We ate here whilst staying during the Auckland Anniversary weekend.
It's a very nice setting and staff during our time were helpful and professional.
Unfortunately our dining experience was not as good as we had hoped and had been led to believe by recent reviews, though I am prepared to give the benefit of the doubt, because I think we hit them on an "off day".
My wife ordered the fish of the day, which she very much enjoyed. It was fresh and beautifully cooked.
I ordered the Ceviche which was pleasant enough, reasonably fresh fish. It was VERY acidic (and this coming from a guy who LOVES acidic), just not quite enough balance. Easily fixed, but unfortunately in this instance, overpowering.
I then ordered the Pork Belly, which took FOREVER to come out. I am prepared to accept that we may have played a part in this by asking for the food to come out as it was ready, rather than in a traditional order, because we had little kids with us, and we wanted them eating sooner rather than later, so they didn't get bored. (Out of consideration to other diners). We also ordered a side of seasonal vegetables which came out even later than the pork belly. This is where things went really badly. The pork was like rubber, and whilst an attempt to crisp up the skin had been made, it wasn't completed which made the pork even harder to cut. I raised this with the waiter politely, and he immediately went to find a manager. We had waited so long for it, and everyone else had finished eating pretty much, that I said I couldn't really wait for another to be made. They opted to remove it from my bill, which was the right thing to do. The seasonal vegetables were beans and asparagus in butter, but the state of them wasn't good, they were old and stringy and asparagus had a horrible end of season wrinkled look to them. They should have looked at the state of them during prep and opted to not offer them at all in my opinion. I raised this at the time of the bill payment and the manager offerred to remove them. I am not sure why I didn't take up his offer, but that was my doing, the offer was made, and appreciated.
My kids shared chips and chicken nuggets, and they and I enjoyed them.
In summary, I think the service was good (other than the long wait for my main and side), but the food on this occasion (for my dishes at least) weren't up to scratch. I'd be prepared to go again and see what a better day for this restaurant was about. read more