BAD HABITS — Restaurant in Bay of Islands-Whangaroa Community

EDIT: What a disappointing response from the owner. It's my responsibility to chase staff down to update them on our ongoing mediocre experience? I'm paying for that privilege? Pull ya head in mate.

I’m not one to bother writing reviews but hey… here we are. 😕

A disappointing experience overall. Arrived to a not busy restaurant with tables reserved so sat outside with the friendly agreement they would bring us inside when someone leaves. That offer and change up never came.

Drinks were nice but service was slow, can accept a holiday pace but this did feel like being on the outside tables meant we were kinda forgotten about.

M’lady ordered tacos and I ordered a steak. They have steaks in a butchers cabinet on display inside so I got a little over my skis in expectation I guess. Ordered a medium rare scotch, it came out leaning well done… somehow before the tacos. Sent it back, for a repeat. Our waitress was good about it. 15 mins later M’lady’s tacos arrived, she enjoyed them. The kitchen sending food in such a disjointed way is… interesting. That said, they were pretty great (2 BIG tacos that really should be 4 smaller ones) and enjoyed.

Then we got back to waiting for the second steak. Ya know when things do take so long that you observe others leaving who came after you? How you’re not watching the clock (hey a new steak takes time) but this is feeling a scooch arduous? Yeah. That was us.

Repeat steak finally came… and I had to ask for cutlery again… and I wasn’t given a steak knife for my now accurately cooked steak. So instead of cutting nicely, I had to kinda rip n tear with a regular dull knife. We soldier on. The 2nd steak was good.

Went in and paid our bill ($150 NZ for 2) and headed off. This is one of those times where a comped round of drinks was probably a good move but the front of house while individually good, didn’t seem to be paying overall attention to detail as a team.

Would not rush back anytime soon and would cautiously order safer optionsyy if I did. My one and only steak in NZ… a less than great affair.

Life rolls on… this...

Visited Bad Habits Queens Birthday Weekend (Monday). Stupidly all the other restaurants were closed. But by Genius or evil mastermind Bad Habits and 1 other restaurant in all of Paihia was open. Good for them. My family and I (party of 8) came to dine for my dad's 2nd 65th Birthday lol. We are somewhat Steak connoisseurs, so expectations are high. Arrived, staff greeted us quickly and sat us. Great service. Very efficient and thorough. I like that! Drinks arrived, delish. Menu and "steak of the day" special explained to us and we CANT WAIT. *FYI: When you arrive, you get to see all the delicious carnivorous offerings (the Meats you may want to order are displayed like a Butcher shop) and you get a great visual of your potential meal. Orders taken down perfectly, meals start arriving in pretty good time (btwn 10-20mins for steak meals depending on cook preferences). For me and hubby: 1 x Tomahawk meal med rare and 1 x scotch meal med rare. Both comes with creamy mushrooms, shoestring chips and salad. Portion sizes are huge and On Point! Most importantly: Steaks (both) cooked to absolute perfection!!! Will 💯...

Sadly I’ve had to delete stars for what I witnessed behind the bar but first the what I would give 5+ stars for - the food, service, ambience - the best steak meals we’ve had in a very long time !!!! The two guys serving tonight gave excellent service with the dark haired, butcher guy knowing the menu and deli goods for sale impressively well. Let alone provided the best service! So great to speak to and acknowledge the chef who cooked our steaks also! Great addition to Paihia… wish you were in our neck of the woods! As for the Barman - observed him (dark hair in bun, beard) the whole evening constantly rubbing/scratching his nose, face, beard, scalp & hair AND drinking straight from the cocktail shaker the cocktails he made BEFORE & AFTER pouring into customer glasses and then not even sterilizing the shakers (so all germs passed onto several customers). No one should be drinking his cocktails in these pandemic times let alone at any time - so disgusting!! As a side note - we had a lovely time the night before at the Tipsy Oyster : turns out they’re owned by the...