The Crooked Elm — Restaurant in North Island

I tried the sweet as hot chocolate and was disappointed that the "donut" was stale and had no flavour and no cinnamon sugar. The hot chocolate was nice. I ordered just bacon and eggs and was given two poached eggs on toast with a horrible sauce on top and two pieces of bacon which were more like ham. Not what I ordered. The curry sauce fries were just a gravy with curry powder added. Overall a disappointing visit and I won't be back 😔

Thanks for the reply Paul. Since we'd been waiting 40 mins for our bacon and eggs and fries we didn't feel like hanging around any longer. We were gong to say something regarding our disappointment when we paid but when we got to the cashier we weren't asked how we liked the food and decided to leave it.

There was no cinnamon sugar on the donut and the density of the donut was more like a brioche bun than a donut. A pity the baking of the donut had to be sacrificed for the hot chocolate.

We found the sauce on the fries very watery. After looking up Japanese Katsu curry sauce on google, I see one of the main ingredients is curry powder. Maybe putting what kind of curry sauce you are putting on the fries would help diners, as there are all types of curry sauces out there.

It was also disappointing to ask for just bacon and eggs and get toast and sauce and coleslaw as well. I have enjoyed hollandaise many times before but the herbs wasn't a pleasant addition. Maybe it should be referred to as a béarnaise sauce. Anyway it shouldn't have been on the plate at all.

My daughter also tried these dishes and was of the same opinion as...

Went to have dinner this evening wow was it a disappointment. We both had the chutney-chicken. It tasted ok, a little bland. The chicken would have barely been enough to make a burger. It was served with about 3 tablespoons of green stuff, barely covering the bottom of the bowl it was served in. Taking roughly 3 mins to consume, had it not cost $28 I would have taken it for a starter. Thankfully one of the kids didn't finish their chips so I didn't completely starve.

For just $7.50 you too can order a full glass of ice with a dash of coke. Dishes were only taken away as a last resort or not at all. Our empty bowls were left in front of us until desert was ready to be served. Finished drink glasses were never taken away our entire time. The 6 of us were outnumbered significantly by the 15 empty glasses I counted at the end.

After an approx $50 chips & ice-water "feast" I skipped desert and headed over to Mickey D's on the way home instead. Won't be going back to the...

Went with my partner for a drink and then possibly a meal. As soon as we sat down we were given menus, but we said that initially we only wanted a drink and would consider a meal later. The wait staff kept coming back to the table and asking for our order. In the end we placed a food order, as the wait staff kept hovering around watching us, but we told them to hold off on bringing the food out for at least 20 minutes. The food came exactly 20 minutes later. The food was very nice (battered fish and chips plus a snack bowl of deep-fried chicken pieces), so no complaints there. However, the prices were rather high for pub food, and the waiters were over-attentive. The drinks were also not cheap: $21 for a beer and a glass of wine. While the ambience of the pub was quite pleasant, the background music was rather loud and intrusive. So overall, we had rather mixed feelings: some good things and some...