Osteria Uno — Restaurant in Kaipātiki

** you did not get the point of my review. I was not too hungry to wait for your restaurant. We left because we were not happy with your staff’s attitude and also she was not truthful about the long waiting list before us. If she told us in the beginning that there were 4-5 groups waiting to be seated before our turn, we could have not wasted our time.

I do not expect you to ask other customers to leave their tables. I have just wished that your front staff to be nicer and like you just said be clear about the fact that YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW LONG THE CUSTOMERS WISH TO STAY AT THEIR TABLES hence you do not know the waiting time instead of saying 30-45 mins over and over again. **

I was so looking forward to visit this restaurant as I was excited to see such a good restaurant opening in North Shore.

I have checked out their website the day before and realised this place is walk-ins only. My friends and I were expecting some waiting of course and we were told that it will take approx. 30-45mins to be seated.

After waiting for more than 30mins, we approached the front staff politely asking how much the wait will be. Unfortunately, the front staff was not very professional, almost rude to us saying there are 4-5 groups waiting ahead of us and she told us that we have to wait ANOTHER 30mins to be seated. There were NO GROUPS WAITING in front of the restaurant and there were empty tables inside.

I was wondering why the front staff told us 30-45mins in the beginning if there were more than 4-5 groups on the list ahead of us. I was really disappointed by the front staff’s attitude.

Also, I do not understand their “walk-ins only” system if there were: People enlisted in the waiting list and nobody was waiting outside large tables available

If you want to go as a large group, I would highly recommend either go early or one person go there first and enlist on waiting list.

Very disappointed to...

I was looking forward to visiting Uno as I had a positive experience with Duo. I was aware of the walk-in policy, and being a group of 5 also anticipated we would have to wait. On arrival we were advised 30-45 minutes which we were willing to wait, hence put our name down on the wait list. After observing some groups leaving and some being seated, we asked how much longer the wait might be. The FOH staff told us the wait is 30-45 minutes again and when we said we were told that 30 minutes ago, the staff member showed attitude saying “there are THIS many groups (4 to 5) ahead of you and you will just have to wait”. Unhappy with the attitude we left, and received a call 5 minutes later advising that a table was available. Not sure what happened to the additional 30-45 minute wait with 4-5 groups on the waitlist.

If there were more than 4-5 groups ahead of us when we arrived, we would have determined it will take longer than 30-45 minutes and likely have gone elsewhere. Our time, like yours and other customers, is precious.

Estimations can go wrong, we understand. Despite this, if your staff member was mature and professional enough to say the wait time is longer than they anticipated, we would have been happy to either wait another 30 minutes or go elsewhere.

You seek fairness of the one-star review, but I don’t think being new and busy justifies being rude to your customers. The rudeness and sarcasm continues in your response to the reviews so clearly busyness was not the only issue.

“Sorry you were too hungry to wait” No we were not too hungry to wait, and were willing to wait longer. We left because we were appalled by your atrocious attitude.

“We will not ask other customers to leave their table” Again, the issue was the attitude and tone, not the wait. Not sure why you even added this to your response because we didn’t ask for or indicate anything like...

The restaurant was not available for pre booking a table as a walk-in only. Went around 7PM for a birthday dinner for 5ppl. Been advised that it will be a 30-45min wait. So we waitlisted ourselves and waited outside the restaurant for half an hour.

Funny thing is we saw ppl arriving and walking in before us within that time.

So after half an hour I went up to the counter and asked how far away an available table was only to be advised another half an hour.

How..? Was my question and the staff just advised there was a long waitlist ahead of us and that they are doing their best. If that was the case, my expectation was to have been advised at the first interaction advising me how many was waiting ahead and the real time frame rather than just a random 30min-45min.

We were so disappointed and by this point we were too hungry to wait for another half an hour. So cancelled the waitlist and decided to go somewhere else.

What I don't really understand is how the waitlist could have been so long when it was a walk-in only. When I arrived to book a table there seemed to be only 1 group waiting ahead of us and some groups of people (more than 2) were able to arrive after us and go in ahead of us.

I don't really recommend this place if you are going in a large group for a night out unless you are willing to wait for more than an hour...