180 Degrees Cafe & Bistro, Paraparaumu

For his birthday, Mr Cake was given a glider flight by his siblings - the only catch was we had to go to Paraparaumu for it. Since his brother and sister-in-law were here over the weekend we had planned to hire a car anyway and figured it would be fun since they had given it to him for them to see it, too - also a good excuse to get out of town. As it happened, Sunday was a stunning day - clear, bright blue skies, and not too much wind.

We arrived in Paraparaumu with time to spare and agreed to find a cafe for lunch. Using the trusty Entertainment Book we located a cafe with a pretty nice view, and who offered a reasonable gluten-free offering for our sister-in-law. We managed to completely baffle the waiter, and sent him on three trips to the kitchen - we felt a little sorry for him, but then, the menu included soup of the day and fish of the day, and neither were announced elsewhere, nor did he know what they were. We also had to ask for the price of the fish dish (it wasn't on the menu, I guess due to seasonal fluctuations), and check if a dish was GF. He was friendly and helpful, though, and though it took a while to get our food it wasn't unreasonable.

Mr Cake and his brother both chose to go for the manly option and have pancakes. ;-) The stack looked pretty impressive and Mr Cake liked his but they were a bit on the sweet side, and being so drenched in syrup didn't help. I tried a bit of the 'berry coulis' and I would have called it jam, and it was more sugar than fruit. Still, they seemed to go down pretty well.

Sister-in-law's chosen dish was the veggie big breakfast - but with added bacon! They happily swapped the bread out for gluten free stuff and she seemed pretty happy with the dish, in particular the crispy potatoes. It looked to me to be a pretty good veggie option.

I chose the cajun chicken burger with wedges, which was on the specials board. This was fantastic! The chicken was nicely spiced and perfectly cooked, and the ciabatta was fresh and delicious. The dressing brought it all together nicely, and I found myself ensuring I had just the right proportions of everything so my last few bites were balanced just so (the OCD comes out...). The wedges were also pretty rave-worthy - very crispy, perfectly fried. I was very happy with my dish.

And as for the glider flight - well, it looked pretty spectacular from the photos: 

(and I was more than happy to stay firmly grounded)

180 Degrees is located at 12 Marine Parade, Paraparaumu Beach, Kapiti Coast, ph 04 297 0180