Lone Star Queenstown — Restaurant in South Island

My partner and I went to Lonestar on the last night of an awesome holiday in Queenstown. She had fond memories of Lonestar in Wellington, so we fronted up for a nice relaxed steak. I had my concerns when the Maitre d' had both his shirt and underlying t-shirt untucked, while sporting his dirty jeans and sunday basketball shoes? That's fine though... we are in a tourist town where return customers might not be a huge priority. The restaurant does hold itself out as relaxed dining so I wasn't going to get my jocks in a twist.

We started with the guacamole which was great. Fresh avocado, nicely seasoned... big tick.

I ordered the Rib Eye $36 with mushroom sauce which was an absolute disgrace. The cut was fairly average, but the worst thing was it was swimming in a stodgy mushroom goo which overpowered any flavour the meat might have originally had. I just couldn't bring myself to eating it.

My partner ordered the Dixie Chicken which she was fond of. However she complained of the chicken being too salty, of a questionable texture and again was swimming in the depths of a mediocre at best sauce.

I was keen to just pay and get out of there as fast as I could because the whole situation was a real disappointment. My partner let the manager know how we felt of our meals... She was met with an insincere apology and assured us that 'he'd let the boys know'. Wow.... great..... $95 down the gurgler, food in our stomachs that we just don't want in there, and an insincere apology which probably left the worst taste in our mouths than the meal did.

To wrap it up, if you don't care what you throw down your throat, dont care if the staff serving you take pride in their appearance and think that huge quantities of food is more important than quality.... This is the place for you. Personally I'd rather eat tofu for the rest of eternity than eat here again.

On a side note... Fergburger in Queenstown is an absolute cracker, so save yourself some dollars and hit the...

Honestly, worst experience in not just Queenstown but New Zealand overall. First it took forever to get seated and the Resturant was not busy at all. This should’ve been the first red flag. We ordered rose and a mocktail + water. They brought us a random bottle of white wine which we of course sent back and had to ask again for water. I ordered the bean dip as an appetizer & a Gerard Burger with chips (all gluten free). Come to find out the chips are not gf, even though it says it available option on menu. Then i was served a chicken burger which took forever to come, sent it back for the Gerard beef burger that I ordered. Finally while waiting for my burger the bean dip came. Literally it was like beans from a can that no one cared to heat up and the chips were so stale. I ate a few since we had been there for so long by then I was starving. Finally the Berger came! The waitress came to ask how everything was and we kindly gave feedback about the experience. Mostly the horrible bean dip, she said she would have the kitchen check the batch of chips. As we were checking out, they never comped the bean dip even though we clearly did not eat 97% of it. Just horrible experience, the standards are high in this area and they failed miserably....

We had extremely low expectations for this, our group's final dinner together in Queenstown (and NZ), but due to one person (Marketa or Marketta) everything was awesome! My wife and I arrived early, grabbed an outdoor table to enjoy a pre-dinner drink while we awaited the other 12 people in our National Geographic group. Marketa told us that she was expecting us, handled the gradual arrival of various members of our group with professionalism and amazing humor, and assured us that our indoor table of choice would soon be ready. By the time all of us had assembled, everyone was smiling, enjoying a beverage, and could have easily stayed outside for the duration of the evening...but Marketa had "her Plan". She marshaled her staff to handle the movement inside including additonal drinks, took care of all the (pre-ordered) entrees, and in general orchestrated an amazing evening! The food was tasty and fine, but my main memory of that evening is of the wonderful sense of happiness that we all had, mainly due to Marketa's unique and endearing manner of handling us. Thank you...