Boteco Cafe & Restaurant — Restaurant in Christchurch

I had emailed earlier to ask if we could come prior to our 5.30pm booking to have a drink but did not receive a reply. We arrived at 5.20pm to be greated by a grumpy chef who didn't want to serve us. Was told to sit anywhere even though we had reserved. Had to wait for the waitress to arrive at 5.30pm to order our drink as chef wasn't interested in helping us with that. After placing our order with our waitress who was friendly we poured ourselves some water from the water jug sitting on the table. After drinking it the waitress came to our table apologetically with a fresh jug. This one had apparently been sitting there overnight, luckily no ill effects. We order crumbed fish of the day with chips n salad a fish escabeche. We were told the fish of the day was snapper. Our fish came out battered not crumbed as stated on the menu, in what obviously must be in pre frozen portions, certainly not fresh. It was cooked to obliteration and was so tough my guest was unable to cut through hers. When she managed to finally cut through it, it pinged off the plate onto the floor. We had high hopes for Boteco as it is quite near the town hall, so we thought it would be perfect for a pre show meal. Sadly not. We...

This place has a lot of potential to be a great place. However there were a number of letdowns that results in this poor review. Most dominating is the extremely bad service from the girl waitress. From the moment we sat down, we couldn't tell if she particularly hated us or whether it's just the way she is in general. Either way, not a good look. Maybe she was too nervous and it comes across as she doesn't like us. She needs some mentoring. Unattentive and inconsiderate. Next, the cutlery and cups weren't cleaned well, was another let down. When I'm paying for food that is pricey, I'd expect better. The food itself generally looked and tasted great, and the chef was reasonably polite (at least in comparison to the waitress). The only thing about the food, some of the items weren't fully cooked (the chicken wasn't fully white). That night we felt it, both of us got sore tummies, even two days later appetite messed up still. So, one star lost for each of waitress, cleanliness, partially uncooked items, and...

absolutely no idea how to run a restaurant. reserved a table, arrived and was told to wait until a table becomes available. sat for 20 Minutes, no drinks no service. I finally asked, was told we had to stay seated where we were. Ordered, wine (option was white or red!) arrived in 2 different sized glasses as they ran out of glasses, ordered 2nd glass and they had no wine left. had starter platter which was nice. then dinner came and 5 minutes into it the owner told us we had to move to a different table...in the middle of eating. when I paid an complained that this was not best practice in a reasonably tight restaurant market, he became real cocky, looked down on me and made it quite clear that his reviews were awesome and customers like me are not needed. actually don't know why his reviews were good as the lamb shanks were served with frozen vegetables and the mash tasted two days old and reheated, not what I...