Flame Bar & Grill — Restaurant in South Island

This is the first time I traveled in Queenstown. I had dinner at this restaurant for two consecutive nights for a few days. The first night was June 11. The foreman or manager of the store was very nice. He could remember the names of the guests, so I decided to come again on the 12th. dinner. Unfortunately, on the second date, some strange things happened. The manager on the evening of the 12th wanted to take my plate away before I finished my meal. I said I was still eating. After I finished eating, I told the waitress to check out and put the bill on on the table,I would go to bathroom first. I went to the bathroom, and my clothes were still on the chair. After I came back and sat down for a while, it seemed that the manager asked another person to come over and ask me to pay. I asked didn’t I always check out at the front desk? I didn't say anything further, and left after paying the bill. The second night experience was really terrible. It feels like the manager seems to be worried about me escaping orders? Another point, I noticed that all the waitress are very enthusiastic when they serve white people, asking where did they come from etc.? It's a pity that when dealing with Asians, no smile and just hurriedly ordered and left. I see the waitress chat with white people for more than 5 minutes at a table next to my table. It makes people feel a bit indirectly racist. The food is generally okay, but the French fries are too salty, the mash potato tastes weird, the lamb chops are a bit greasy, and others are okay. U can definitely find better food with much cheaper price in Queenstown. In general, it really varies from person to person. I won’t say they are all racist, but some definitely unconscious yes. Won’t recommend to go this place to damage your...

As my first day traveling in New Zealand, I was excited to try this restaurant, which seemed to have a great reputation online. However, my experience tonight was nothing short of a disaster. It felt like we were here not to enjoy a meal, but to be ignored and disrespected.

First, we were seated in what I can only describe as the "toilet section." We didn’t mind too much—someone has to sit there—but I couldn’t help but notice that all the Asian customers were placed in that area. It was uncomfortable, to say the least.

Second, the restaurant clearly knows how to market itself well. It attracts plenty of tourists who come for the hype, and I was one of them. I had high expectations, even skipping meals during the day so I could fully enjoy dinner. But when the food finally arrived, my steak was as tough as rubber—completely inedible.

The worst part? The waiting time. We were already starving to the point of dizziness, yet it took over 50 minutes from ordering to getting our food. No exaggeration. At one point, we politely told a well-dressed waitress that we were really hungry. Her response? A bizarre smirk, followed by, "I know, I’m hungry too," before she just walked away. No apology, no attempt to help—just complete indifference.

And to top it all off, as we left, I noticed the restaurant managers warmly seeing off other guests with friendly goodbyes. Meanwhile, we were treated like we didn’t exist—not even a simple farewell.

This was hands down one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had. If you care about good food, decent service, or even basic respect, do yourself a favor and go...

We had made reservations for the family hoping for a nice and tasty evening dinner. We were pleasantly surprised initially, by how attentive our server was; but that was the only high point of the meal, and it didn't last long. We ordered drinks (a beer and a glass of wine), which took quite a long time to arrive. Sure, it was busy, but not a half hour for a beer busy. That's when things started going downhill.

Food had been ordered withing about five minutes of ordering drinks. The little one's food arrived, but with an extra order of ribs that we didn't ask for or want. We had also requested a salad as a side and received chips. The appetizers came out, and were very good (cheese balls and calamari). Our beverages had been consumed by this time, as we had been there nearly an hour and a half, and we requested another beer and a martini. The beer took 25 minutes to be delivered, and the martini took almost 40 minutes as they had a very hard time understanding that a dry martini is just vodka and a touch of dry vermouth. By this time it was becoming comical how long the food and drinks were taking. Finally the food came and the order was wrong again. The eye filled came with chips when it should have been oven baked potatoes, and the lamb skewer had chips and no salad. The lamb was also blatantly raw through much of the skewer. Not rare, raw. It was difficult to get our servers attention for water refills, or to follow up on where our food and drinks were. A thoroughly unenjoyable experience which saw us arriving at 8 and leaving at...