Boots and Jandals — Restaurant in South Island

Our family joined a travel package today that departed from Queenstown and visited Mount Cook. During this trip, we had a highly unpleasant experience at this café that I would like to share with you.

Since the travel agency had advised us in advance to prepare lunch to take to Mount Cook, we had brought sandwiches with distinctly different packaging from those sold at this café. The tour guide had informed us that this was the last place to buy food before reaching Mount Cook, so we decided to purchase some additional items from this cafe. So I took out the sandwiches we had brought from my wife’s bag to discuss with her what else we might need to buy from the café. I was *not even near the sandwich display *at that time, as I was simply checking what we had already packed.

Suddenly, a man, who appeared to be a customer, and a woman, who appeared to be the café owner, approached us and demanded to check my wife’s bag. At first, we were confused about the situation, but it soon became clear that we were being suspected of stealing sandwiches from the café without paying. Once it was obvious that the sandwiches in our bag—with packaging entirely different from those sold at the café—were not theirs, the man irresponsibly and cowardly disappeared from the scene without even a word of apology. The woman, who seemed to be the owner, also said nothing and returned to her station behind the counter as if nothing had happened.

Despite the unpleasantness, we still needed to buy more sandwiches and bread from this café, so we chose a few items and proceeded to pay. While at the counter, I expressed my dissatisfaction with the earlier situation to the woman, but she dismissed it as a trivial matter and went into the kitchen. My wife later told me that the woman apologized to her, but this belated apology did little to alleviate the discomfort and humiliation we felt. This unpleasant and insulting experience at the beginning of what was meant to be an enjoyable trip, coupled with the café’s irresponsible and non-immediate response, significantly dampened the start of our journey.

To anyone reading this review, my advice is to avoid bringing any pre-prepared food, such as sandwiches, into this café. The moment you expose your food, you risk being suspected of theft and having your bag searched, regardless of how different the packaging is from theirs. If you happen to forget and bring other food into the café, as we did, and end up having a similarly humiliating experience, don’t expect to receive a proper or immediate apology from the café. This seems to be their way of treating visitors.

To avoid all this hassle, the best option would be to steer clear of this café entirely, sparing yourself the possibility of such...

We drove two hours to come to this restaurant because there were good reviews and the service was supposedly adorable. When we arrived, there was a woman and a man, I guess they are the managers. I asked them the question “Is it possible to eat here?” (because there were no customers). They said yes so we sat down at a table. She came to give us the menus. We waited almost 10 minutes and no one ever came to pick up our orders. The man was on the phone and then left the restaurant. As for the woman, she stayed behind her computer. We waited in hopes that she would come back to us to take our orders but nothing! So we decided to leave the restaurant, even when we got up from the table and headed for the exit door, she didn’t send us a look or a word! I think she just didn’t want to serve us, we wonder if she is not racist because we look like Maori but we are French/ Tahitian. Anyway! I recommend the OASIS BAR opposite, the staff is super friendly!

As for BOOTS AND JANDALS, poor/mediocre service!!!

PS : comme on dit chez nous en Nouvelle-Calédonie “BTM sale chienne” (translate this sentence please) 😂 allez...

How was the meal? Probably would’ve been good, if I got the chance to order that is. Don’t be fooled by the kitchen closing time of 8:30pm, because they’ll just close it whenever they feel like it. Came in for a pint and a feed, was about 15 people in the line so figured would wait a little bit, came back up to order at around 7:30pm and was refused any food at all apart from some potato chips. This would’ve been all good other than the fact that the manager was extremely rude about telling us this, and it’s against their alcohol licence to only supply two different types of food (chips and chocolate bars), as they must supply four or more types. Your manager is a real piece of work, the young girl working was very lovely though, just the manager needs to sort it out. Must also add, not able to make reservations here either (as tried that 4 hours before). Guys where am I supposed to eat in this tiny town, ended up eating gas station burgers that’s...