Hornby Club — Restaurant in Christchurch

Chalmers Restaurant Buffet, Sunday 28 May 2023. First time going there, arrived 10 minutes early. Paid and got shown to our table by a waitress. She advised us that she'd return to let us know when the buffet was ready. However, she never came back to let us know. We just saw people walking past with food and so we drew our own conclusions.

No effort was made to ask us whether we'd been there before or not. The annoying thing was that we overheard the same waitress ask a number of other customers if they'd been there before. When they said no, she proceeded to guide them on where everything was located.

There were numerous waitresses walking around - but no one made any effort to approach our table to ask if we'd like any drinks. It would have been nice to be offered some water at minimum. After getting my meal I had to go in search of the bar to find a bottle of water.

The best thing about this place was the new chef who told us it was his first day there. He was friendly, polite and made an effort to engage in conversation with us (all the while busily cutting up the meat). He made us feel welcome there.

The beef, pork & chicken we're all cooked really nicely, as were the roast potatoes, mini spring rolls, mini hot dogs & fish bites.

We both went back for a small plate of shrimp and surimi and chicken. When we returned to our table, our bottle of water and glasses had been taken away. So I went back to the bar for another bottle of water and some glasses.

Dessert - I had apple & peach crumble with a small tub of Much Moore ice cream. Some of the crumble was doughy and so I attempted to eat what I could, leaving the doughy bits behind.

When we returned to our table from getting our desserts to eat, a waitress was spray cleaning our table and our bottle of water and glasses had been removed again. By this time I was really annoyed and so I told the waitress that was the 2nd time our water and glasses had been removed from our table. She said that she'd been told that we'd left. I said yeah, left to go get dessert. She was apologetic and went and got a bottle of water and glasses for us. Another waitress apologised to me and said it was her fault.

I think in future that common sense should prevail, in that if there's a dirty dinner plate with a knife & fork, then the next natural progression would be that a customer's moved onto getting dessert. It would be a good assumption to start with at least.

Overall, we couldn't help but feel like we were being rushed out of this restaurant. During our time there we didn't see anyone else's glasses or bottles of water being removed from their tables. We saw bottles of water being delivered to their tables though.

The wait service that we got tonight was extremely disappointing. We'd been looking forward to coming here for such a long time and now we wished that we hadn't even bothered.

Even though we're Hornby Club members, it's unlikely that we'll ever go back to the Chalmers...

I'm a new member & while 2020 didn't do most of us any favors I'm mightily glad that I have become a member of 'The Hornby Working Men's Club and Mutual School of Art Incorporated'. On the rule book this is how the club is named & while I'm not entirely sure about the Art faculty yet I will make further enquiries. The main building is quite beautiful & is spread out with the Legends bar & tables & comfortable chairs plus several dartboards opposite the bar. A huge flat screen enables a good view of whatever sporting event is on. The bar serves all the usual drinks plus there are several beers to choose from plus a daily lunch menu is served here. Following west is an area where pool tables are found & veering north west is the Pavilion Cafe, here you can order lots of different eats & have those wherever you want to in the bars. There are other rooms upstairs but I haven't been there yet. A games room is on offer plus a manned TAB is also available. The club runs a shuttle with two Van's & if I want to go from Templeton it will cost me $4 each way, I think that's pretty dam good. Theres lots of other stuff so pop in & check the place out I think it's a pretty neat place & I think there's a lot of other members who would...

Took my hubby to the Fathers day Buffet dinner lastnight and were both extremely disappointed. The selection was very limited only 3 basic salads along with two seafood dishes then only three/four hot dishes eg:Thai curry,beef noodles and another two hot dishes nxt to hot chips/ mini hot dogs/chicken nuggets then of course the hot carvery which we found the meat (beef/pork) to be very fatty except for the ham which was lovely! The vegies were cold and over cooked they had cauliflower cheese sauce which truly tasted like plastic wasnt nice at all! For families with little ones there was only chips,nuggets hot dogs! Then as for the desserts no effort at all mini pavs, cheesecake and chocolate brownie and fruit salad from a can along with a apple crumble which no one even touched as didnt look appetising at all and pottles of icecream. Very disappointing for $35 per head Apparently normally $30 per head but due to fathers day was an xtra $5 to cover xtra...so called dishes! In the past prior to renovations we have really enjoyed there buffets on a regular basis with plenty to choose from. However after lastnight will never return for the buffet again was complete...