review: maisy's

Maisy's is the cafe in Neutral Bay.

It's not my favorite (that, as you may recall, would be Chaos, of the many colors and jellybeans with the view of the parking lot and no whipped cream), but I like it.  It's got a wall that's a mirror, which really appeals to my sense of vanity.  Also, it makes the place look bigger than it is.

It's also got two floors.  For some reason (laziness of the servers is my guess) they don't really like you going up there unless they're full downstairs, but the upstairs is pretty cool.  Oh, and they have a dumb waiter.  How smart is that?

The main selling point, really, is that they're a 24 hour place.  In a city that can barely keep its eyes open past six pm, this really is an accomplishment.  And actually living relatively near a 24 hour place is a huge advantage.  Not that I've been there at 4 am yet, but I could go.  It's the principle of the thing.

The downside is that the menu's not too extensive and they're ridiculously overpriced.  And you're often sitting in pretty close quarters to strangers.  And it can get noisy.  And they only take cash. And the waiters can be grumpy if you catch them at the wrong time, though if you actually start to cry they are generally pretty good about letting you sit at the table you requested to sit in in the first place that they told you you couldn't even though it was empty.  Sometimes they even feel so bad they'll bring you extra napkins as Kleenex.


So yeah.  It's a bit hit or miss.  The desserts are good (though again, overpriced) and I don't mind meeting friends there.  Besides, where else is there to go at 7 pm?