Southern Cross Garden Bar Restaurant — Restaurant in North Island

I chose Southern Cross for a special celebratory dinner with my children, who made a big effort to dress up for the occasion. Sadly, the experience was a huge and expensive disappointment, costing us over $100. While the kid's menu pricing was reasonable, the price got bumped up quickly with $6.50 cans of soft drink.

The service was appalling. Initially we had booked an outdoor table in the garden bar based on the beautiful photos, the weather was average and ended up being too cold to dine outside so we were accommodated by being offered an indoor table, i.e. told to find one yourself. When it looked like we were going to take a larger table in the main rear indoor area we then we directed to an out of the way table which became free. Not given a choice as to which we preferred, it was clear the staff member wanted us to take the smaller out of the way table.

Staff member cleared and wiped down table, said something indistinguishable and walked off. I thought he was going to bring some water, cutlery, menus or heaven forbid some colouring material for my kids (7 and 10) but no, he was gone.

Went up to bar to find menus myself, no mention of specials or what the three different coloured menu covers meant...

Ordered, paid up front. Ordered garlic pull apart loaf for a starter, it was brought over promptly and was very nice however delivered on a side plate and there were three of us, no additional plates so two of us ended up eating over serviettes on the table...

From there we waited over an hour for our food, a long wait with young children. Same staff member then came over almost passive aggressively asked 'are you ready for your mains?' as though he did us a favour, I would have thought an apology for the delay would have been appropriate.

Food eventually came out, my steak was a terrible cut of meat, sauces, salad and fries were nice but didn't make up for the dry and tough piece of low quality meat.

The most upsetting failure was the kids' nachos my son ordered, which was inedibly spicy, only consisting of very hot chilli beans and sour cream on strange chips (no meat, salsa, or guacamole). My son tried his best but just couldn't eat it as was way too hot, his sister offered him a piece of her chicken, which to be fair was nice. This left my young son disappointed after I had told him how well reviewed the place was and that he was going to enjoy his meal, nachos being one of his favourite dishes.

When I complained at the counter, the same staff member offered zero apology and dismissively stated they would "let the kitchen know," providing zero resolution, refund, or alternative meal. i pointed out I had tried the dish and it was was too hot for a kids menu item.

For a special family outing, the lack of care, poor execution, and refusal to properly resolve an issue (a hungry child!) was actually quite shocking. While I accept it's a bar environment not an all out restaurant, the particular staff member who 'looked after us' did a particularly poor job and let the establishment down. This put a real dampener on what should have been a memorable night. Won't be back sadly as I'd like to do my part to support the Wellington hospitality scene but unfortunately we didn't receive any...

Disappointing Experience – Misleading Advertising & Poor Service

We booked a table for Valentine’s Day after seeing the restaurant’s website advertising a free matching tattoo for couples. The link on their website directed us to a table booking page, so we assumed that securing a reservation also meant securing a spot for the tattoo—after all, that would have been the logical way to manage demand. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

We arrived at 4:45 PM (tattoos started at 4 PM) with our dinner booking at 5:30 PM, thinking we’d have a drink while waiting. However, we were told to put our names on a separate list for the tattoo—something that wasn’t mentioned anywhere when booking. Despite adding our names, we were never called. This felt like false advertising, which was really disappointing.

As for the dining experience, it wasn’t anything special. Our first (and only) round of cocktails was fine, but the food (pork belly and eye fillet) was average at best. The service was poor, which was especially frustrating as the restaurant wasn’t busy. I’ve worked 14 years in hospitality, so I know the basics: checking if the food is alright, offering another drink, and suggesting dessert when clearing plates. The first waitress who greeted us was nice, but she must have finished her shift because the other staff were inattentive, spending more time chatting at the bar than looking after customers.

Overall, the experience was underwhelming. Between the misleading advertising and subpar service, we won’t be returning, and I wouldn’t recommend this...

Bit of an odd experience recently where we came for lunch with friends . We all ordered inside and about two minutes later the server came out and told my friend her meal wasn’t available so she chose another . All our meals arrived but hers then another server came to our table to deliver an espresso martini. We told them we didnt order it then the server said they were advised to deliver it to our table due to a meal mess up. My friend politely accepted out of obligation then asked if anyone at the table wanted it . No one did , we were a group with small children and breastfeeding. We were all a bit confused at why the drink arrived without us asking and had she the option of a free drink she would have chosen something non alcoholic . We all found it a little problematic alcohol was delivered to the table without asking, and that the gesture was really nice but ill executed. They could have been delivering the drink to a recovering alcoholic for example . After another 15 mins she went to check on her meal that still hadn’t arrived , they offered a refund then said they would make it then and it arrived another 10 minutes later . The whole experience was a bit strange and I think communication was a bit off . We left the full espresso martini on the table , we all felt guilty for feeling it was a waste and didn’t feel comfortable offering it to another table . The situation was a bit uncomfortable.Really love this place but i think procedure around offering comps need to...