Rosie's Red-Hot Cantina - Mount Maunganui — Restaurant in Bay of Plenty

We’ve been to Rosie’s a few times before and have always enjoyed the food, which has been consistently excellent. However, our recent visit was disappointing.

When we arrived, there were a couple of other groups also waiting to be seated. As we got there, a small group was leaving in frustration, explaining they’d been waiting over an hour for their food and hadn’t received it.

The restaurant wasn’t busy, with plenty of empty tables. Despite being seen by staff multiple times, neither we nor the other waiting groups were acknowledged or assisted. Instead, it felt like we were being glared at and ignored. After more than 10 minutes, the two other groups left due to not being served.

Another group arrived and began waiting with us. Eventually, a staff member passing by told us we’d be attended to soon. After an additional 5 minutes, we were finally invited in and seated. Once seated, we overheard conversations at nearby tables about long wait times, which matched what we had already witnessed.

We waited another 10 minutes after being seated before flagging down a staff member to place our order. It was Taco Tuesday, and we were looking forward to the fish and pork tacos, but we were informed that both options were unavailable. At that point, we decided to leave.

To summarize, Rosie’s wasn’t busy, and there appeared to be more than enough staff on hand. However, the lack of attention and service made us feel more like a burden than valued customers. This was a disappointing experience, especially given how much we’ve enjoyed...

I'm normally not one to leave negative reviews, and 6 months ago I actually left a 5-star review, but after my experience last night at Rosie's I unfortunately had to take it down.

I met up with some work colleagues for a brief dinner and wanted something light so I ordered the Ceviche Salad. I kid you not after one bite, I spat it straight out. The fish was not palatable whatsoever. The texture was very, very strange and it faintly tasted the way fish smells–which if you eat seafood, you know is not good. They don't tell you what fish they use in the menu, they just advertise it as "market fish" so I should have seen that as the first red flag.

Like I mentioned earlier, I don't like to complain but my coworkers pushed me to speak up about the food. So, when the waiter came to our table to take payment, I kindly told the him that I hated to be a pain and that I knew it wasn't his fault, but the dish tasted funny and I spat it out. He laughed and said "That's okay!" and proceeded to take everyone's payments except mine. Thinking my complaint was heard, I went to the bathroom and when I returned, he was at our table waiting for me to pay the TWENTY-SEVEN DOLLARS–which I WAS prepared to pay had the food actually been edible.

I left the restaurant immediately after, quite upset at the situation because as a customer service worker myself, you should not be serving food that is not only inedible, but a potential cause for sickness and expect customers to pay for it even though it hadn't even...

If I could give a rating of 0, I would. We waited in line behind two groups “to be seated” for over 15 minutes while staff visibly ignored us — the first red flag. During this time, two seated tables left in frustration due to slow service and long waits (voicing their frustrations as they left) — the second red flag.

The two groups ahead of us also gave up and left, but we decided to persevere. A total of 20 minutes before finally being seated. Once at our table, no one approached us to take our order — the third red flag. Meanwhile, a larger group who came in after us was served ahead of us as we continued waiting.. — the fourth red flag. Before we decided to call a staff member over ourselves, another waiting table got up and left from what I can only imagine was due to also being ignored, or long food wait times.

After calling someone over to take our order, we were told that half of the taco options were unavailable (on Taco Tuesday, at lunchtime) — the fifth and final red flag. At that point, we left.

The service here was shockingly lazy and neglectful, despite there being plenty of staff on the floor and open tables. I wouldn’t return to this location if you paid me. While we’ve had great experiences at other Rosie’s across NZ, I wouldn’t recommend this...