Cobb & Co. Taupo — Restaurant in North Island

After reading other reviews feel like I have been to a different restaurant! Staff were very rude and unfriendly and food was below average. After two weeks of being in New Zealand this is by far the worst meal we have had. We were seated quickly and drinks and starter order taken. Two starters of shrimp cocktail arrived at our table before any drinks which had clearly been pre prepared and come straight out of the fridge as they were so cold and very tasteless. When the drinks came one was wrong and when we questioned it the waiter got his tablet out and on checking said ok and got the correct drink sent over. The main courses were delivered with our starter plates still in front of us which we noticed had happened to the table near us and they were told "just put them in the middle of the table"! Main courses were 2 x lamb shanks which were so tough you could hardly cut off the bone, one steak which was OK and a Cobb Carnivore which when it came was just a steak with no ribs. When we mentioned this to the waiter he raised his eyebrows and said "are you sure" before again checking his tablet. He then said "yes you are right and took the plate away. The plate was returned 5 minutes later with the ribs on but the rest of the food was cool as this was obviously not kept warm or replaced while the ribs were done. We then pointed this out and the waiter asked "do you want it re-heating?" the plate was again removed and returned 10 minutes later by which time everyone else had finished eating. When the plate was put down again the waiter said "is that better for you?" Which looked a totally different meal than the first plate that was put down. We finished our meal and went to the desk to pay and when asked if everything was ok we said "no it was shocking. We mentioned what had happened but the member of staff was totally uninterested. The manager came to the till and then walked away. Would definitely not recommend and wish we had waited for a table at the steakhouse just a few doors down as this was clearly the reason it was busy and this was quiet. Definitely need to do some customer service training with the staff as never experienced...

It was my daughter's 14th birthday, so thought we'd come here. Service was great. Staff were friendly and obliging.

The food was OK. Nothing too much to rave about. I ordered the cocktail shrimp and basket of chips. Unfortunately the chips were luke warm, considering my 2 other kids got fresh hot chips with their dishes, not long after mine, which was rather disappointing. I feel these might have been probably from a previous batch that had been sitting for awhile? However, as i was hungry i ate it. Luckily the cocktail shrimp was nice though! The birthday girl ordered the Cobb schnitzel. When it was served I could instantly see it was overcooked-the crumb on the outside was very dark brown, rather than gold brown. However, she still ate it as she was hungry too! My younger daughter enjoyed her Mac & cheese- even though I could 'personally' see it was dry looking and my son had steak and chips, to which he enjoyed very much. Cooked to perfection and chips were hot.

For dessert, my younger daughter got a kids sundae, son got a sorbet & fruit, to which they both threw down their throats like they never had it before. The best surprise was the birthday girl got a special treat and had the staff sing happy birthday to her. Was above and beyond. She was in awe and so grateful. This certainly made up for some of the disappointment in the food. Thank you so much for this. This certainly was the cherry on top for her birthday.

Having currently working in the hospitality industry myself, I can certainly empathize the pressure for staff and the business to maintain a high level of service during these unprecedented times to our customers. However, if it's at all possible for the wait staff to maybe check in on their customers, 5-10 minutes after serving their food, to ask if everything is to their standard, this could certainly improve on those disappointing standards I had previously mentioned earlier in my review. Also, offering water for the table would be a nice touch too! All in all, have your staff keep up the great service. There is definitely room for improvement and you'll...

Overall, one of the strangest most impersonal dining experiences we've ever had. Unfortunately for the chef - who knows how to cook great quality food (no complaints there), management has taken the decision to purchase robots (actual robots) which wheel around the bar / restaurant with meals on their shelves. It arrives at your table with a cat's face on its screen, and announces in an American child's voice that your food is ready and that it has been kind enough to bring it to you - it isn't capable of actually serving you so we had to grab our own and serve ourselves.

I appreciate that some might enjoy the novelty of robot waiting staff - we didn't, I prefer to engage with and appreciate the human taking care of our table for the evening - unfortunately the actual humans (too few of those for a busy place) were also fairly devoid of the ability to communicate with or relate to their guests. We were ignored by the barman when we stood in front of the bar whilst he continued working through an iPad of pre-ordered drinks without saying a word, and several tables left before they could order because they waited so long for anybody to serve them. The waitresses did their best but they'd have needed 4 extra staff members to adequately handle the number of tables.

This establishment appears to lean on brand messaging of the old building which has been part of "Taupo since way back". The decor features black and white photos of stagecoaches outside this building - that all seems to be gloriously irrelevant, and certainly incongruent with the current offering.

Maybe the boss has realised that in a tourist town they don't need repeat business, just as well because they aren't going to get any.

With mixed reviews you might be tempted to take a punt - I'd encourage you to think again. I'm also extremely suspicious about the Google Reviews this place does have - the 5 star ones are all a similar length, written in overly Kiwi jargon by people with non-Kiwi names. Something fishy going on here too, more robots I...