Casafuego Eatery and Bar — Restaurant in Otago

Really confused and disappointed by our visit. We had been wanting to try and were travelling from Dunedin where we live to Catlins, so stopped on the way for dinner. Was really looking forward to a cosy, relaxed vibe, a cocktail and some fresh tasty food to kick off our weekend away after a 7 day stretch at work. We knew it was reasonably expensive and so was expecting high quality, especially after reading all the great reviews. The whole menu looked amazing and we found it hard to choose. As we were waiting, we discussed coming back with family to try more dishes - unfortunately I doubt we will now. The cocktail was nice but more of a mixed punch than a cocktail. The corn chips and guac was dear at $16 but the tortilla chips were really really good. The gauc didn't appear to be made with fresh avo but tasted great and given price of avos, we figured it was an ok trade off. Then it all went south - just before our mains arrived, people started arriving to the table behind us. It turned out to be a group booking of around 20. For the life of me, I cannot understand WHY we were seated there when we could see multiple empty tables in other parts of the restaurant. This huge group were incredibly rowdy and noisy and when our mains came, my husband and I just glumly ate them in silence, unable to hear anything apart from this group. My enchiladas were nice. My husband's chimichanga though was nearly all cheese with very little chicken or chorizo. It wasn't nice. He was really disappointed, especially for $28. No one came to check on us or the meals. We decided to leave because of the group and when I went to pay, the server said nothing to us except the amount of the bill and asking if we wanted the receipt. Didn't ask about our meals or anything. At $93 for chips & guac, then a main and drink each, we were hoping for a more enjoyable experience. I'm still at a loss as to why anyone would seat a couple right next to a table of 20 - part of dining out is relaxing and enjoying the whole experience but that group made us feel like we were eating in cafeteria. We just feel really sad about...

Awesome Food and Atmosphere, ........ only let down by incompetent wait staff, who seemingly were just waiting for us to leave, and not at all interested in serving us more drinks or coffee. ...... (as per 2 previous visits to Casafuego nobody came close enough to our table to get their attention) Also the 3 course Valentines special menu was served in a bit of a rush, with barely time to swallow between courses, we were all done and dusted in less than an hour and left twiddling our thumbs with empty plates and empty glasses for a full 15mins before finally giving up...

Whilst the eatery is nice and the staff were friendly the food unfortunately didn’t quite hit the mark. The chicken enchiladas were good (4/5) but the lamb burrito was underwhelming (2/5). Nice idea and I was keen to try it, but sadly it was rather bland and there wasn’t much lamb filling. Mostly it was soggy rice inside. Lacked flavour overall and ultimately I resorted to adding a lot of hot sauce to make it palatable. The accompanying salsa tasted like a...