Tahu — Restaurant in Gisborne

Let me preface this review by saying, myself and my sister have worked in restaurant businesses around the world for decades. We have both done casual to ultra fine dining. I worked my way up from dishwasher, to back waiter, to maitre d' to sommelier, restaurant manager and F&B manager. So I know what I'm talking about.

We were seated for dinner at 6:40pm. It was a busy night. The drinks menu is solid. I ordered the wine for the table and we received it in 10 minutes, no problems there. We ordered our food and that's where the problems began. The waiter seemed like he was new to the business and seemed disorganized. He repeated the order back and missed an entrée. The appetizers arrived 30 minutes later at 7:30pm.The table was pleased with them. I noticed a large table near us was sitting there with no food, it looked like they were done. They weren't, they received their mains 20 minutes after our appetizers. Our main courses would not arrive until 8:40pm. Both my sister and I noticed that the maitre d' at the pass was just standing there doing nothing. I went to the restroom and on my way back I noticed a large table on the other side of the dining room which had been sat after us. A lady at the table was glaring towards the kitchen, obviously upset. I walked by the kitchen and noticed the chef casually wiping the plates. There was no sense of urgency from the kitchen crew. How did this all happen? A combination of bad communication between the waiter, the maitre d' and the kitchen, but also terrible timing in terms of firing courses. My sister and I watched for a period of 20 minutes where no food came out of the dining room. There was a table next to us that received their mains before we did and we had ordered before them. In addition the larger table on the other side of the dining room was also served before us. The waiter asked us if we wanted another bottle of wine, but at this stage we just wanted to eat and get out of there. One of our guests had wanted to order dessert but we were worried that it would take another 30 minutes. The main courses were good, but the portions weren't correct. A large piece of pork belly with two tiny pieces of cauliflower and broccoli with a teaspoon full of purple cabbage. There was a tiny drizzle of a mild sauce which was gone with one swipe of a piece of the pork belly. The waiter knew we weren't happy and kept his distance until a few minutes before the mains were served, when he asked if we wanted more wine. Awful customer service. No apologies from the waiter or the maitre d'. Beautiful venue and incredible views. I suggest you fire the chef and get someone in there who can get the crew working as a team, firing on...

5 stars for the ability to fix things that weren’t working. And for the espresso martini. I had a poor experience the first week they opened, I did not want to judge the place just by that, waited and revisited. I’m glad I did. The front of the house was very efficient and professional this time. Finding tables for people is an important part of this business. That can make or break a restaurant as you would need to keep as many tables full as you can. You need to know if a table is booked for two hours in the system, and people eat and leave in 1h as we did, you’ll have an available table for people who stop by for a drink. So, you don’t need to turn people away. If you just try to do things with the bookings, you usually lose money. Tonight, the efficiency was admirable. Another weak point for me was the cocktail list. I would expect at least one vodka cocktail. I don’t drink gin or whiskey. That limited my choice to two. They had run out of one, so I had 1 option. Which turned out to be a tequila cocktail that had chili pepper flakes around the rim alongside the salt, I didn’t pay attention to this and I had a problematic first sip, let’s leave at that. So for my second cocktail, I asked whether they could do an espresso martini or not. It wasn’t in the list, I wasn’t expecting a positive answer. They said yes, Tia who made great recommendations all night came back with it, and it was marvellous. That’s a cocktail I drink a lot, I think it’s a good choice for a Sunday brunch or after a meal, so I’m a good judge when it comes to it. This cocktail was so good that I just forgot everything else. (When we were paying I complemented it and the gentleman said that he taught them how to do it that very day. I guess I was lucky.) / I ordered the sea food platter, safest choice, it’s enough for two, $55, and comes fast. The plate was disorganised but nothing was spilled. We also ordered mushroom risotto following Tia’s recommendation, which was delectable. We got the rhubarb dessert, too sugary for my taste, but my friend loved it which was more important. (Again, thank you Tia.) Front of house was better than everywhere else in Gisborne. The service was very good at our side of the restaurant. Ambiance was superb. The music wasn’t loud. // It might be a good idea to tell the customers that the bar can do other...

Was so unexpected for a new restaurant to have waitresses getting our orders mixed up gave to others we had been waiting an hr 40 mins just for our entrees and waited longer when they realised our food hadnt come out. My fish was dry couldnt eat it and it wasnt fresh they only get frozen fish. We had 2 kids with us and they were getting tired waiting youd think they would serve the kids first not make them wait till all the rest of our table gets serve. They reall need table numbers the place is so not organised or run properly. The cook needs skooling up im sorry to say with some of the cooking i say cook cause when your a chef would no how to cook fish and a chef will never order frozen fish to serve to the public in a so called posh place thats what the waitress told us thats you they dont have numbers because its posh. Well u need to serve posh food to go with your posh restsraunt as u all it all it is is just a new building nothing posh about it your the only place that dont have steak on the menu what?or lamb rack pork chops and the entrees are just made up of bread and cheese crackers fancy restauraunts have shrimp with a creamy homemade seafood sauce served on a bed of lettuce in fancy small dishes Scallop pan fried or battered 4/5 or in cheese sauce be more creative your restaurant will be booked out all u need is garlic bread not all the other sour dough ones🙄there isnt much of a selection to choose from on the menu thats forsure sad for a new place.I asked why isnt steak on the menu and was told there were too many complaints how the stks werent cooked to how people wanted there stk so instead of fixing the problem it got taken off the menu and the cook u got cause he/she aint a chef at all.However the rhubarb desert was divine the only good thing that was done to perfection and seafood platter was good to.i was so excited to go and try this new restaurant out and leaving...