Buddha Stix Wellington — Restaurant in North Island

I drove for over an hour to visit this place on my birthday. We had to leave by 8pm due to our schedule, so we made a reservation for two at this restaurant at 6:30, and we arrived at 6:30. I received confirmation texts and emails. Upon arrival, I informed the staff of our reservation with my name and the time, and they instructed us to wait, behaving as though they hadn't confirmed our reservation at all, despite there being no waiting guests. After about 10 minutes of waiting, they seated us at a 4 person table, which was awkward for just two people. We requested the other table beside window for two again, and only then did the staff ask us how many people we had reserved for (we already mentioned 2 people when booking). Once again, we had to wait to be seated at that table. We ordered two appetizers, two main dishes, and one beer. The server took our order without writing anything down, so we requested an order slip. I ordered the Pad Thai with seafood, and my husband ordered the Laksa with shrimp, but the order slip stated Pad Thai with shrimp and Laksa with seafood. The restaurant was about half full, and one server seemed busy, so we refrained from complaining, trying to be understanding. Before our two appetizers arrived, I found a long golden hair on the napkin where my utensils were placed (both my husband and I have black hair). It was unpleasant, but we chose not to address it, fearing it would spoil our birthday celebration. After waiting for 20 minutes, the appetizers arrived, and the sauce on the chicken skewers lacked the rich flavor of satay sauce and was overly sweet, and the pork belly was soggy, as if they had just poured sauce over it. Both dishes were lukewarm. However, the portion sizes were generous compared to the price. Despite having been in the restaurant for over an hour, our main dishes had not yet arrived, and the large group at the table behind us, who arrived later, were served before us. We asked our server how much longer our food would take, and they estimated about 5 minutes. Realizing we couldn't finish two main dishes within 25 minutes, we sadly decided to cancel them, paid for the two appetizers and one beer, and left. It's unreasonable to expect to wait 50 minutes after ordering at a regular restaurant. We had planned to spend an hour and a half here for my birthday. It was a Monday, and there were no waiting guests. While I expected some waiting time, waiting 50 minutes after ordering was beyond my anticipation. We understand there might be some time between appetizers and main courses. In the end, my birthday meal consisted of only two appetizers in here and a pie from another place later in the evening. I won't be returning here. Visit this place only if you enjoy waiting excessively for your food. They don't seem to prioritize their reservation system. Be prepared to wait again to be informed that the tap beer is unavailable, then wait for the beer, and then wait again for your appetizers. Only after that will the main courses arrive. Also, be prepared to wait over an hour for the main dishes. Alternatively, come in a group of 10. If you're in a small group, expect your order to be prioritized last. Although my friend in Wellington didn't recommend this place, I decided to visit based on recent reviews. However, my decision ended up ruining...

Very unimpressed with this place. Went some time back, service was pretty average, food was nice so went back this week. We had a booking for 6.15pm - it took 35 minutes for someone to come and take our drinks order and even then only because we had approached a staff member to ask if we could order drinks. A further 40 minutes later our food order was taken, albeit the chai teas ordered with drinks still hadn't arrived. Before our meals arrived staff came and asked if we had a booking (presumably because a party who had made a later booking had arrived and they were expecting our table to have been vacated by then). Our meals finally arrived - one of which was the Vietnamese salad (with vegetables) - the only vegetable in sight was a couple of tiny broccoli florets making for an expensive meal $23.50 for a very average salad. Overall the food was ok, soft (supposedly crispy) kumera chips on a couple of the meals were inedible. The focus seemed to be on getting as many people in and out of the restaurant rather than customer service which was sadly lacking. A bill of $185 for 5 people was pretty steep for the quality and quantity of food especially with the poor service provided. Definitely will not...

The MOST unprofessional experience I have EVER had at a restaurant in my life. We waited 20 minutes before our order was even taken, had to ask three times for water and when our mains finally came out, over an hour after ordering, the quality was average at best for the price. When we went to pay, we requested to us a Dine In card. The young girl who was serving us didn’t know how to process the payment using this type of card and went and asked another lady for assistance. The other lady hastily came out of the kitchen, didn’t even acknowledge us and then proceeded to show the young girl how to process the payment in the most rude, abrupt way. After paying, we made a simple comment to the lady that she didn’t need to be so rude to the young girl and the lady proceeded to YELL AT US across the counter saying ‘we didn’t know the full story’, that we were sad and silly - we responded saying how disappointing her lack of professionalism was and that speaking that way to staff in front of customers is inappropriate but she continued to argue rudely with us in a raised voice in front of the remaining customers at the restaurant. It was a truly disturbing experience that...