturday, 8am - 2pm on Sunday

Spend

$5 - $10 per person

Verdict

A caveated thumbs-up, and thumbs down to "processed cheese foods" of all kinds