St Georges Restaurant — Restaurant in North Island

Delightfully presented and tasty dishes; a mixture of fresh and preserved vegetables with crisp salads accompanied our mains of Salmon and Belly Pork. As a starter the chowder was very fresh tasting with just the right amount of colourful garnish. Wines were a mix of Hawkes bay local and other NZ varieties. Unfortunately our experience was marred by the appalling acoustic environment. There was a large wedding reception upstairs and a smaller hen party in the main room, a sign that the place is popular, but they exposed the very lively acoustic which made for difficult communication. The waiter mis-heard my order so I had to wait for the correct dish to appear. To her credit she did turn down the (unnecessary) background music and apologise for her error. Last but not least our coffee order took so long to be actioned that we left without it appearing because “the barista hadn’t come out”. A measure of a well run restaurant is it’s ability to maintain service levels when busy. In this case the restaurant itself had empty tables but the place had insufficient staff to meet the demands of two parties plus the casual diners. Train up your waiters to be baristas so that more than one person can serve the coffees. Soundproof the restaurant so that people can make themselves heard. Get the waiting staff to repeat orders back to the customer to make sure they have heard correctly. The standard of food deserves a better managed front of house experience. PS, signpost the entrance so that customers know...

Served raw chicken, now sick!

This used to be my favourite resturant and go-to place to buy dinner vouchers for friends and family. Unfortunately my most recent experience has really changed that for me. The food looked beautiful, portions were good and servers where incredibly kind. We ordered two rounds of drinks and both rounds were incorrect. Some drinks were forgotten and others were just a completely different drink than what was ordered. I believe we were served mojitos rather than gin and tonics etc. Two of us ordered the chicken starter and both were completely raw! (Picture attached). Unfortunately one of us ate some of the chicken and has been sick for the past day. The chicken starters were sent back and even the second time it was still very pink around the skewer and we didn’t eat much of it. I do want to state I understand chicken can be slightly pink and I cook chicken very regularly, this chicken was RAW.

The main course fish of the day was really nice but the others who got beef eye fillets were all cooked incorrectly. We all asked for Medium Rare. Two of the steaks were hardly cooked (Blue-Rare), the other two were over cooked Medium-Well. Slightly confused how that happened. The steaks were eaten as much as possible but again we found ourselves leaving a lot of food on our plate and not enjoying the meal.

1 stars for the yummy vegetables, nice servers and atmosphere. Sadly we...

This was fine dining. 92$ for the six course menu. Which basically included 4 entrees items and a main (steak) with a dessert.

First had the tempura prawn 2 pieces and delicate with a nice taste.

Then came goat cheese and dogs. This was quite a strong taste from the figs and pickles.

Then came Ora king salmon which was slight sour but tasty with the salmon take some of the sourness.

Then came the sorbet likely from the dessert section. Quite sour as well but good for clearing the mouth.

Then came the steak which was perfect medium. However small in portion.

Lastly creme brûlée. The custard was slightly not to the texture.

I also had a flat white which was rubbish more like instant coffee. 5$ Plz avoid

And had a virgin mojito. This was rubbish as well for 12$. Plz avoid.

The server was unfortunately a new recruit who struggled with explaining the dishes. However tried his best to make it up.

So for about 110$ with any alcohol. I was not impressed and would rate about 2.5-3/5 for taste and value.

Secondly it was a cold night and inside was really chilly. Had to ask the servers to get the fire going which was not even simmering when I arrived at 6pm. This was an easily fixable issue.

There r better fine dinning...