One80 Restaurant & Lounge Bar, Wellington — Restaurant in North Island

We were very lucky to have had the chance to try out this newly rolled out Indian buffet brunch by one80 lounge. While many places these days are doing high tea, they have opted for a different route and started doing buffet brunch instead. I must admit I have never had Indian breakfast before so I didn't know what to expect! There were lots of dishes that I had to ask the staff what the ingredients were, all the hot dishes had unique flavours and most were quite likeable for a foreign palate like mine! My favourite was the ros omelette in xacuti sauce, the scrambled eggs (egg bhurji) next to it was also very nice, and the chicken puff pastry. To add on top of that, I must say I am not a lamb person but their lamb Keema pao was 🤤 If you like lamb this will definitely tickle your fancy! Just to note that half of the dishes had a bit of a kick to it, but not so much that I was sweating 😅 Of course in a buffet fashion I had to try a bit of everything, our table made a special note of the pineapple Rawa Kesari (sweet) which was a bit like a nice rice pudding and their mango Lassi was also really rich and mangoey. They even had vada pao which is like a burger, the bun fell apart a little bit but it did not affect the taste. Turning around the corner and you would see a pastry section, I must say I call myself quite well versed in pastry now after doing the almond croissant crawl 🤣, attached is a photo of a cut-up version of their croissant and it was a beautiful texture! I especially like the chocolate and coffee eclair, the filling really burst in your mouth. (Ok I just like coffee flavoured dessert!) I really liked the drinks section, apart from the normal coffee, the teas were in nice packagings from La Maison du thé, and not those generic paper bags, and there was also masala chai which is something you don't see everywhere in Wellington! It was not sweetened and full of aroma. I made special note of all the non dairy milks on offer and I liked the gesture! The cereal section was barely touched by anyone which I thought was quite fair considering there were better options 🤣 With a view you can't beat on a good day, if you want a treat this will be something very different in Wellington! The brunch is currently at $49 per adult and half price for kids,...

We went to this place after making an online reservation for 2 guests. Reached there on time and saw most of the tables by the window occupied by guests and the last two tables of 4 seater were vacant. Apart from the window seating, the entire space of the restaurant was dead empty. The waitress tried to make us sit away from the window seating as she greeted us, as it was our special occasion we tried to make her consider to give us the window seating but she kept saying, people of 4 guests have reserved and might come later. If not by the view then what is the point coming to this restaurant. My question here is if the so called guests booked online for 4 guests then did they book the specific view table, that they get precedence over the already arrived guests? They were so many empty 4 seater table in the space, why couldnt that be offerred to them when they arrived? We again tried to make her understand to get us a decent table so that we could enjoy the experience, but she dint budge. I would assume in hospitality industry, you want to keep the guest in hand, happy and address their needs, but i guess she just missed the entire point of it. After we got our drinks, 2 guests seated by the window left by that time, thats when she offered us the table by view which was relief as it already had affected our mood. We stayed in the restaurant for more than 2 hours and noticed that no guests consisting of 4 people arrived till the time we were there. This was just so unnecessary, that could have been easily averted by a friendly staff member. I wouldn't wish to ever go back to this place, where people aren't...

My wife and I usually come here once a year for a date night. Unfortunately, our recent experience was very disappointing. I ordered the two shanks and my wife, the Beef Wellington. My first shank was not tender and pretty disappointing. I wasn't excited to eat the second and gave half to my wife before trying myself. It was a vast improvement on the first. In fact, it was very tender. Unfortunately, the shanks were served in a thin and tasteless Nihari sauce that lacked substance and flavour. I wouldn't have minded if it had flavour, even though I prefer a Kiwi-style shank served with a slightly sweet mint flavour. Unfortunately, I had to add plenty of salt and pepper. The pastry on my wife's Beef Wellington was soggy and inedible. She said it was like it had been sitting around. Her potato gratin was dry and hard - again, like it had been sitting around, or God-forbid, heated up! Her portion size was also pretty miserable for a $49 dish. The two waitresses that night really needed training on how to serve and interact in a restaurant charging the prices they do. I expect a little more polish and finnesse. The Pakeha was too casual and the while the Filipina was nervous, at least she wasn't flippant. The male maitre d' was professional, although he seem to be giving the waitresses a hard time in front of customers which wasn't so cool. We may not make it...