Karaka Cafe

Description

Karaka Café is named after the Karaka Grove on the Harbour side of the premise by the late Kaumatua Sam Jackson. It is said that Maori bought the karaka seed on waka as they travelled to settle in Aotearoa, enabling them to harvest the karaka (orange) fruit. The karaka grove brings with it, a connection to the history and story of our ancestors. The Wharewaka Building was a long-time dream of the Taranaki whanui, to have a foot print back on the Wellington waterfront. Karaka Café is locally owned and operated by the Retimanu whanau, who are of Maori and Pacific descent. The café was established on the 6th February 2011 with a blessing of the whare as a whole. Our vision from day one, was to promote our culture in a positive light, through the senses of sight, sound and taste. We aim to boast the tastes and aromas of Maori flavours within modern kiwi café style foods. Our signature dishes have always included our café style oven hangi and eggs benedict with smoked hangi hash. Backed by a great management team and young vibrant kaimahi, we are all very proud to work alongside the Iwi here at Wharewaka. “THIS IS WHAT WE CALL THE “KARAKA EXPERIENCE” SIGHT – Contemporary Maori art work throughout the venue. Bilingual menus, Maori designs and whakatauki/sayings are prominent. SOUND – Our background music has a playlist of Maori & Pacific waiata, through to our live artists over the summer season. You can hear Te Reo Maori being spoken in the whare ia ra, ia ra (everyday) TASTE – Maori infused flavours in our kai traditional foods, meet modern cooking methods. “Arrive as customers, become friends, leave as whanau" HE AHA TE MEA NUI?