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 The first time we were offered an iced drink on the house as an apology for delayed service only to have the offer withdrawn a minute later: "Sorry; that was meant for the next table."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

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

Palm Court - Sandwich Bar

The menu at palm court is fairly wide ranging, but today we'll be focusing only on the sandwich bar. This is on the counter on the left as you enter from Victoria Parade.

There are typically three types of bread available: sliced white, sliced wholemeal, and rolls (which can either be white or wholemeal depending on what side of the bed the purchasing guy woke up on). My favourite is the wholemeal roll, but there is usually only around a 25% chance of this being available.

Once you've selected your bread its now on the to the fillings.

My two favourites are:

• cheese and salad with beetroot and pickle - a nasty sour thing that makes you happy
• smoked walu and salad with pickle - a happy salty thing that makes you nasty
  

There are many other fillings and you obviously can customise your sandwich with various combinations.

Your sandwich gets wrapped in the tightest cling wrap known to man. It will take three times as long to unwrap as to eat.

Turn up early, by 1315 the place fills up with yuppie scum who eat up all the wholemeal rolls, and breathe too much oxygen. In fact get your sandwich and go back to your office, classroom, or the the park across the road.

In Summary:

Palm Court

Victoria Parade, Suva

Opening hours

?am - ?pm Monday to Saturday

Spend

$3 - $10 per person

Verdict

Thumbs-up (for the sandwiches, thumbs down for the yuppie scum patrons)