Lone Star Albany — Restaurant in Upper Harbour

Very odd experience this time around at Lone Star Albany. I decided to bring my partner and her mum here for lunch as my last experience at this location was very nice.

We were seated by a waitress at reception who wasn't quite sure how to find our reservation at first. Once she had found our table and got us seated, she gave adult menus to me and my partner's mum, but handed a child's menu and coloring pencils to my partner (23 y/o who is in a wheelchair due to her condition, SMA). Obviously unsure as to why we had a child's menu and crayons at our table, we expressed our confusion to the waitress when she returned to our table. The waitress looked at my partner, looked back at me and said "Oh... I can get her an adults menu if you want?" We were also confused as to why the waitress still wouldn't address her directly, but we didn't say anything as we didn't want to make a big deal out of things before we ordered. I am also unsure as to why the waitress would assume my partner would need a child's menu just because she is in a wheelchair.

When the waitress asked for our drink orders, we asked her whether the 0% Zeffer Cider was Passionfruit or Apple as the menu did not specify this. Our waitress said that she would go and ask someone, and didn't come back for 15 minutes.

While she was gone, another waitress came to ask if we had been served yet. We ended up placing our drink/food orders with her. She was very friendly and helpful with the menu and was able to immediately answer the few questions we had about drinks and portion sizes of some of the lunch items.

Our food came out on time which was great. And although our meals tasted fantastic, the portion size of my main meal was a similar size to the starters on our table which has not been the case during my previous visits to Lone-Star. I understand that recently, many restaurants have needed to either increase prices or decrease portion sizes of meals due to the difficulties the Hospitality industry is facing at the moment, so I don't blame the restaurant if this is the case. However, I was disappointed that the main I paid $40 for was as small as it was. I will say that the prices and sizes of our starters were reasonable though. No complaints there :)

Lastly, we were looking forward to desert. However, we left 30 minutes of finishing our meals and not being able to get the attention of a waitress/waiter, even though most of the restaurant was empty.

The aim with this review is not to have a go at the restaurant, but purely to offer feedback and relay my last experience at at Lone Star Albany. However, we were not happy with the way my partner was treated by our first waitress and believe that something needed to be said in hopes that it doesn't happen again to anyone...

I'll try to be 100% HONEST with no sugar coating. But before I start review about this lonestar in Albany, I've been to lonestar restaurants in South Island and North Island.

By far, I had the WORST SERVICE from this restaurant. Especially from this one person. Her name was Sophie I'm certain because she started serving us from the start then changed to other staff who were very friendly to us. The food was good.

So we booked and came in at 5.30pm and sat down outside table for four persons. Me and my partner were waiting for our friends, as we sat down Sophie gave us menus and water and walked away, 30 minutes past No one was serving us(Even though this Staff(Blonde girl with White Tshirt) were serving table behind us knew we were waiting for orders. My partner had to get up and ask one of the staffs to serve our order. Then Sophie pick our orders. 5 minutes later, Sophie comes in with my drink and my partner's APPLE CIDER which was Mac's Gold Beer as Sophie was saying. Then my partner gets upset and I walk up to her and ask for Apple Cider. Then Sophie takes the glads while giving me an attitude with annoyed statement "I put down Apple Cider on my note, no idea why its not Apple Cider".

Later on after we ordered our food from Sophie, we wanted to add side menu for our coming friend's meal so I walked up to Sophie again but she was annoyed and giving me weird look as I was telling her about the side menu. I was so angry and disappointed about her attitude.

After all we finished our meal, Sophie asked my friends how was the food and they couldn't catch her question so asked again then she was annoyed again while repeating the question as looking like they couldnt understand English or something. But we were asked the same question by someone else by the pay counter and she was very nice.

I'm guessing white tshirt staffs are waitress and black tshirt staffs are managers?

If the Owner of this Albany Lone Star branch see my review, PLEASE either RETRAIN or DO SOMETHING about SOPHIE's...

There were 6 of us dining, i booked a couple of days in advance and emailed my request to make a meal more keto friendly which was not a problem. It was quite busy when we arrived at 6.45pm and we were warned that there would be a bit of a wait on mains, we arranged a couple of entrees to share. The squid rings were delicious very light but tasty with a light coating and tasty sauce. The chicken nachos were also nice the only minor surprise was that they did not have the option to have a non spicy version as the sauces were already premixed, the dish was still received well and demolished by the crew but i myself did not try any. Our table had 2 x Gerhard Burgers that came with Fries, the keto friendly meal of Seared Salmon and comanchero salad without the chicken and croutons, A Prawn Star meal with rice, A pork rib meal with coleslaw and chips and a Wagon wheel platter. Everyone enjoyed their meal! The portion sizes were very hearty. The keto meal was delicious, fresh Salad very tasty, fresh Salmon cooked well and very satisfying. The prawns were delicious coated with a nice blend of chilli and garlic. Mum had the smaller main of ribs and loved the succulent meat covered in sauce with still enough to share. Then there was the wagon wheel platter from the bar menu that had a range of chicken nibbles, ribs, fish, crumbed chicken and chips perfect for the whole table as an entree or a couple to share with a side salad or coleslaw. The two men at the table had the burgers and enjoyed their meals and some of the others. We were given a $15 voucher and being a couple of birthdays the birthday boys were given complimentary T Shirts. You are getting what you pay for here and the Albany branch was very clean, lovely and warm with a nice casual atmosphere. The staff were all young, friendly and clearly work very hard to keep everyone happy. Thanks very much team and compliments to you all for a lovely evening. We...