Prohibition Smokehouse — Restaurant in South Island

We had an incredibly disappointing experience at Prohibition Steakhouse. Despite being aware that Valentine's Day can be hectic for restaurants, the mistakes made during our visit were unacceptable. The tomahawk steak, ordered medium rare, arrived disappointingly rare. To add insult to injury, my drink order was botched, with the server (who turns out to be the Manager ) failing to confirm whether I wanted a tap or bottled Heineken, resulting in the wrong choice being served.

To make matters worse, our food was mistakenly given to another table, and the server handling the error completely ignored the mistake, failing to apologise or even attempt to acknowledge what happened. What's more, it was frustrating to witness this Manager enquiring about other customer's experiences while completely ignoring our dissatisfaction.

Even when we pointed out that the tomahawk steak was not cooked to the requested temperature, the Manager , failed to correct the mistake, ultimately overcooking the steak. Additionally, the undertone of potential racial bias in the manager's interactions further soured the experience.

The wagyu beef was disappointingly salty. For a bill nearing $200 NZD, this experience was a complete waste of money.

I must also highlight the significant delay in receiving our food, which took a staggering hour to arrive. What's more frustrating is that the manager failed to provide an estimated time of arrival for our food, a basic standard practice in the restaurant industry. It seemed as though the manager had no interest in engaging with us or ensuring our satisfaction.

Furthermore, I need to address the careless mishandling of our food. Not only was our order mistakenly served to another table, but they also proceeded to torch the beef and pour sauce on our dishes while they were placed at the wrong table. Such negligence is unacceptable and reflects poorly on the restaurant's professionalism and attention to detail.

I cannot in good conscience recommend Prohibition Steakhouse to anyone, especially considering a prior warning from a friend about the excessively salty beef, which unfortunately turned out to be accurate. Save your money and...

We visited this restaurant during our trip from Australia, and unfortunately, our experience was far from pleasant. We were seated, given water, and then asked to leave because we couldn’t provide our passports to order dinner.

The restaurant was nearly empty, with only one other table occupied, and we arrived at 5 pm on a Thursday night. After being seated, we noticed the two servers whispering and staring at us before one finally approached us to ask for ID. We provided our driver's licenses, but the server demanded our passports instead. While we understand this may be a regulation for this venue, her demeanor was the real issue. She was condescending and stood over us as we prepared to leave, making the situation uncomfortable and unwelcoming.

The lack of communication and knowledge among the staff exacerbated the situation. Nowhere on the restaurant's website does it indicate that it is a restricted 18+ venue, that you need to provide your passport to eat dinner, or that it is linked to a nightclub (which I also can’t find online?). We can only assume that any signage indicating this was buried among the many posters hung on a window. Staff should be trained to ask for ID upon entry to avoid such misunderstandings.

After escorting us out, she closed the door behind us, which felt quite rude. This experience aligns with other poor reviews regarding the staff's attitude toward international visitors. Our issue is not with the regulation of needing ID, but with the way it was handled. If we had known we needed to bring our passports to dinner, we certainly would have.

It’s unfortunate that the service left such a...

Cannot fault the service, our waitress was fantastic and the venue is gorgeous. My husband ordered the the 580g porterhouse fillet and when it came out it was a T-bone steak, with a small eye fillet. He brought up the mistake and the chef insisted that it was a porterhouse as the eye fillet side was "three fingers wide." 38 years of cheffing between myself and my husband as well as my husband spending 8 years as a butchery sales rep, we were both shocked by the response. My husband said the T-bone was fine but we didn't want to pay $75 for it as he'd prefer a full porterhouse. We were told it was okay, it would be cheaper so we carried on with the meals. The food was lovely besides having the wrong steak (sadly said steak was stone cold though) and when we went to pay we were told "it's okay, the steaks are the same price" so when we paid we were charge the $75 porterhouse steak rather than the $59 for the T-bone (which was 450g, we did definitely have a larger one though). We reluctantly paid it because there was nothing else we could do considering they told us this after he had eaten it but it really tainted our experience. We've been coming across from Australia and eating at the sister restaurant Vault 21 for years and always loved it but won't be supporting this group any more and being the big treat to ourselves before we fly back to Aus, this was hugely...