With a generous voucher from a previously slightly less than ideal situation with Toms, and mothers day dinner needing sorted, we booked at Mr Toms on Sunday night.
It didn't start well, as our booking was nowhere to be found, though we were seated quickly and proceeded to order. The service here is mixed. The staff seemed to struggle to recommend portion sizes and seemed indifferent initially to our questions. A kind wait person did come by after we had ordered and offered us better seats which was a really nice touch!
The problem was then that our main course (eye Fillet) came out before our 3 entree dishes and then our entrees came out 10 minutes later, followed by our second main a few minutes later. I am completely lost as to how this could occur, I've never seen it before. Unfortunately, this left us consuming food really quickly so as not to let our second main go cold.
Our eye fillet dish,consumed first and shared between 2 hungry adults and 2 hungry kids, was delicious and cooked as ordered, which was a good start. I suspect the fillet came in sealed bags and not enough time to let it air was allowed as there was a slight taste to the meat you get in that situation. Not terrible, but something they could consider fixing. The thrice cooked chips were good, but the highlight was the smoked aioli which was AMAZING. The Ceviche had really fresh fish and the portion was moderately generous, however, the flavours were very broken. I don't understand messing with a classic to the point it's not longer the same dish. Edamame beans are nice, and I understand they were there for texture, but they were just wrong, and the chipotle cream was a terrible addition. It just didn't work. The second main was a mushroom risotto and the mushrooms were delicious, well textured, garlicky and salty, but unfortunately the rice was awful, completely flavourless, and seemingly unseasoned. I am unsure if they were hoping the cheese and mushrooms would provide the seasoning, but it wasn't enough, and I wasn't able to finish it.
The manager asked for feedback, and we offered it honestly, he removed our risotto from the bill which was good of him. We did share our experience and he was genuinely apologetic, which was great.
Ultimately, however, the bottom line for us was, there are so many good restaurants in Auckland now, it's somewhat unlikely we would return. They are obviously trying hard, and I commend this, but they need to go through and take a good look overall and check the dishes and check service levels if they want to compete in an aggressive market. Some of their dishes are fantastic. read more