The Grille Bar & Restaurant — Restaurant in South Island

Where do I begin. The restaurant was highly recommended by the Park Hyatt Auckland concierge. With the restaurant being in what is arguably the best hotel in town we didn’t hesitate to have a couple meals there. Let me say… bad mistake.

With this being the restaurant of a hotel that charges $2,000+ a night, one would hope their restaurant is excellent. Sadly far from the truth. If I could give a 0 star that’s what I would give.

We first visited for breakfast, we ordered the croque madame, an omelette and the pancake donuts for my son. The croque madame was ok, albeit a little on dry side lacking enough bechamel sauce. The omelette was actually terrible (it’s hard to screw up an omelette, but somehow they managed to fry the exterior leaving it with a crunchy crust and the taste of burnt egg). My son who loves pancakes disliked the pancake donuts, he had one and wouldn’t eat anymore.

We should have seen this experience as a signal of things to come… but we didn’t! We looked at the dinner menu and found it attractive, so we came back for dinner a couple days later. Very disappointing.

I ordered the scotch filet… this had to be one of the worst steaks I have had in years. The meat was like chewing a piece of rubber. While the cooking temperature was ok, everything else failed. The grilling temperature clearly was very weak and developed no crust (instead it looked rather dry and dull on the outside). The steak was also very bland as very few salt was used on it.

My wife ordered the bouef bourguignon… and the dish couldn’t be anything further from the bouef bourguignon. while the taste was ok, The menu clearly said beef bourguignon and tagliatelle. Original bouef bourguignon doesn’t use pasta, so it was easy to make the assumption that the pasta either came as a side or the the beef sits on top, but neither was true, instead it was tagliatelle mixed with a beef-stew-like dish (the beef was not even remotely similar to bouef bourginon). So they should simply label this differently on their menu, perhaps call it tagliatelle with beef stew or something.

Ordered mashed potatoes as a side and they were completely dry.

For a restaurant of a hotel of this quality, that labels itself as French and with a French manager (who can be quite arrogant), you would expect them to at least execute all these simple French dishes well. Clearly not the case.

The only highlight was the service and the view. The 3 waitresses we interacted with were excellent- Ludmilla,...

My family and I recently visited The Grill on December 14th, and unfortunately, our experience left much to be desired. While the initial greeting was warm, the overall service was riddled with issues that marred what should have been a pleasant dining occasion.

From the outset, it was clear that attention to detail was lacking. Despite a request for a high chair upon arrival, we had to remind the first waitress, setting an inauspicious tone for the evening. Furthermore, the disparity in the level of detail provided about the oysters compared to neighboring tables was disconcerting, and the discovery of a spoiled oyster in our order necessitated a replacement, raising questions about the restaurant's quality control.

Service during the meal was equally disappointing. The absence of oyster forks and steak knives hindered our enjoyment of the food, and despite our visible struggle, no staff member offered assistance. Attempts to flag down waitstaff were met with apparent avoidance, creating an atmosphere of inattentiveness.

Miscommunication regarding course timing further marred the evening. Despite a specific request to have dessert and steak served together, the dessert arrived significantly later, forcing my wife to rush through it and resulting in a less than pleasant dining experience.

Observing the service provided to neighboring tables only exacerbated our disappointment. While others received consistent attention, meal checks, and water refills, our requests for assistance were repeatedly ignored, leaving us feeling neglected and undervalued as customers.

Upon addressing our concerns with the Assistant Manager during payment, the apology offered was brief and lacked any concrete resolution, leaving us unsatisfied and questioning the restaurant's commitment to delivering on its promise of "serving sincerely memorable experiences."

In conclusion, our experience at The Grill on December 14th fell far short of expectations. From lapses in attention to detail and inadequate service to unresponsive staff, it was a dining occasion marked more by disappointment than enjoyment. We hope that this feedback prompts necessary improvements, ensuring that future patrons can truly experience the fine dining promised...

We came here last Saturday for lunch with a large group—about 18 of us—split across two tables. Because of our group size, we had placed our orders well in advance. The restaurant was fairly empty at the time; from what I recall, our tables were the only ones occupied inside.

We were served by a middle-aged man, who we assumed was the manager, as he wasn’t in uniform like the other staff. Here are a few of our observations:

A few people arrived slightly later, and we decided to shuffle seats so we could sit with our partners and share food. As soon as we did, the server questioned us and made a comment that I didn’t fully catch, but I interpreted it as: it would now be harder for him to serve the food since the orders had already been placed. He then told us not to change seats again. We were confused—why does it matter who sits where, especially when we’re passing food around anyway because he couldn’t reach the people at the end of the table?

I politely asked if my partner could sit next to me. It was a U-shaped booth, so we needed to pull up an extra chair. The server replied, “They can’t sit at the other table?” I explained, “No, because we’re sharing food.” He then rolled his eyes and reluctantly got a chair. It’s the little things like this—completely unnecessary attitude and pettiness.

Once everyone was seated, he said he would re-confirm our orders, which we appreciated. But when my friend mentioned, “You already have mine—I haven’t changed seats,” the server snapped back with, “Yes you did change seats.” We were all like... what’s the point of making such unnecessary comments? Can’t you just reply ‘thanks ma’m, just wanted to reconfirm your order incase it was different from earlier.’ - dont think its that hard to be nice?

The view was great and the food was good. But let’s be real—we were spending around $50 per person and couldn’t even get basic, courteous service.

Out of curiosity, I looked at other reviews and noticed that poor service seems to be a recurring issue. I strongly encourage the owner to provide proper customer service training to the staff.

Overall, might not...