Styx & Stone — Restaurant in Christchurch

I already know that the response back to my review will dispute the facts as I can tell by the owners responses below to other negative reviews that they are well accustomed to smart and aggressive comments back instead of actually taking culpability for your actions.

I apologise in advance for the long review however feel it’s necessary so you get the full context. Went for a Mothers Day lunch today, it was busy- understandable. However wait times were absolutely ridiculous!! Sat next to a bigger table of people, they had multiple kids and felt so sorry for them. I overhead them asking the waitress if they could serve their kids meals before their own, hour and a half later their kids meals still weren’t out and the little children were in absolute pieces- clearly very very hungry after such a long wait. Very disappointing to see they made no effort whatsoever to accomodate them.

We were told there was a ‘new manager’ and that she was the one who completely overbooked the place and furthermore underestimated just how run off their feet they would be, that wait times were ridiculous and everyone in the restaurant was getting frustrated waiting. She is a ‘manager’ she should have known better and had a better strategy to handle that many customers. Clearly the place is normally dead! Otherwise you would have experience in dealing with crowds and managing wait times appropriately! Seems foolish to me if you made bookings for X amount of people to come through your restaurant and were unable to handle it having known how many was booked…??

The manager and some staff were rude (one however to her credit admitted she was embarrassed by the manager and the wait times) the way we heard the manager speak to the other table was disgusting, they asked a few times after an hour an a half roughly where their food was. They got told it was being plated up as they spoke, next minute we got our food delivered instead of theirs (and we arrived 40 mins after them!) it’s almost like you did that on purpose just to cause further upset and frustration for them! - petty. We were so annoyed with the wait times as well- we also made a complaint!

We didn’t hear exact details of the conversation between the manager and the big table but what we did hear was the manager yelling at them and making further excuses saying ‘we serve smaller tables first’, ‘we had walk ins as well’ - both of which we felt were Invalid and stupid excuses - so she gave walk ins priority over pre booked tables? That’s wrong. The bigger table I’m referencing were in before us, before the smaller tables AND any tables that BOOKED in advance should be served before walk ins… end of.

The lady manager is disgusting the way she spoke to people and doesn’t deserve a job in that position. AT LEAST people that were made to wait that long should have been spoken to in an appropriate manner by the manager and given some sort of compensation as a booking at 2pm, that still hasn’t received their food at 4pm is unacceptable, not one apology, not one act to remedy the situation.

Won’t ever be coming back, nor recommending to others. I had a laugh at the review below me, your response was “we weren’t overbooked at all” - ok then Haylie, explain why wait times for meals was 2+ hours then if you ‘weren’t overbooked’ - what a bloody joke!, again proving my point that your unable to take culpability for your actions. You’re the problem here. I wasn’t going to bother writing a review as the ‘Manager’ seems to be aggressive & not willing to take constructive criticism on board but responds with half truths. I heard the man in that group & yes he raised his voice but didn’t swear at anyone,He was beyond frustrated & I can see where he was coming from. It was several tables too not just the one. Being in denial about your service is not helping you improve whatsoever. Best you learn what good customer service is and make these improvements, or your business will rapidly...

We had the unfortunate experience of spending Mother’s Day lunch at Styx and stones today. A $90 hold on our booking was taken when we placed it a couple of weeks ago so we reasonably expected the restaurant would know the number of diners, had scheduled the bookings and be staffed accordingly. We arrived on time at 12.30pm & were seated & promptly offered drinks. Then proceeded the tortuous c2 hour wait for our food. no apology, no explanation was given other than that it was Mother’s Day and there was quite a delay & that only after we enquired after the first hour and a half & third round of drinks how much longer we could expect to wait before our food arrived. A few minutes later a very small bowl of ‘complimentary’ popcorn was delivered to our table by the clearly embarrassed server. We noted every other table was experiencing the same delay and also with some dismay the takeout being picked up all the while - so online orders were also adding to the delay and resulting chaos. I can only imagine how stressful this was for all staff. Mother’s Day is always a busy day at restaurants and a good restaurant caps and appropriately schedules the diners to meet the capability and capacity of the kitchen team. (Interestingly our table of 6 never waited more than 5 minutes for a drink so they got that bit right …. ) But we have never experienced such a lengthy wait nor total lack of visibility of management nor appropriate apology/compensation. We have dined many many times at Styx & Stones over 15 years - we often dine out but not one of the six adults at our table will ever return to this restaurant. Having read the reviews below I can categorically state the manager was hugely at fault here - there is no excuse for overbooking & understaffing to the extent we experienced today. Our request ( on round three) for a complimentary drink was instantly declined and so not surprisingly our drinks bill was three times the cost of our meal. As a final insult, on arriving home we found we had also been charged (& paid) for drinks we did not have. ...

We have been coming to Styx and Stone for a while and we heard about the change in menu in the past few months.

While there were some items on the menu that weren’t there in the past, there were some that we had previously enjoyed; one being the Rib Eye steak. My partner also had one of the pasta’s which we are unsure if it was new.

Unfortunately, the reliable Friday night steak from the past wasn’t to be. When it came out, the feel of the steak was that it was over what I had asked for (medium rare/more to the rare) but when I cut into it, it was cooked pretty well. The main distraction was an awkward bitter taste. It was almost like the grill had residual meat on it that had “bleed” into the steak on the char marks. As much as I tried to continue eating the steak, I had to stop as the bitterness went through the rest of the meal.

The seasonal vegetables were OK however the potatoes were grey and shrivelled. The mushroom sauce didn’t have the flour cooked out enough. By half way through the meal, I had enough and enjoyed my red wine which had been delivered at the time of my main meal.

The pasta dish for my partner was good by her review although may have been a little too immersed in butter.

I shared my experience with the wait staff and to their credit, they offered a comp on the steak meal which we declined as well as free desserts which we again declined. We appreciated the offer to comp and for free desserts, however, it does not take away from the experience that we had with the main meals and unfortunately, after being regulars at Styx and Stones on and off over the past few years, I am unsure if we will be back to eat here.

Overall, a disappointing food experience from a place we have enjoyed in the past together, with...