The Steak House Taupo — Restaurant in North Island

It's very disappointing to say that we will never return to this place. The way that we were treated was utterly subpar!

It was my mom's bday and we took my family there for a celebration!! They claimed to serve the best steak in town so it was steak we ordered! Three of us ordered the night special, onion soup and sirloin steak for $40. Two of us ordered the scotch fillet for $35.

First of all, the waitress that took our order was impatient and uninterested. The onion soup was very salty almost to the point it was undrinkable. When one of the scotch came, it was clearly a sirloin. It was tougher, had less marbling and same thickness to all the other sirloins. When we pointed this out to the same waitress, she looked down at us and said she knows her steak and we were wrong! When we insisted that they checked with the kitchen, she came back again insisting that they were right. I pointed out the consistent thickness of all the sirloin including the so-called scotch, she said they could get the thickness wrong!!!!!! I'm wondering then how could she be so sure that they didn't get the steak wrong when they could get the thickness wrong!!

We asked to speak the manager and after a long wait, she sent another rude waiter, again insisting they were right. We said then we were unhappy about the quality of the steak!! We requested an exchange or refund. He said he needed to talk to a manager and he made us waited for a long time and never returned until we called for him again. He said they did nothing wrong and the only thing they could do was a small discount! By then everyone on the table had already finished dinner. We no longer wanted to wait for another steak! Also we were also pretty disgusted by then the little good faith they showed to their customers, treating us like criminals!!!!

At the end, my family who ordered the scotch didn't eat his sirloin. They swore they could only gave us a pathetic $7 discount to our whole spent of $280!!! You know what, I don't care if you say you serve the best steak in town, if you treat your customers like that, you can say bye bye to our $280 spent a few time a year forever!! Be warned everyone! Unless nothing goes wrong with your meal, otherwise you will be casted...

Out of all the wonderful eateries Taupo has to offer, we decided to eat here for our Anniversary dinner in late July having received a recommendation to try it out. We're not from Taupo so this place was carefully chosen to give us the most memorable experience whilst we visited.

First and foremost; what a beautifully decorated restorant - the ambience was wonderful and cozy - bravo on a good first impression. The food overall was also delicious and diligently prepared with finesse. I personally ended up eating two mains for reasons I will explain momenetarily, but enjoyed both nevertheless.

Now for the unfortunate part of our evening. My wife after receiving her mains expressed that she found the food to be quite tough and unpalitable for her, and requested to change it. This simple request was for some reason escalated to the manager who came round and tried to understand the issue but failed to see the big picture and uphold that extra level of customer service we were expecting. He questioned my wife rather intensely for a few moments arguing unnecessarily about why she didn't like the food before turning to ask me what I thought about her food which I felt was rather inappropriate and irrelevant as our tastes are obviously different.

Whislt he was generally polite all throughout the interaction and I fully understand the need to ask questions and get feedback on the food as a first step, he unfortunately made my wife feel intimidated with the way he questioned her and handled this, and this resulted in us ending our dining experience earlier than planned and not proceeding with deserts which all 5 of us really wanted to have.

Ultimately I was forced to order another meal for my wife since a replacement was not accommodated and I subsequently ended up eating two mains to avoid waste. I didn't mind doing this and I certainly wasn't expecting a freebie, however the manager could have been a bit more professional with his approach and ultimately they lost out on more orders (which by the way would have cost a lot more than a replacement dish) due to the lack of simple warmth and a smiling disposition from the manager. All other staff were wonderful and welcoming which is why I will still rate this...

I visit Taupo often with family and came here to celebrate a birthday. It was my first visit and it was a BIG MISTAKE. We all left disappointed and evening ruined. I would recommend The Brantry or The Bistro instead for the price point ($$-$$$)

Problem: they disregard customer dissatisfaction, and as others have mentioned, they are overpriced.

The six of us order onion soups, 4x sirloin and 2x scotch. The onion soups were overseasoned and lacked consistency and onion flavour, but taste is subjective so we let it go. However, when the steaks arrived my scotch fillet had the appearance and trim of a sirloin, I tasted it and it's sinuous and tougher just like a sirloin. We all sampled my steak and compared the texture and size to the other scotch at the table, and agreed mine was a sirloin. But when I expressed my dissatisfaction on the quality of my steak to the waitress and wanted it redone, she dismissed us and said this is how scotch is supposed to be (how could she be so sure?). We put forth our case and that we compared it to others at the table, she argued with us that she knows better but will take it to the kitchen to confirm, and no surprise she came back (which took over 10min) saying it is indeed a scotch and it's done how I ordered it! I consider myself an educated but not a picky foodie. I dine out frequently personally and on business, so I know my steak cuts and quality. I also don't usually send food back, so I was not impressed with her response. We asked her to bring my complaint to the manager and another 10min later, another rude waiter came back and said they will not redo or replace this dish because they did the dish correctly and "we cannot clone parts of the cow to exactly the same", but can offer a free dessert (?!?).. by this point we had enough, we told him to say to the manager it's either a refund or will lose us as customers forever. And.. let's just say, we will never go back, and am urging others to weigh out the risk of disappointment before going..

I've dined at more expensive and enjoyed at more budget steak houses, but have never ever had such poor customer service and...