Duke of Wellington — Restaurant in North Island

Booked to go before an event, to be close to the Stadium. What a mistake. Service was not what we expected. The table we got happened to be in a poor location. Wait staff seem very inexperienced or just poor at communication. One could not even understand us at all? The burger is a no-go. Seriously, both our patties tasted like boiled mince with no real flavour. Have you heard of the maillard reaction? Even the fries that you have to pay extra for were absolutely horrible! Like they had been baked multiple times, and just over-cooked. The best part was having your card taken "to open a tab at the bar", which screams to me that something was not right, looking back now. Then, as soon as I paid, my bank blocked my card for potential fraud. This screams dodgy stuff happening here! You guys better get your $h!t sorted out. You will never see me there again...

Update for owner: I don't have to unblock my card each time I have used it at a Bar or Restaurant (in fact, I have never had to, and this was the first time it has happened) so the fact that it happened this instance was not a good experience. Fact: Banks don't randomly block cards. There must be a pattern of behaviour that was picked up. And the fact that the message from the bank specified the transaction at The Duke as the reason for blocking the card, there was no question about my understanding. Sorry if I hurt your feeling(s), but with the number of things that did not go well for us, I cannot put it down to being "too busy". If you're booked to capacity, then you should be able to prepare for that. Bottom line. And the fact that your food is over-priced while being horrible is just another jab. I didn't have time to negotiate with staff that hardly understood me (I didn't have Google translate this for me). This may just be a one-off occurrence for you, but it left a horrible taste in my mouth, literally and figuratively. There are too many good experiences elsewhere in Wellington that have been much...

I tried to go here around 4pm a few weeks ago. Ordered a coffee but they weren't serving coffee at this time. I started looking at the other options and the ?french? man at the bar reached out and pulled my prescription sunglasses off my face and told me I could only have water because my eyes weren't clear. I informed him that those were prescription lenses, so I'm not surprised if my eyes looked abnormal and proceeded to put on my non tinted glasses. He seemed to accept this reasoning and told me that I could order beer if I wanted. I was still processing the audacity to enter my space put his hands upon the glasses I was wearing and remove them. I voiced my displeasure with his behavior and said I wasn't interested in having anything from this establishment he told me I was being argumentative and once again told me I couldn't order anything. Some serious talks need to be had with this staff member about boundaries and respecting them

Reply to owner: Admitting fault but then trying to turn it back on me with statements like "Had you removed them yourself" displays lack or accountability. No apology provided either. Unless you think me not removing my prescription sunglasses in the short walk from the door to the bar justifies the action why bother saying it.

I would have happily removed my glasses if asked or given the opportunity.

Update 2: Owner removed their response where they admitted they were in the wrong but proceeded to try and...

very poor customer service. We went there with a group of friends, they never brought us their menus, we waited for ages and one of us just got up and grabbed a few menus from the counter, the food quality was OK, we ordered dessert which took so long that one of us just canceled the order and the worst part: I ordered a glass of $12-$14 house wine and they gave me one of the most expensive glasses of wine they had without asking me! When I compliant after seeing the bill the waitress was really rude and disrespectful and told me it was my fault and should of specified better! She couldn't even show me what wine she gave me. If I wanted the most expensive wine they had on the menu I would of asked for a taste first and would of definitely asked to pour the wine from the bottle at the table so that I can see. Very poor customer service, very rude and not professional at all. They might have ripped me off by 10 bucks but they lost hundred of dollars from my future visits. Never going back there and never recommend this...