Criterion Street Cafe

Nice to have a breakfast where you’re not attacked by someone wearing a tight black t-​shirt armed with a pepper grinder the length of a light sabre. Good food too!

Atmosphere was good. Coffee good. Smoothies lacked fruit flavour and resembled honey-​flavoured milkshakes. Food was a bit hit and miss — zucchini fritters were bland. The ‘billy the kid’ was fine, however not exceptional. Our waitress was aloof and appeared uninterested. Service was prompt!

I have visited the Criterion St Café on several occasions, each of which have been positive. I have had coffee and a savoury snack during my visits, and have been favourably impressed with all items. I like the casual atmosphere, the activity of the kitchen and coffee bar downstairs, and the big windows opening out to the street. The feeling is of visiting a friend’s place, a friend with really good coffee and a flair for cooking. Family friendly, very nice staff, enticing menu, good coffee and food. I look forward to my next visit.

Food was awesome, but next time I will get the waffles, the table next to us got these and they looked so good !!!

Oh dang, for some reason I’d stayed away from the Cri because I thought they were still under old management… nope. Turns out these guys are closely related to Salamanca’s (in)famous Machine Laundry Café. I guess it makes sense with such a straight-​up name. The Machine has laundry facilities. The Cri is on Criterion Street. Let’s not muck about with these names. (I can’t help it, I like more fanciful names. But I’ll survive.)
The Cri has a «same-​same but different» menu to Machine, with similar imaginative and tempting menu items. I couldn’t go past the Pork Sword, and yes. Yes, I did giggle the whole time. No, I’m not sorry.
Great food, great coffee, sassy staff. Head upstairs for even more seating options, and yes, it’s table service! If only they had free wifi, I’d settle in here comfortably for hours. (Maybe that’s why they don’t have free wifi. Makes sense.)

Good coffee bit expensive quite noisy. good chic décor though too many stools. more chairs would be more comfy all made better with a blue eyed barista that made it that much better

Good coffee (although not as good as Villino next door) and very good food. The staff here are really nice and a lot of fun and there is a fair bit of seating upstairs in addition to the area visible from the entrance. This place is only let down (a little) by the décor which is particularly warm or friendly (this is a personal taste thing and I’m sure others will disagree with me).