Chikos Restaurant & Cafe — Restaurant in Henderson-Massey

As someone who has been a loyal customer to Chiko's for many years, today was a very disappointing experience. My family and I have been dining here every year at least 2-3 times a year for the past few 4 years, always come for birthdays or if we were celebrating good news and every time we have been there before it was a amazing experience but today really changed our whole families thoughts on this place. As someone who has worked in hospitality for multiple years before, this is a really sad thing to say but I will not be returning here again as the service was appalling. Let me tell you why. My family has spent 280 dollars here today and with that amount of money you are expecting a good meal and some nice service right? But what we had was extremely slow service right from the beginning, it took the Japanese lady Bara 15 minutes to hand us menus and that’s me having to go up and ask her for some. I was trying to get this blonde girl to take our order but she told us to give her a few minutes as she was waiting to serve some food up which I 100% understand. But the way she stood there for like 4 minutes at the food pass and just waited, in that time she could have taken our orders and gone back would have not affected anything at all. That girl was slow at taking our order and doing anything in general. We had ordered 3 entrees and 3 mains it took at least 35 minutes for the starters to come. Presentation never disappoints here but how long it took to serve the food is shocking. Couples who had come after us had already started to eat their mains is a little bit “????” That’s not even the start. I understand that steak takes a long time to cook so I won’t go on about that but when the steak had arrived the fries where cold and they hadn’t cooked the steak to medium well but to rare. It was nice that they remade the fries and took back the steak to recook it to MW but the the serving size was a joke, the steak was the size of my palm and I have small hands which for $45 something dollars is not worth it. I had ordered another drink and the drink took 10 minutes and the bar was literally around the corner. Honestly I can keep going on but everything is just so shocking, miss Blonde had the speed of a snail, the kitchen was slow, food was really average for the price that you pay. Bara did give 10% off the steak for the muck up which is $4.55 but for the experience we had that is not even merrily enough. It looked like there were only 4 staff in the whole restaurant running this place, 2 chefs and 2 waitresses. This just whole experience here today was just...

Stopped in for lunch today for a table of 3. 27th May 2020 Ordered the Salmon (Main) Bento Box (Special Main) Sea Food Chowder ( Entree) Sangria - (drink)

The Seafood Chowder and Salmon were perfect, exquisite presentation of all dishes including the bento box but the bento box was a mixture of inconsistencies. Some meats overcooked and dried which didn't make it very pleasant to eat, however, overall food was above par. Sangria was delicious too.

There were two female staff members serving (not sure if they were owners) but the younger of the two (without a face mask) was not very hospitable at all, not at all welcoming, no smile or any intention to show gratitude for supporting this business.

To conclude, despite the amazing and delicious food and without taking into account the costs of your meals my score reflects the service as this experience is the lasting impression I have of this restaurant . Word of advise, If you want public support during a financial crisis as a result of this covid-19 pandemic you'll need to make a big effort to show basic hospitality practices and learn to put a smile on your face and show some gratitude to your patrons who are coming in to spend money to help keep your business afloat. There was just no "THANK YOU" grrr so sour looking too. We won't be in any rush to...

Chikos is one of the few restaurants in West Auckland that offers beautifully plated dishes in the style of more popular fine dining options in the City. It's a good option for those wanting to celebrate a special occasion without the hassle of driving into the city proper.

In terms of food, the dishes are cooked well. We had the pork belly, duck leg and raw fish. The kids were offered fish or chicken and chips but we ended up not going with that because the chips are fried in peanut oil and my daughter is allergic to peanuts. So the chef specially pan fried the fish instead with rice and broccoli. Even the children's dish was plated beautifully.

Service was really attentive and our drinks were filled regularly. The highlight was the desserts as there were so many delicious options to choose from we ended up with the matcha tiramisu, coconut brûlée and the yam ie Halo Halo Delight.

The reason why I gave this a 4 instead of 5 is that I found the dishes to be executed well but the combination of flavours and textures not quite hitting the mark of say the more popular established fine dining places. This should really be a 4.5 but if the chef manages to get this last part right, Chikos will definitely be giving other top restaurants in Auckland a good run...