The Butter Factory — Restaurant in North Island

The butter factory has fallen a long way. In fact bitter factory might be a better name, because we arrived hungry and thirsty and left bitter and twisted. Particularly disappointing because I have been a regular customer and over the years have recommended the butter factory to countless visitors staying at our tourist accommodation. The Wednesday night "special" pork ribs were the stingiest portion of ribs I've ever seen, just four skinny ribs in a cereal bowl with miserable portions of chips and green salad on the side. This was terrible value at $16 and I would have walked out without paying if it had been a cent more. The nachos were the only dish that came in a reasonably generous portion (as far as something as cheap as corn chips can be called generous) and were lukewarm - the melted cheese had congealed. All up we paid $160 for three plates of bar snacks and six beers. The only saving grace was the service, which was very attentive, despite room for improvement - the buttermilk chicken bites my friend ordered were confused with a buttermilk chicken burger, but that was remedied within minutes, and after I mentioned that my first beer (a "pomegranate sour" from double vision brewing) was not what I would call a sour, the waiter brought me two samples of other beers, although unfortunately these were more insipid when I wanted to go in the opposite direction and get something more flavoursome. Very friendly service and points for effort. Sadly that alone will not suffice to convince me to return to the butter factory, nor recommend it to future guests. Having recently travelled most of the country, I don't think this level of hospo business would survive anywhere else, and is propped up solely by the pathetic lack of competition...

Ok so we went in there a group of about 8 on Christmas eve and firstly I tried to order a beer on tap but they had none, on enquiring they had run out of gas? What on Christmas eve! Then my wife said she'd like some wedges(standard Pub Grub) but they didn't do them, ok? so we settled for some Kumara fries which were nice! Next my wife asked for an ashtray from this young fella, he proceeded to empty one out from another table and gave us this dirty ash filled stinking ashtray and sat it right next to our fries! My wife took it away and had to clean it herself because they didn't have any clean ones?!? We could only order beers in a can which was ok but when we ordered a round of Margaritas and wanted a second round after about an hour they said they were no longer making cocktails?!? Bizzare! Next they start telling us we have to move out table because they want to open up the floor for danceing, ok so we move and the DJ starts playing this out of date stuff totally disregarding the crowd, so we left! The staff was another issue all dressed casually so you had no idea who was staff besides an idiotic sticker they all had attached to the back of their shirts! Even understanding the theme of the ol' butter factory there where lights without covers tacky looking unbalanced tables plus the toilets were filthy! I really wonder what has happened to the place to be so unorganized for the Christmas New...

Great chilled out venue with relaxed friendly service. Problem, we ordered dinner between 5 of us, meals were staggered which is less than ideal when dining as a group but given we had not made a reservation we could understand. First pizza came out, perfect, second pizza, not so, gluten free base was only noticable due to different size, crumbled like wet sand - complained and they then apologised as they had run out of their “normal” bases, probably best to tell the customer when serving and not afterwards. When we complained and refused the pizza we got our money back for the pizza and were told they were plating the last mains, 20 minites latee we followed up on the nachos, we were told they were having issues with the gas but they were serving now so should be on the table in another few minutes, another 15 minutes later after seeing plates of machos going passed we complained again and asked for our money back, the nachos were then handed over in a takeaway box, for free - good save. The pizza on their own base was perfect, the nachos were fine but the continuous lies and poor service ruined the experience. It is unfortunately unlikely we...