CBK (Craft Bar And Kitchen) — Restaurant in North Island

Walked into an atmospheric, and energetic well decorated restaurant. We where seated and given our menus. Its was quite fortunate that we got them straight away as many people seemed to be sitting, waiting for menus or service. One couple even walked out before even getting service. We then ordered our drinks, simply; a lemanaide and pineapple juice. During the wait for said drinks it became aparent that this place loves their two 150 ish watt subwoofers. These reduced any talking to yelling across the table and it became clear why the place seemed so energitic, people have to be loud to be heard across the small table. Our mains took 30 - 40 mins to arrive. But, they arrive with an awesome presentation of that greasy, messy, (in a good way) food that has been sweeping across New Zealnd culinary recently. Presentation aside, the fried chicken burger I had was nice but nothing special. I did however enjoy the curly fries (which cost an extra $2) This unfortunately left me more happy about the fries, and how they tasted rather than the actual burger. The Burger was completly totally average. The Chicken burger had a chance to do something special with the added bacon, however I couldnt even taste it amungst the coleslaw and average chicken. lastly was our desert, witch took 20 mins to arrive wss the skillet cookie with ice-cream, This was actually quite nic if youre a sweet tooth, otherwise itll be a rich chocolate mean that you could only make about halfway through before feeling sick Overall an average restaurant, with average service, average food, good presentation, and good songs in the background which are unfortunately so bass heavy that you cant even tell what song is playing. You'll leave with a headache and a stomache of mediocre mains and...

Well what can I say. We had the mussel pot & a desert, both were very nice. The first waiter was friendly & our main course came within 10 minutes. We then had a 40 minute wait for our desert. After about half an hour we tried to get the attention of one of the waiters but they seemed to not want to acknowledge us. My partner phoned the restaurant from our table & asked for service which came straight away. When it was time to pay I approached the bar. There was two bar people arguing with one another, one of them I now know was the manager. After some time I told them I was trying to pay & got a sharp loud reply from the manager that I would have to wait. I was already annoyed about the time we waited in-between courses so this sent me over the top. I told them fine I was trying to pay but as your not bothered I will leave. I got my partner & we headed for the exit. We were intercepted by the manager who threatened us with jail if we left. A load shouting match followed in the middle of the restaurant with all around looking mostly shocked. My partner went to pay & had another shouting match at the bar with the manager. The Manager is a very rude horrible person who would not listen to my soft speaking partner explaining the problem. I got the feeing he suffers from small dog syndrome. I later found out another guest had complained & that's why they were arguing behind the bar so he was probably worked up but that's no excuse for bad behavior. I admit I was aggressive back as I guess anyone would be if there are confronted in this way. Stay away folks.

The Restaurant has replied to my review. I will leave it to who wants to read this & the many other reviews of similar content to make there...

Came here for dinner and this was the sequence of events.

We sat down, place was about half full.

We ordered our starter and mains and drinks.

Drinks came and starter not long after(starter was ok but they need to change the oil in the deep fryer).

Then we waited 35 minutes.

3 other tables sat down around us after we ordered. All 3 tables got their food before us.

We asked a waitress what happened to our food and got told our waiter keyed in our starter but not the mains and it would be another 10 minutes

We waited another 15 mins, during this time one of the other tables left as they had already eaten and the other two complained about the food.

We left without paying for our drinks or starter.

We went down the road to another restaurant only to be found by one of the staff from CBK.

They were not happy that we did not tell them we left. Well we were not happy being hungry.

It amazes me that they were able to put in effort in finding us but couldn't get our order to us in time.

They told me that they were busy! Well guess what? That's a good thing! You should always have enough staff to cover every table in your establishment.

They asked to admit I left without paying. I did. I asked them to admit they didn't key in our order. They didn't.

I left the argument to them telling me I'm not welcome back lol as if I would ever return.

P.s as someone who owned a

restaurant for 20 years how do you not notice a table with no food for 35 minutes! What are your staff doing???

2nd p.s at The Thai Restaurant down the street our food arrived in 10 minutes and the staff...