Gladstone Inn — Restaurant in North Island

Visited as a family group. Food was fine. Extremely rude blonde waitress which was actually kind of funny till we discovered the bill was a complete mess. Drinks that were paid for separately ended back on the bill. Orders from a different table ended up on our bill. Took a long time to to sort it out and in the end we were still overcharged. Pathetic.

Update: Regarding the response from the owner: Thats not what happened. We were delayed around 15 mins leaving as we had to sort out the bill with the staff. Drinks that were paid for separately (one by me) were put on our groups bill. Meals that had been paid for (including mine) were either back on the bill or had been added multiple times. Major cockup there and completely uncalled for. Its not the customers job to keep track of the orders. This was not a case of members of a group forgetting to pay for items but of a systemic breakdown regarding staff procedures. The owner/manager wasnt at the location when this all occurred so cant really testify to...

A great country pub that has recently changed hands with the new owners friendly and the service excellent.

It was established in 1870 as a ferry station allowing access from the eastern farm area across the river into Wairarapa.

Plenty of dining room indoors and a large outdoor garden that sits on the edge of the river for fine days. Saturdays are popular with visitors and you're likely to spot a lot of classic cars and motorbikes, Sunday afternoon see a lot of families coming in, and Wednesday evenings are local night.

The winter menu has just started and has some great options for those colder days and nights. The food is honest and delicious, if you like pizza there is quite a range as well as a kids menu.

Dogs are generally welcome in the garden area and in summer you can watch the local jet boats on the river.

It does get busy and wait times can be long, but it's worth the wait while you relax...

Mother's day, so understandably busy - but waiting an hour for drinks is ridiculous! Food tasty, but 'ungenerous' in terms of portion size for price compared to other visits - not great value. Nice atmosphere and weather was the only thing that saved our mother's day lunch. Need to anticipate busy days and staff accordingly - no excuse as we had to book, so they knew their numbers in advance! Service also incredibly inefficient - not arranged by 'zone', or some wait staff filling drink orders vs others fulfilling food orders, or any other kind of efficient hospitality service organisation - everyone doing everything, and luck of the draw when your drinks or meal arrived according to how efficient and enthusiastic your particular server was. Staffing inadequate in numbers and badly organised on a (predictably) busy Sunday - would think twice about...