Valentines Manukau — Restaurant in Ōtara-Papatoetoe

Valentines Manukau, My family & and I celebrated a birthday function here over the weekend. I was able to decorate in the area we were allocated in which was great 👍🏼 A staff member had moved swiftly to rearrange tables and seatings as I was only given x amount of time before family started to show. And if im being honest about the food, I am very disappointed I could criticize it all, but we'll let the people speak for themselves. All and all food was not up to serving standards. Seafood by far was terrible and the worst of all. It sat out whilst flies were landing all over it. To add, a few of my family members got food poisoned towards the end of the night. That alone is a health & and safety concern and should be raised with a food inspector. As for the staff serving our table and night fill manager, felt obligated to interrupt our night to raise a concern that could have waited til the end or addressed to the person who made the reservation and not to everyone that really annoyed me. No professionalism was shown throughout the night. & might I add this is now under new management 🤔 seems like the only changes made was the interior inside.

;Responding to the (owner's) comment.

Firstly, no one at all was asking for a refund, and nowhere in my review do I request one. Please come correct before you make a statement like that.

This review was purely regarding the overall experience my family & I had whilst dining in. As a paying customer, I am entitled to

To add, I can confirm family members were indeed sick from the seafood buffet and that you continued to claim it was fresh. I highly doubt your video footage can prove there were no flies. Again, it is definitely a health & safety concern for anyone wanting to dine here.

As for the smart remark regarding the cake. I can well and truly say it had nothing to do with the cake we brought through as we did not eat until the following day. Also, not one family member had taken away any food. Again, you have made many accusations and assumptions.

As for staff who were rostered on this night, who showed no professionalism once. Clearly, it is a reflection of your management skills and lack of ownership regarding criticism when critic. Also, whom we did not once speak to whilst we raised our concerns...

First thing upon entering is we wanted a table by the window and despite reserving, we were not given the seat we wanted. Most restaurants or I can say all give us what we want. Next disappointment was the menu mislead us to think that the lamb and sirloin steak were included in the weekend lunch. It did not have a label of D or WL so you would think it applies to both as the other red items were labelled D or WL or both. I actually called in advance and the lady who answered spoke to me like it was so clear in the menu and I was sure she mentioned if there is no specific label in on the red items it means it applies to both dinner and weekend lunch. She even hung up on me as she claimed to have other customers but I called an hour before the restaurant opened for lunch. The food was mostly things you can get frozen or packed and just heat it up such as nuggets and fish bytes, beef ball skewers. The only good food was the ribs, pizza which was cheesy and the Ham. Everything else seems to be just taken from a grocery like the rotisserie chicken. The sausage was those cheap Hellers sausages you can normally get at fundraisings. The person cooking did not have the right barbecue skills as the chicken was badly burnt and was hard. It was inedible. I'm sorry but we gave this restaurant a chance because it had new owners but it is still not a place we will go back to. We had a bad experience before as we had guests from overseas and had this place as a send off to them. It was terrible then. I never learned. I need to mention the quick removal of empty plates. That is definitely a positive but considering $43 for weekend lunch without the lamb and steak, that's a rip off for me. The weekday lunch I now learned did not have the ribs which is one of the few things I gave a positive review on. I wonder if we decided to do the weekday lunch then we would have been really upset. Should have stayed with Paldo's which had sirloin steak and lamb for a cheaper price...

I've been to many Valentines restaurants and had different experiences over the years good and not so good anyway decided to book in at the new Manukau Valentines restaurant tonight (7/8/2015). Made a reservation for a group of 6 adults & 3 children for my father's birthday and have to say it was the best Valentines experience of the lot. The new site is a definite upgrade from the old building. Now all on ground level and modern furniture/bar/serving stations. The staff - female waitress and male bartender need to be acknowledged just the 2 of them on the shift but they were always present and their customer service was amazing, the female (sorry didn't get her name) noticed we had a 2yr old on arrival so had a highchair waiting at the table for us by the time we were to be seated. They were so awesome being attentive to all guests, plate clearing often and even played birthday song for us and helped with a cake we took in. Now the food..It was great! All good comments round the table about the food, the steamed bread there was a new treat that was served hot with butter - so good! The hot food, meats etc was indeed hot and fresh. My father and partner who love seafood enjoyed a huge number of fresh oysters, salmon and prawns from the buffet which was topped up regularly. Even the coffee and dessert especially the carrot cake was very nice. I found plenty of food that I liked &I'm a fussy eater. It was such a good night - 5 stars for atmosphere, customer service, quality of food, value for money, dining experience etc. I know there a number of low reviews but we truly had a great experience tonight can't fault it. Well done...