Mission Bay Tap Room - Good George — Restaurant in Ōrākei

Not so Good George 😕 I visited in January with some friends and we ate on the terrace. I had the beef burger, my wife had the "tacos", and we shared a bucket of fries. We stayed for a while and I tried a few beers. The food mains are decently priced, with burgers around the $15 mark, but they come without a side. The bucket of fries costs $8, which is a lot, and I guess that it's supposed to feed two people as it is quite a large portion. It would make a lot more sense to serve a smaller portion of fries along with the burger for half the price so people wouldn't be forced to split side dishes. My burger was... mustard. I have no idea what it tasted like apart from the strong flavour of mustard. It was juicy and full of sauce but there was so much mustard that it all tasted the mustardy same. So, unless you love to eat spoonfuls of mustard, avoid the burger. The wife's "tacos" were two small tortillas folded in half with some lamb, kale (or similar), and other stuff. Not really great, not really filling, not really tacos.

The beers were consistent in their mediocrity. The stout was watery and far from tasting like "chocolate and coffee". The pilsner could have been a canned low level beer. The APA was just ok. The IPA tasted, again, watered down. If you live in the UK, like I do, be warned that the "pint" written on the menu is an American Pint: 473 ml as opposed to 568 ml in a British pint. The price per pint would be ok if the pints were British, but for a smaller cup the price is a bit high.

We ate on the terrace. There are clear plastic sheets that prevented the wind from blowing out hats off, and that's a very good idea. Unfortunately there are also bushes in vase that prevented us from seeing the sea, which is quite a shame for a bar on the sea front. What was consistently good and friendly was the service and the live DJ set with good music. These earns the place the third star otherwise, with mediocre food and drinks and no view of the sea, it would have been 2...

Good beer and food, friendly and helpful staff, they also allow dogs which makes finishing our walks in mission bay worthwhile!

EDIT - bit long but want to justify changes to review from 5 to 3 stars

Since they changed their menu we have been going there less. The menu doesn't really describe all the food properly, and it's unclear whether you are getting enough for a meal or need to order extra (eg burger doesnt come with fries so you need to order separately).

It's also a bit all over the place with the kind of food on offer. Some fried bar food, some Mexican, some classic salads, pasta etc, which makes it hard to pick extras to go with your meal. The fact that you have to order extra means it's deceptively expensive! I also just really liked the old menu and would have been happy to pay more for it.

I was quite disappointed with the vegan poutine - there are so many vegan ways you could do loaded fries and poutine is probably the most difficult. The vege gravy is actually great but the coconut curds really dont pay off.

That said the beer is great and there are still some awesome snack/side options (chicken bites and fried pickles are delicious), and the staff are super friendly, prompt and helpful as always! I'm sure we'll go back more if the menu...

Update to the "Absolutely dreadful!" review below:

The owner of the restaurant reached out to me and, in a very professional matter, addressed my concerns and relayed his own disquiet at the level of service delivered. He stated that they are taking immediate steps to redress the situation regarding the food and the floor staff and that improvements are under way.

I was impressed with his forthright manner and his genuine desire to sort the matter out and I consider his resolution offer to be a satisfactory outcome.

Absolutely dreadful!

Valentine's Day outing spoiled by terrible food. Unfortunately the 3 teenagers implored us not to complain because it would further wreck Valentine's Day for their parents.

Beer battered chips with fish. No beer batter for the chips but we will charge you the same for plain chips. Beef burger for 17 year old so burned it was inedible. Pizza dry and not eaten, taken away in a box as someone had an idea to try to revive it at home. Vegetarian noodle dish only half eaten as teenager pronounced it "tasteless".

Even then I would have made this observations if any of the staff cared to ask us if everything was OK but, no, nobody was interested at all. They did not engage even though they cleared plated of...