Thistle Inn — Restaurant in North Island

I booked out the marquee area for a 21st celebration with my family, and what a perfect night! Honestly can't thank the Thistle Inn team enough, it was the most stunning venue and every part of the planning process and the actual party was made so easy. Jess (the functions manager) is so onto it and so accommodating with planning and requests. And we were so well looked after by the very attentive and helpful team on the night. Everyone was raving about the delicious food, gorgeous space and excellent staff, and we all had the best night. I would highly recommend the Thistle Inn for any of your events, they have several beautiful spaces available for private functions and meetings (have a look at the virtual tour on their website!) and we were so impressed with everything.

Space/atmosphere: The marquee is a stunning area, especially with the lighting, plants and disco ball! And they’re super flexible about decorating and also took care of all the cleaning up afterwards which was amazing. We had 30 people and it was a great size with plenty of room for a photo area and dance floor.

Food: We were so impressed with the food! We got the functions package #1 (1x antipasto platter, 2x hot meats platters, 2x fish and chips platters) and it was plenty of food for 30 people. And such yummy food! Beautifully presented and delicious. And they were very accommodating with adding on a couple of extra sharing plates and vege skewers.

Customer service: Absolutely excellent customer service! From the moment I first contacted to request availability, through to meeting with Jess to plan (and her always answering my emails so quickly!), to the staff who helped while we were setting up, to the attentive and efficient drinks service during the party - we had such kind and professional staff throughout the...

I’m completely thrown off by my experience at the thistle inn last night. My fiancé is English, he’s been missing proper English pubs and I thought oh I know a place that can itch this scratch and I got so excited to go back to the Thistle Inn and show my partner before heading to the rugby. We were in there for a couple of beers and snacks sitting upstairs. We had had two beers at this point and I wanted a bowl of chips. No seriously, just a bowl of chips. I go downstairs and up to the bar where I ask a very kind woman if I could take a menu upstairs and as she’s in the middle of explaining that they only serve snacks upstairs, another woman with the attitude of someone who thinks they’re incredibly important (I’ll assume maître de) literally cut her fellow staff member off halfway through a sentence to dead pan look at me and say we don’t serve this upstairs and snatch them away from me like I was going to ran away with them upstairs giggling and shove them up my ass or something. Essentially she interrupted a pleasant conversation just to say what her teammate was saying to me in a way, way, way ruder tone and manner :) Anyway, they said there were QR codes to scan upstairs on the table if I wanted to eat up there, which by the way, was unfortunately just not true either. Genuinely confused by this treatment last night, it was actually quite disheartening as a born and bred Wellingtonian, to be so proud to show something of ours and end up with...

I went to the Thistle Inn for a work event, they also had a large private event in the main area which was fine and we were put out the back of the bar. This is where the problems began, if we wanted to go outside for a smoke/vape we apparently had to be escorted through the main area of the public bar. If we wanted to leave we had to be escorted. I've been to many bars in Wellington and this have never been a thing. When we arrived, there was only one open unlocked door. It took us to ask for other doors to be opened to actually get outside. This was health and safety plus fire risk. When two of my colleagues wanted to go outside for a vape they were told just vape in the bathroom.

When I used the bathroom, I had to use the disabled bathroom, the light didn't work and I needed to jimmy the door in order to lock the bathroom (there was a sign saying to do so). I had to use my phone torch for the light and then when I went to exit, I almost pulled the door off as it was so stuck. I initially thought that I was stuck in there. When I informed the bartender of this, I was informed that the stall didn't actually lock and he did not seem fussed about me being stuck in there. I advised that this is not acceptable for disabled peopled. If I had been in a wheel chair, I would not have been able to get out. I advised that they need to fix this, but I was again met with a...