The Tasting Room — Restaurant in North Island

On the corner of eastern CBD Courtenay place. Could have been a great place when new. Now virtually a down market sports drinking bar with internet computer young persons monotonous music playing as back ground music. Not relaxing restaurant music. Some Seating and décor on the inside has just been renewed with high tavern style wooden chairs and lean on and high tables. Outside tired and seating well used which needs renewing. Outside footpath tables with low seats which need to be higher for the table sizes, tables well used grease stained & unstable. Roadside area cheap long wooden tables & seating. Pigeons a problem as they roost on the underneath veranda concrete structure with droppings, & falling to the footpath & corner bar type ledge and seating. Seem happy to serve drinks only rather than food. Seems to be the trend for a lot of establishments. Beef wellington $36. Dinner menu small selection & pricey as they they do not have the decore to match such prices. As a result of equal pay and minimum living wage rising to $22 a hour for staff, main meals, entrees are on the increase with a lot around $40 plus vegetables & salads extra. Same with wine. Around $13 a glass for house wine $ 60 a bottle. Sunday brunch menu expensive with limited choices. Do not recommend the prawn cutlets, expensive 8 small prawns, by themselves dish which are Vietnam prawns or the spare ribs. Mince dish is more red kidney beans than mince on toast @ $12, poached eggs and scrambled eggs (2) only by themselves $10 expensive and not value for money. Coffee $3.50 plus, no loyalty card, a cup. Hygiene practices suspect. Staff changing frequently and not well trained in hospitality etiquite & not washing hands after patting dogs, handling money, and gather other customers empty dirty glasses around the rims & on the inside then carry on delivering meals and drinks without washing their hands. Don't mind all that and like watching blank TV screens with a beer or wine then this could be the place for you. Burgers, small size b buns expensive, bland, non tasty. Snacks also the cheapest ingrediences are used not quality ingrediences. Lunch and brunch inside one does not expect empty beer casts to be wheeled past by staff member dressed like a country tavern gardener wearing well worn jeans in the Wellington city central business district. Fridays they are pushing disco music aimed at the younger generation with the room really not big...

Food was average. Servicing staff was friendly at the start. We order steak with Shiitake mushrooms, it was missing the mushrooms that attracted us to the dish. Waitress told it is all blended in with the sauce.?Really shiitake mushrooms sauce?? We couldn't taste any trace of mushrooms. Since then she avoided coming to our table. As we paid, we checked the meun it clearly stated mushrooms not sauce. Waitress then said, "Oh the meun has been changed" and quickly took the muen off our hands. We felt being lied to. Spoke to the manager about the conflicts of information given. Manager questioned "Did you see how busy we were tonight?" then progress on to giving us an English lesson "You can't say we lied to you, it is not the right word." We were devastated. When asked for an apology, "I did say sorry at the start, I would like to welcome you back and shout you a meal." Yeah, you are right! Someone can take that offer, show him this and ask for a free meal for two there. Let him know I won't be going back, you are taking that offer on behalf of...

Amazing, delicious food. It was so great we spent two nights here! My partner got the beef Wellington while I tried both the vege options (burger and tacos) which were all great but the real winner was the AMAZING potato and gravy 🤤 honestly please never take this off your menu. My partner thought the meat was so tender and for his first beef Wellington the whole experience was great. If you love gin this is the place to go. The place itself is nicely lit (not to dark, not too bright), bathrooms kept very tidy and the vibes are emmaculent. However, it was the amazing server who was there both nights (Monday and Tuesday) that really brought everything together - he was not only knowledgeable but on the Monday night he served our area he was spot on, gave helpful tips on how to eat the food and everything you could ask for. I didn’t catch a name but hopefully you know who you are as you were the best.

Thank you for the amazing food and service, we will be back when we are next in Welly! (Pink...