The Hilltop — Restaurant in Palmerston North

Went for a special occasion and overall was disappointed with the experience. Arrived and ordered drinks and entrees while waiting for our other guests to arrive. Pork belly entree was slightly undercooked but edible. Wine was nice and reasonably priced. Our guests arrived and so we ordered the mains. Waited in line at the bar for about 20 mins before ordering. Was informed that the steak did not come with eggs; so ordered a side eggs for my partners steak and paid extra for this. The steak did end up coming eggs, so got double. Must have been a miscommunication for the FOH staff. Requested aioli with my burger and was charged $4.50 for this. Did not realise until after paying, but felt that $4.50 for sauce was a bit excessive. Was told that there was a 45 min wait for food, to which we waited more than an hour. We had to collect our food ourselves, which is fine and understandable if this is the style of dining you expect. However, I didn’t feel the price reflected this given that steaks for example were still $35+. Food was pretty average; and was slightly disappointing especially after the long wait. Was also charged for the takeaway container which felt like a bit of a slap in the face after the whole dining experience..

I hope this is just teething issues due to hilltop recently opening. I hope they can work through this as I think there is some real...

I called on the Sunday to book a table for Tuesday evening x7 people for my mum’s 89th birthday celebration - booking was confirmed to me over the phone. Turn up Tuesday evening - no booking! Mr blasé manager, who doesn’t make eye contact, checks the reservations book for ages, then waves his hand towards the dining room and says ‘take the first booth’. No apology, nothing. We then order our meals at the bar and wait, and wait, and wait. We decide to check timing for our meals, and guess what - they forgot our order! Blasé manager says it was a ‘technical glitch, our bad’. No apology, no smile… This guy is meant to be a professional. He did however offer to take a round of drinks off our bill, which we accepted. Our son and children had to leave without his meal as the kids were getting tired. And mum was falling asleep in her wheelchair. Meals finally arrive - mum’s calamari was so salty she could only eat a couple of pieces, my fish burger was boring, but the fish was cooked nicely, hubby’s spare ribs were very nice. But, no time for the birthday cake as it was too late, plus half the table had left earlier. At no time during our dining experience did any staff come to our table to check on us, or to clear the table. So, shame on you Hilltop - you really need to sort yourselves out, and get a manager that has personality and who can at...

Due to the great looking children’s menu we decided to bring our family out for dinner. Unfortunately it seemed more of a bar environment with a lot of people in the bar drinking, and the bar customers seemed to be more important to staff than the restaurant customers. Due to the bar being so busy it was extremely loud and hard to hear while ordering (ended up getting the wrong food) and also while seated as a family we were listening to quite loud and sometimes swearing bar patrons. Unfortunately we never saw anything of the goodie bags that were advertised for the children’s meals, which would have come in handy due to some of the long waits. The beeping things on each of the tables were terribly annoying and the experience left me confused as to whether this was a pub, restaurant or takeaway place. At first you order at the bar, then You have to go up to the kitchen and pick up your food when buzzed. The food was ok. Could be better but not the worst. It would have been nice to have had more than a small spoonful of the slaw. As that’s all each plate we ordered had. Seems like it would be an alright place to come and have a drink and some bar food but it’s unlikely we will be back...