Tititea Steak House — Restaurant in South Island

Awfully rude owner, condescending to her own staff and then blame the lack of service to “shortage of staff”. We were told to sit and wait at the bar as we arrived earlier than booking time by 20mins at 540pm instead of 6pm (fair). When we arrived, there were only 3 tables seated in the restaurant and 3 staff on the floor. We thought it would be helpful to the restaurant if we came and finished early and they could have a second turn of guests but no, female owner told us in a rude tone, “ I don’t have staff so you cannot go to your table, you can sit at the bar.”

The bar had a sign that it is not licensed to sell alcohol before 6pm so we politely asked the bartender if they were serving drinks as he was pouring a glass of wine for another guest, he confirmed that they were. We then asked for After a couple of non alcoholic drinks and a G&T (albeit G&T never came), the owner returned to the bar area and didn’t like that we were being seen to, criticised bartender for serving us (isn’t that why people are pre-seated at the bar??) The whole thing was made so much worse as the female owner had a very entitled, unprofessional and bullying attitude towards the staff member - in front of guests. It is modern slavery at its worst - no one should be spoken to like that. When we stood up for the poor bartender, owner told us to “go and eat somewhere else” (the poor bartender apologised to us and we felt awful for him), we left (happily) and later on we heard people coming out of the restaurant complaining about the quantity of the steak… thank goodness we didn’t eat there. Would have ruined our trip. Why would anyone want to eat in a restaurant that treats people so badly - both guests and staff? In fact, one can sense the nerves and tension when one first walks into the place - just so awful. If you are in Wanaka, Go down to Kika (amazing service and staff) Francesca’s Italian (Italian home cooking) the Bombay palace (authentic curry) or the Chinese place by the lake (extensive menu) - all amazing (and Not so short of staff!!)

(Post writing above review, and before receiving the response below, I also received an email threat from the owner that she would report me to NZ police, unless I took my review down “within two hours”. I have subsequently written back to her to say she cannot silence me with blackmail and also contacted NZ police and they have recorded the threat in the system should there be further threats from the owners of this business to me or my family. Compassion is not a word to be used lightly, whoever uses the word should practice what they preach and start treating people with respect, regardless of their experience, skin colour and age. Ps: you know exactly who I am as you charged my credit card for the drinks we couldn’t even finish without...

AGGRESSIVE CHAOTIC AND RUDE!

Avoid this place at all costs… I wouldn’t normally waste my time writing negative comments, but this has to be possibly the worst dining experience I think I have ever had.

Upon making the reservation me and my partner were really looking forward to some good food and good wine after reading a really well put together menu. We arrived at the restaurant around 5 minutes before our reservation time and were greeted by a friendly lady with dark hair. Our table had not yet been set so the waitress and a boy of around 6 years old started to organise things, in a massive flurry. A little odd but thought it was kind of sweet.

We ordered the wine and starters, beef tartare and creamy buratta. The waitress advised she didn’t know whether there was any buratta and ran to the kitchen to check, all was good so ordered and waited.

The starters came and even by appearance were initially put off. I cut into the buratta and there was no cream in sight, maybe a couple of week old mozzarella at best. Over powering taste of balsamic and garlic, and the tartare looked like a raw beef burger patty. Again nothing to get excited about. We mentioned about the buratta and we met with an extreme change in persona from the waitress which we later discovered was the owner. Very annoyed that we gave negative feedback.

Upon ordering mains, venison and duck and mushroom risotto, we asked if the risotto could come without the truffle as my partner can’t stand it. We were assured that wasn’t a problem by the owner/manager as it was drizzled on top and all was made fresh. 30 minutes after ordering the waitress came to us to tell us that it wasn’t possible to make the risotto without truffle but the venison was ready… we said we did not want to have to wait for another meal to be prepared as we did not want eat alone so to cancel both and we would finish our bottle of wine and head elsewhere. When we questioned why she didn’t know her own menu she got extremely defensive. It just got worse !!!

At the point the owner started raising her voice, flailing her arms and talking extremely condescendingly to us. We were told it was the NZ law that we had to pay for the venison as it was already prepared, we disagreed and said we were happy to pay for what we had and we would leave. She then said that we couldn’t take our wine, which we agreed to do asked her to pour it away. After refusing I got up myself to pour it away, she then snatched the bottle out of my hand and put it behind the bar. I asked her twice to pour it away before she eventually did.

Besides the food served being absolutely sub par, the attitude received from the owner was atrocious, nothing I’ve ever experienced.

She should feel embarrassed at her behaviour in front of a restaurant...

Food was good, but service was surprisingly cold and uninterested.

Part 2 of review: I left the review while still in the restaurant, and a server confronted us to say that they did not deserve a 3 star review. Said that they had done everything they needed to do to give us good service.

My point of view: If this is what they consider good service, I think customers deserve better. They did come around to ask us about the food, whether we wanted more drinks, but the tone and vibe was "cold and uninterested". I expected more from a restaurant that expects higher than 3 stars.

Backstory: My party of 7 did call earlier to ask if we could change the reservation to 2 pax, as one of my children (family of 5) was sick in the car and completely threw up over himself. Unfortunately the restaurant said they had a cancelation policy to charge $50 per head (fair enough, I accept that). So we went ahead to honour our reservation. I brought my kid back to wash up and arrived 30mins late, but the rest of the party went ahead first, ordered, and started eating.

When said server confronted us about the 3 star review, she said that she "gets a lot of these from people of your nationality", and alluded to "people of your nationality" frequently having no shows. And said that the exchange with us before the meal "left a bad taste in their mouth".

I spoke to her after the meal and asked her what nationality she was referring to. She said "asians", and was unapologetic about her comment, and doubled down by alluding that we had lied, saying "that child is not sick". (Madam, I gave the child a full shower and change of clothes before heading over)

She continued to say that they were very busy and shorthanded (fair enough), and insisted that they had given us good service.

Not once did she apologize about her unacceptable comment about "people of our nationality".

My point of view: Asians be warned - when you go to Tititea, they have a pre-conceived notion of "Asian people". I am sympathetic about the lack of manpower - every restaurant faces that - but the fact is we did not get good service.

So - all things considered, I think I was quite right to leave my original review of "cold and uninterested" service. I stand by it, even more so now, knowing that the server has a certain view of "people of our nationality", and that they had formed an impression of us even before we walked through the door. Which was probably why the service for our table was cold and...