Annabelles Restaurant — Restaurant in Ōrākei

So sad to give an average review. I used to LOOOVE this place and thought it was the best place for steak and the risotto duck had made me love duck and enjoy eating rice which I usually dislike..

We got a grab one and sadly we were let down. Despite being a deal and voucher I feel it's still unfair we lack options such as pork belly bao (only given option of chicken bao)

With this chicken bao it was basic. No fresh greeneey like sliced spring onions or fresh coriander which was missed in my opinion. Chicken was also dry.

Chowder for our 2nd entree was bland and lacked seasoning. I got one small cube of fish in the entire dish. Sadly this is probably due to being on a grab one voucher booking but this is unfair as we still paid a decent amount of money for said voucher. Small as it was, it was cooked beautifully so wished there was more pieces i could have at least given to partner to try.

Mains DUCK risotto with truffle. This as mentioned used to be my absolute fav dish it was just divine and always ate it to the last grain of rice. Sadly tonight I didnt even finish it. I know risotto is cooked al dente & to still have a bit of bite or nice chew but this was for sure undercooked and a bit grainy. It was very unpleasant. Also I didnt notice the truffle flavors I long for. It didnt seem to have been cooked with seasoning again and even when seasoning myself it still tasted bland. I wonder if there was parmesan stirred through at the final stages or what sort of quality stock was used when cooking this as I cant understand how it can be this bland.. Duck was cooked nicely.

LAMB my partner was extremely disappointed and didnt even eat half of his meal. It was dry and boring. Lacked any sort of interesting element to make you want to eat another bite.

DESSERT creme brulee was fine, didnt pick up on baileys aspect? Biscotti on top was not hard it was soft as not what I have experienced a biscotti to be. Hard dry crisp with plenty of crunch is what I've always had. These ones were opposite? Were they baked 2x?

Bread and butter pudding was just awful. Sickly and basically worse than an aunt Betty's frozen dessert is all I can say.

We purchased an extra entree for $24 white bait fritters These were big BUT used full egg resulting in it tasting exactly like and only like an egg omelette. Anyone who spends big $$ on tiny fish such as white bait should know the best way to make a white bait fritter is with egg white only to keep it light and not take away the star of the dish which is the tiny expensive fish.. wasabi mayo was a let down. Not near enough for two fritters and where was the wasabi? I mentioned the fritters were a let down upon paying and still got charged. During our meals not once did anyone ask how was the food. She could tell my by face we were unhappy as she took away unfinished mains and desserts but clearly reading the reviews they are not willing to ask if things are ok as they probably rather not know.

Super let down as I always used to recomend and brag about your food. This was a waste of money and a disappointing night of what should have been happy celebration for myself and partner getting one chance in a long time to dine together with no children. I wish it was better as I praised your food so much and felt extremely embarrased to have such average bland under seasoned food for his...

NO SERVICE and UNKIND to KIDS!

When my family sit down with a table, the waitress (I believe she is the shop manager or the owner), she just put down forks, knifes and napkins on the table without organizing or saying a word and leave. I waited for 5 mins. No one gives us a menu until I ask for. I did not complain with the restaurant.

When I order the food and repeat twice ‘all veggies on the side’ and ‘no sauce’ for the two burgers with the manager, but the burgers are still come with the sauce. I did not complain with the restaurant either even though the sauce is little spicy while my kids don’t like any sauce or cannot eat spicy food.

No water is served until I ask for a young staff. The young staff service and attitude is far better than the manager.

No refill of water even the water bottle is empty for the entire dinner time. Ok, I let it go.

When I order additional side dishes, I said one fries and one broccoli. She confirms and corrects me as ‘chips’. Is there any difference with fries vs chips?

When I pay for the bill, the manager complains my kids running around the restaurant. I said my kids are not running around the restaurant, she replies everyone is sitting on their own chair but your kids are not. But actually one of my kids is reading book all the time staying on his chair, and the other one just walk to the sofa side of the table to get something for few times. Does it mean running around the restaurant? This is the first time my kids are being complained with such unkind words (they are already 11 and 9 years old). This is really impolite and inappropriate comments on the kids. In addition, no one sits next to our table, he is not disturbing any other customer. I said if any customer is complaining, you can tell me. But the manager just walks away and I believe she wants to clear up everything in order to close the shop at 9pm.

Finally, the young staff says sorry to us.

Honestly, this restaurant is not a fine dining restaurant. Food is over priced as comparing to any hotel restaurant in CBD with good service and attitude with similar pricing.

Please do not bring any kids to this restaurant. They are not allowed to WALK near another side of your own table.

Those review ratings with one star are true comments!

Interesting on your reply! Is your restaurant fine dining restaurant? Even I go to any hotel restaurants in CBD frequently, I do not receive such comments with high volume or disturbing others. If we are at high volume and disturbing others, I think with your type of management style - you have already talked to us. Anyway, your reply already implied how you treat kids unfriendly with inappropriate comments on them. And you did not address on how NO SERVICE you are with my series of facts! They are not...

Unfortunately we didn't even get to try any food or drink, as the waiter made my husband and I leave.... My coworkers had ran/jogged in Round the Bays while my husband and I walked. Naturally, we finished later, so my coworkers headed to find a cafe and we came to meet them later. I didn't know at the time, but one of my colleagues had spoken with the waiter as there were 6 of them but advised that two more people were coming, which the waiter said was fine, but sat them at a table designed for 5 so it was already a bit crowded. Anyhow, we arrived and pulled up chairs from a nearby empty table. We didn't see any staff when we arrived. About 5 minutes later while my husband was in the restroom, the waiter came and tried to take his chair. I told him it was being used, to which he said they needed it to use it for other customers. We were a bit confused as we were going to be paying customers. My colleague asked him why we couldn't sit there to which he rudely replied "I've already given you 6 chairs". He was abrupt and it was really uncalled for. The same colleague asked if we could then sit at a larger, empty table at the back which didn't appear to be reserved, but he didn't really give us a response. We had a really nasty feeling from him and since my husband had come back we decided to just leave. In talking to my colleague the next day, no other customers even came in to use those two chairs he forced us out of. After we left, I can't speak obviously from what I witnessed, but I was told that this waiter came to take their orders, but only took one half of the table's orders then left without asking what the last people wanted, so a waitress came over to take the rest of the order. The same thing happened clearing dishes, he only cleared a couple of glasses and disappeared, and the same waitress collected the rest. I don't know what on earth was happening with this guy, but it was a really bad look for the restaurant. None of the 8 of us will return, and we're all telling people about it so.... not really wise to kick out would-be paying customers when there aren't even any others lined up and you've got another massive empty table that could have accommodated us had that really...