Hello Sailor Restaurant & Bar, HMB — Restaurant in Howick

Extremely disappointed!

We come here all the time for drinks and when taking family out for dinner. Spent a fortune here at Christmas when family were over from overseas.

Although we are vegetarian and the vegetarian options are terrible the food has always been good even if we must have the same thing every time - pumpkin ravioli.

Last night that ONLY vegetarian main meal was not available. We asked if they could make something up and they said no. We asked if they could just leave the chicken out of their curry and they said no. So the only vegetarian option was apparently a small plate a burrata. That’s a required taste so should not be the only option for a dietary requirement.

My partner wanted to get the shellfish option as he will eat shellfish now and again…. That was not available. So he was now in the same predicament as myself.

We ended up ordering 2 sides each because we were otherwise left with only a leafy salad to order. No, us vegetarians also like to feel full and have some flavours. We literally ordered potatoes and two veg, something I could have made at home.

When we expressed our disappointment to a waitress she apologised and said they had a dietary menu. We were in disbelief that this hadn’t been told to us. She brought us over the dietary menu which turned out to be the exact same menu that was on the table. She pointed to the salad section and said they can make this vegetarian for you. I said to her, this is the same menu as we have on the table and you’re just pointing to the salads that are already vegetarian. We want a vegetarian main meal! She had nothing to say and so we ate our food and left. I would much prefer you didn’t lie about a dietary menu and just admit you do nothing for vegetarians.

It’s so disappointing because the atmosphere and location is great! Coming into a recession I would be cautious not to lose long term customers based on your own laziness regarding your menu. Please ensure there are at least two main meals which are vegetarian. It’s 2023!

I must also mention that while the restaurant was quite empty? You had staff standing and talking to eachother while we waited about 30 minutes for someone’s attention to get a drink and dessert for the child.

We usually wouldn’t make a review, but our feedback seemed to fall on deaf ears and we have mentioned many times about having more vegetarian options.

We won’t...

We were celebrating my wife's birthday and we've always enjoyed dining at Granger's for special occasions. Unfortunately today was not the best experience, and we feel that our special evening was completely ruined. Service from our waitress was unacceptable in my opinion, having spent several years in hospitality myself. Food was also problematic which was a big surprise as we've always been impressed by your menu.

When my wife requested her food to be fully cooked as she was pregnant, our waitress impatiently responded that the food are already fully cooked but "yeah sure I'll tell them again".

Our waitress frowned and looked annoyed every single time we made a request, as if we were being difficult. For example, when we were told that you were out of gnocchi and we had to order something else, I told her we needed another couple of minutes. She looked like as if we were giving her trouble and left rolling her eyes without another word (she basically rolled her eyes just about every time she left our table - yes I observe service and attitude).

My dad's steak was very undercooked - he asked for medium and half of the inside of his sirloin was raw and almost impossible to eat - unfortunately I do not have a photo. When the same waitress asked us if everything was alright, I addressed this issue with her, and she said "ok" in a very awkward tone and walked away frowning. I was speechless at this point.

Worse, my wife and I both had the fish risotto and chowder, and both of us had a bad stomach tonight.

We also felt that the waitress was much warmer and kinder to other tables. Call this subjective - and it is subjective - but this on top of everything else above were our experience, and it is unlikely we will be returning...

I hate to give bad reviews But I had a quite sad experience at Grangers

I was walking by the Marina area with my wife for the first time and we saw this cool bar called Grangers..."let's have a beer there!".

We waited at the entrance and the duty manager asked if we had a reservation. We said "no" and she was looking a bit stressed about it. We asked if we could sit outside and she asked us to wait inside near the bar/kitchen.

Few minutes later, a staff member came to our table and asked if were ready to order...we said we were waiting for a table outside if possible. Waiter left the tableand came back 1 minute later because there was one table available in the deck.

The waiter picked a bottle of water, 2 glasses and sit us there. Omg what an afternoon at halfmoon bay, but wait for it...

Duty manager approaches the table a minute later and tell us off in front of all clients around ("Hi, I told you both to wait inside while I worked out a table for you! This table is reserved and clients are here! I will need you to free the table since I asked you to wait by the bar!")

We were super confused. Why did she yell at us? We left the bar straight away. We were just walking in the area and saw a good place to have a beer and this unprepared lady tried to ruin our day.

I thought about what happened before putting the message here and decided to post it because what happened was not fair at all!

I will message Grangers in other channels about...