The Hop House — Restaurant in North Island

I hopped into the hop house for an early dinner on Saturday. The premesis is nice, clean, tidy and comfortable.

Exceptional service from Jack! He was friendly, funny, energetic and welcoming. It's not often I go out of my way to ask for someone's name so I can mention them in my review, but Jack is great at what he does and Hop house is lucky to have him.

My partner and I both ordered burgers. Cost around 22 for a burger and fries. I'm a burger aficionado, so here is my review plus bonus unsolicited advice:

Fries - excellent. Thick cut and perfectly cooked.

Burgers - disappointing :(

When there's a burger with blue cheese on the menu, I'm immediately sold. There wasn't much of it on this burger, just enough to taste it, but not enough to "feel" it. I would have liked more. Most people who order blue cheese, LOVE blue cheese. Don't be shy with it!

The mushrooms, again, not much on there.. I picked some out to taste on their own and they were good, but with a bite of burger, I couldn't even tell they were there. It would help to slice them much thicker.

My partner ordered a regular beef burger with added mushrooms ($2.50 extra) and also felt there wasn't much on there. She couldn't taste them anyway due to how much mustard was on her burger.. Way too much! Mustard is a strong flavour guys - go easy on it. A small amount goes a long way. Over doing it will ruin a burger by drowning out all the other flavors.

The most important part of a burger - the beef patty.. Hop house - you are letting yourselves and your patrons down by using pre-made/pre-frozen patties. A good burger patty is so simple - fatty ground beef pressed onto the grill and seasoned with S&P. There's no reason to cut corners there! Head over to The Clover next door and grab a $12 burger - you'll see what a difference it makes using fresh ground beef. A good pattie is 90% of a beef burger, everything else is just there to compliment it.

The burger gave me the impression that you are trying to cut costs. It was also obvious that the chef is either inexperienced, or just doesn't care much about their burgers. The other food on the menu looked good! If the burger was good I would have come back to try the rest of the menu..

Repeat customers are crucial for a restaurant to succeed. When I get a good meal, I keep coming back time and again - and I tell my friends about it too.

Cut costs on a burger and save a few dollars, but lose out on hundreds when customers don't come back...

Sorry for the tough review guys. I hope you can take some of this advise in because I like to see local business do...

DO NOT RECOMMEND! Staff and Manager especially should not be in a customer service facing role.

They false advertise which is illegal and don't honor what's on their website. Staff weren't interasted in remedying situation so we left as we were on a budget and were after their burger deal, as advertised. Staff weren't rude but weren't nice either. Then after I left a review on their Facebook page, manager messages me with all sorts of cop out excuses and offers a voucher to come back. I accept and give him my email address but let him know we really aren't too motivated to come back after that. I go into detail about my complaint and let him know the rest of the night was a disaster too.

In which he replies ' Thanks for your feedback and I am glad it wasn't a wasted journey for you as you ended up getting what it was you wanted 😁'

Um excuse me?

We didn't get what we wanted... ended up scrounging around at home for dinner and my son ended up with burger King. That message was insulting and quite rude and I have since messaged saying I still haven't received a voucher ... yeah because I'm not getting one and they have now banned me from their page because they are now trying to say all of this is lies.... funny thing is I have evidence.

NOTE - Their reply is full of lies. No false claims were made, I didn't leave anything out of the messages shown, ALL of it is there. You just need to look at the dates of the messages..... and then this review which now says 'one week ago' The reviews didn't come for weeks, after chasing up their offer saying I still hasn't received anything. That's when I thought it was all very RUDE. And his reply is as if his rude staff were the only problem and even then is now denying that. No your false advertising was the main issue and again, clear evidence of that too. First ever one star review, yeah pretty sure it's my first or one of my first too. Hate giving these reviews but this was...

Do not go near this place if you expect half decent food. Was told burgers were fresh and gourmet from the waiter.also in the menu.Cheap Frozen patties and slapped together in seconds is what we got. I don't say this lightly but worst burger I have ever had a bite out of it. Better burgers from burger King. When confronted about my concerns they tried to justify using pre made frozen patties that were as thick as the half ya finger as that's what they advertise. Completely wrong. Gourmet is what you try advertise and you also told me they were. Frozen pizzas also were served. No skill level of chef's nor quality of food. Pub food is what it is and majority of patrons are intoxicated and most likely reasonings for confused delusional experience in the reviews saying best burgers/food in tga lol. Please advertise your food honestly and not mislead...