Crowded House Bar & Eatery — Restaurant in Taranaki

2 families travelling down to NP to festival of lights. Got a table inside restaurant area however proximity to the smokers area where the doors were all kept wide open didn't really make this kid friendly or non smoker friendly as could smell cigarette smoke the entire time. Additionally the service we received was terrible. The lady who originally made our booking for us was lovely! the girl serving our table clearly was in a bad mood and made us feel very uncomfortable and as though we were being a huge inconvenience just by being there, this was made worse by the guy who served us when we were paying, abruptly asked what I was paying for, listed items for him, he was not listening and acting super rude, gave me my total for my family, I paid, he then gave total for the other family which was significantly lower than ours, he had gotten it completely wrong and then refused to offer a receipt until the other party paid their half, also was completely rude to my friend who just wanted to check they hadn't added her additional drink order to the bill as it didn't arrive to which she was told by the guy, well you weren't on my table so... even though he took the drink order... I know when you normally read reviews like this you think, well what did you do to receive such terrible service, in all honesty I have no idea? we are always super polite to wait staff as have worked in hospo and understand how hard it can be at times etc so beats me... only upside was the food,...

Probably the most unfriendly place you can visit. If you show any ability to pay then WATCH YOUR DRINKS. We only had our for 20 mins before the bar staff "cleaned them'. We called the police to get a refund (accepted). Strange behavior for a bar that obviously could have done with the cash. I would avoid at all costs.

Thanks for feedback: to let you know - we were not rude and the staff were insistent the policy was to tip after 20mins - the staff were filming the people on the dance floor and knew exactly who we were. Only after a discussion (quite polite actually) did we call police. Grossly handled and you deserve this review. There are lots of ways to handle things but the immediate reaction to ignore customers outright is certainly bad form. Perhaps better staff training would be in order as you deserved...

First time we ever ate here. The usual fare, seafood was mostly deep fried prepackaged items. Shame there were no scallops or oysters. I tried to find something vaguely healthy. I shared a small bowl of curly fries, but I think we got the broken ones from the bottom of the bag, as they were more like elbows. I had the chickpea/cous cous salad. I enjoyed it and it was a generous portion, but the dressing was a little heavy handed. I should have asked for it on the side. I wanted the vegetarian nachos, but strangely they use chickpeas instead of kidney beans, so it put me off. I do applaud them for having several vegetarian /vegan dishes on the menu. The waitress was friendly. It was midweek, ...