Speight's Ale House Palmerston North — Restaurant in Palmerston North

Had a booking for 20 people, 16 adults and 4 children to celebrate my son's 21st birthday, all family.. Unfortunately one member had forgotten to bring her ID to prove she was 18 and we had no proof of gardeinship(she had came from up north) so she was asked to leave, her 2 older siblings left with her to eat at the lonestar, we know it was about policy, rest of us stayed, 5:30 seating, only mains ordered, 6:30 no meals arrived kids getting hungry, asked for kid meals to come but told no all meals arrive together, meantime 2 adults from table walked out after watching meals being served all around us to others who had arrived after us,, so now 5 have left from our table. was offered a round of drinks on the house, meals came, by this time we all just wanted to eat an get the hell out, we paid over $500 to you for the most disappointing experience,, we all wished we had walked out with the others an gone to lonestar,, will never book or recommend you again.

Thanks for your quick response to my feedback, if I owed any money you should of said so when you called me earlier, so I disbute the fact that we owe money. I stand by my review Just to be clear the 4 late people were a young couple with their 2yrold and an 8month old,,, and if the money you say is owed is for what????? The two cancelled meals that your staff took off the bill.... We paid over $500 for all meals that were eaten,,, so you can take it up with the ones that walked out, and I hung up because you sounded like you were threatening me that if I did not talk to you,, you were going to post your already typed up response. You need some sort of management training.

Bernise you keep going on about money owed I suggest you talk to the gentleman who was standing behind the till in the blue shirt who I assume is either your manager or husband,, we were told by your wait staff there would be no charge for the 2 meals that were cancelled I also assume your wait staff would of needed his approval to do so,,,, so no money owed... If you insist on going on about it send bill in paper form so I don't get my phone dirty when I shove so called Bill up...

We booked here as we frequently do for our family to get together with family from overseas. The booking was for ten, at 11am. We arrived 20mins late having been held up coming from Hawkes Bay and we were reduced to nine. Met by the “duty Manager” with a face like a slapped behind, we were led ti a smaller table we all had to squeeze around and told we had to give up the table for a booking at 1.15. The table we were moved from quickly filled by a group of the same number as us. No other tables were filled in the duration and the one or two occupied emptied. 1.30 came and went and the restaurant was still completely empty. The nine of us spent over $60 per head on food and beverages. However with the constraints put on us, no one ordered entree nor dessert, three ordered small rather than planned dinner meals because we didn’t feel we could finish on time. So, the restaurant missed out on volume of business today and in the future because we will not be returning. The “Duty Manager “ - Nowhere to be seen when we left the empty restaurant. Speights must be doing very well to not need the business Our family have been gathering there for years and we have never been told our large group have to be served and leave in just over 90 minutes. I am sure we will find somewhere more deserving of our patronage. Not pleasant for our o/seas visitors.

Just read the owner’s response and don’t want to get into an argument. However, we arrived 11.23am as we were held up on the saddle Rd. Is that a good reason to treat paying guests the way we were treated? were there after 1.30pm, No one arrived. We were not offered dessert outside. Why would we accept that when you had all those empty tables. If you supposed 1.15pm booking had not arrived at 1.30 as you state, we’re they not late too? All of this of course is irrelevant, we have eaten at Speights for years, we have spent a reasonable amount of money there, we were paying customers, we felt unwelcome. Were this our business I would not wish to lose patronage. Your response tells me Clearly your...

We dined on a Saturday night for my daughter’s birthday dinner. We had a 5.30 booking due to our table being needed again at 7pm. Make sure that all of your group arrive at the same time so that you can get to your table. For some reason the restaurant’s policy is to not sit a group at their table until all guests have arrived. I don’t specifically have an issue with this, but if you have family or friends who tend to arrive late, then this rule could inconvenience you. We had family arrive a few minutes late, so weren’t inconvenienced this time. However while waiting we were told of this policy. I had never heard it before at any restaurant. If you’re happy to wait almost an hour for your food, then this is the restaurant for you! We were a fairly large group of 10, but did notice others who came in after us, served first. Such a pity that our food arrived 20 mins before and so we felt a bit rushed to have our meal. Perhaps that is why once our table was cleared, we were not called upon again by the wait staff to ask if anyone would like dessert. Oh and be careful what you ask for regarding the food. Ask for pork belly and your plate will arrive with a beautiful mash and pork fat. There was a partial refund given for this meal which at least was something. However if the person didn’t complain about the meal, no one would be any the wiser. I wonder if the chef was aware of his product being a bit malnourished in the meat department? Make sure you complain if you feel your meal isn’t up to standard! To be honest, we have dined here on and off over a few years and we haven’t had great experiences in the past. The food is generally good, but the wait time is ridiculous, and when you are dining with children, up to an hour is too much. The staff were friendly enough and half an hour after we placed our meal order the restaurant was full and they were busy. We will have to find another restaurant to dine at though for our family meals. Speight’s has unfortunately let us down too much...