Denny's Highland Park — Restaurant in Howick

So today was a special day and I convinced my family to go to Denny's even though it's a bit of a drive to get there. When we entered, no one greeted us and waiters were walking past us so we went to one of the empty seats and waited for a menu. No one checked on us for a while so my dad asked one of the staff for a menu. He asked an old-ish Asian guy wearing black long Denny's sleeves, a simple "sure, I can give you menus" would've done the job, but instead he said, "If you read the sign at the front, someone would've told you where to sit down and give you menus. You can't get menus if you sit straightaway" like it was a sin from God that we did not wait for someone to show us where to sit.

We shrugged it off and placed our order. When we were waiting about 10 minutes after placing our order, a bunch of teenagers came in and sat in front of us and another ~10 minutes a couple sat just across the teenagers' table. The Asian dude took their order and heard him say "Ok, I'll find a way to get our order done quickly" Of course the couple were pretty pleased. Almost 40 minutes from when we ordered, still no food so my dad checked and was given a complimentary garlic bread for making us wait. The food for the couple came it around the same time. The teenagers' orders came in around 10-15 mins after the ordered. Then AT LAST!! our order came in. We were given the food but no fork and spoon. We were just staring at the food, evaporating the warm goodness. I know this is a bit of like a first world problem, I ordered a medium steak but eating the steak was like eating cardboard, soaked in water then air dried on the sun. Disappointed. 2 Stars - 1 star for the Manager who gave us the complimentary garlic bread and 1 for the girl who quickly served us our drinks.

Everyone was checked how the food was by the Asian dude and guess who he didn't ask? You guessed it right! US!!! He...

Absolutely appalled at the state of the main meals, our appetisers were fine but we had a wait for our main meal when we went in it was not busy at the time of ordering, when we got our food it wasn't even hot it was barely warm, The bolognaise was bland and watery! To compare a tin of supermarket spag-bol would of tasted much better and to be fair been better value for money, The apricot chicken was watery with no flavour yet dry and tough, again barely even warm with vegetables that looked to of been cooked in a microwave bag or soaked in water not drained and still frozen as they were cold with heat only as if been in the microwave for 30seconds (if that) cheese sauce was foul could of done better for a cheap mix it yourself packet, the only upside was the salt and pepper squid was a 6/10 but everything else was -1/10 and when leaving to pay wasn't even asked how my meal was not a single word was even exchanged but u were happy to take $100 of my money, for what a container of leftovers which was our whole two main meals minus a few disgusted bites which taken home for the dog! An absolute waste of money and time! Anju Kumart the person who took payment at the end seriously how do you work in this industry with such a displeased expression and to not even say a single word to a customer ask how the meal was just point at the eftpos machine for payment all in all will never set foot back in such a horrid establishment now to be fair the staff who served us seemed good and slightly attentive the management...

Very rarely I leave a review and in this case, I don't even know why 1 star is even an option. Walked in for breakfast to a near empty restaurant with husband our 3 year old. We were seated and given menus. Took 20 minutes just for someone to ask if we were ready for drinks. Ordered drinks and food at the same time. Breakfast tea comes in a teapot with one tea bag but enough water to fill 4 cups? Another family came in and staff seated them right behind us, in an empty restaurant. Wouldn't have minded to be honest but this family hoiked and snorted our whole visit - fair to say not the staffs fault. We were bought a side we wanted with a main meal first, a waffle - cold and actually rock hard stale. Then the adults meals came out and we were told a 5 min wait for the kids meal - bringing on an upset toddler.. we gave her some of our meal while we waited and it was freezing cold. We could have warmed up more with the body heat from our handa. Eggs, runny. Great! Love a runny egg. But not when the whites are so undercooked its like eating slime. The first piece i picked up on my fork looked like i was scooping out snot. Kids meal finally comes out but is missing items, a sausage. Which is bought out quickly. And low and behold, cold. The whole thing was highly dissapointing we didn't even eat it and asked for the kids pancakes to be put in a takeaway box. Were we asked how our meals were? Nope. Were we charged full price. Of course. But never again...