Powderkeg Restaurant and Bar — Restaurant in North Island

Powderkeg has always been our stop from past 3 years, this year was a big disappointment not because of food or ambience but the manager (red hair lady working at night on 23/07). She made us wait for hour and half when we could see there were tables available, finally when we got our table and than she had issues with us taking baby pram close to our table (where we could see other parents sitting with their prams their) on top of that she expected us to have finalized on the menu while we were waiting and didn't have patience to wait to take down the order properly.

Yes, we should have left the place and gone to some other restaurant but because we were with small children it was difficult to make that call with temperature that low outside and during that hour. Its been over a decade that we made NZ as our home and this was the first experience where we were treated differently than others and faced racism. We did raise this with the red hair lady before leaving the restaurant that night but thought it was not enough, somebody senior in the restaurant must know what...

We found them as they were one of the only places open tonight. They got us a seat right away and service was very prompt. Dinner came quickly and all of us were very satisfied with it. They checked on us several times to make sure everything was okay. We were in and out in a very comfortable 35 minutes! The atmosphere was great and everyone seemed happy, including the girl who served us. She seemed happy enough to joke with us and had great acrylic nails. Service was helpful and we were able to get a nice dish for my Mum who has very restrictive dietary options. It also seemed clean. My only concern was that the lady serving us said she would bring ‘a large jug of water’ and brought… a medium sized milk bottle jug? It wasn’t large 😅 The building and area are lovely and it’s great that they could cater to dietary restrictions. There are plenty of parking spaces. However, it is hard to find the restaurant or know if it is open in the massive building - but just ask reception. It also doesn’t look like it would be accessible to someone in a wheelchair or with mobility...

Stopped by on the last weekend of the season and the bar was still quite busy, with no table available in the designated dining area. I ended up opting for buying at the bar and picking a place somewhere and even then the options were fairly limited. Food was alright. I had the fishcakes and the pork belly. Both were tasty in their own right. Just found that the fishcakes were a tad salty. I was expecting a bit more from the S'more dessert but it was just marshmallows melted over chocolate. Think I would have enjoyed it more if the cracker was harder since it was really soft and quite crumbly. The staff was really friendly and helpful. Even though they were busy they were able to serve desserts after the mains, although there was a bit of a wait. I would probably come back for the food but probably a...