Level One Restaurant, Craft & Cocktail Bar — Restaurant in Invercargill City

All in all, it was just disappointing.

My partner and I was attracted to this place because we were looking for an elegant restaurant, and the atmosphere drew us in.

The first thing we noticed was that Level One believes less in service with a smile and more in service with nervous trepidation. The waitstaff seemed lovely, but inexperienced and not the bubbly staff we would have expected from a restaurant of this calibre. But we were taken care of well, though nervously, so we shrugged it off.

We ordered the macadamia coated salmon to share and my partner really liked it. I found it a bit lacking but still quite good, nothing to be concerned about. The problem arrived with the mains.

My partner ordered the butter chicken and I the wild mushroom fettuccine. From first bite my partner was disappointed. The curry and rice were mixed together instead of separate, which would have been less of a problem if the curry hadn't been so watery and like a soup throughout the rice. My partner said it tasted exactly like curry and rice from a packet that you peel the cover off and put in the microwave. I tasted some and wouldn't go that far, but it was rather flavorless and bland. The "mint yoghurt" served with it was not Greek and did not have a hint of mint, this I could almost certainly say was just ordinary supermarket yoghurt. At the very least I would have wanted supermarket Greek yoghurt. Or something minty. It tasted like passionfruit flavor.

My pasta was at first bite beautiful. Rich and buttery, with a wild variety of delicious mushrooms and mushroom flavor throughout. Very peppery as well, but I found myself liking it. As an entree, it would have been a splendid dish. And when our waitress came to sheepishly ask if we were enjoying our meal I said it was delicious. My partner said his was ok, a bit watery, and the waitress nodded and left; she had done her duty. I doubted his comments reached anyone who could improve upon the dish.

The problem with the mushroom fettuccine came halfway through, as the buttery, mushroom-heavy richness began to become overwhelming. I found it difficult to finish my dish, despite how hungry I was when we arrived. My partner could hardly touch it either, being far less forgiving of the overwhelming flavor than I was, perhaps because he was not nearly as hungry.

So we sat, across from each other, realizing we hadn't enjoyed this experience, which was supposed to be a romantic dinner for my birthday. We didn't talk about anything of note over good food, but had instead been wondering the entire time why he waitstaff seemed so worried and inexperienced, wether we had done something wrong, and wether his curry really was from a packet or not. We realized that despite coming here for a three course meal, we weren't willing to take our chances with dessert. And we wouldn't burden our waitress with our complaints, as they undoubtedly would've just made her uncomfortable and wouldn't reach the cook's ears. When we were asked again how we enjoyed our meal, we just said it was ok.

We cringed a bit when we had to pay $70 for this experience, and we hope no one...

Nice atmosphere. Some tablecloths wouldn't go astray as tables were chipped and a bit sticky. Tables felt underdressed amongst the otherwise upmarket decor. Ordered 2 steak meals: eye fillet wrapped in bacon was lovely. Medium rare (although my partner ordered medium) but I sat there wishing I had paid the $43 for that meal rather than the $42 scotch fillet. Asked for it to be med-rare. Got a medium. Horrible cut of steak. Restaurant happily took it back and returned a somewhat medium rare steak, but was still nasty cut and served with tasteless dry roast potatoes. Bit like a $12.99 special down at the local than a $42 meal in a nice restaurant. Word to the wise... if you don't approve of your meal, best not to say anything as felt staff were very disgruntled with us after that. Left as quickly...

My wife and I went here a couple of nights ago. It had been quite a few years since having set foot in the place - the Molly O'Grady days. To be honest, I wont be rushing back. The young ladies doing the tables were great - polite, courteous and professional. They couldn't be faulted.

The food not quite so much. My wife ordered venison which was over cooked and came out missing the blue cheese topping.. The calamari was ok. The broccoli and blue cheese soup was ok as well. Not overly great - just ok. Tables and decor a bit dated with chips & gouges on the table - starting to look run down. Wasn't the worse place in the world but fairly mediocre. ⭐⭐⭐ from me. Could have been better is all given the cost of...