The Flying Burrito Brothers Albany — Restaurant in Upper Harbour

Arriving at the venue, finding a carpark can be difficult, as the parking space is shared with other vendors. Walking into the Mexican resturante, The Flying Burrito Brothers Albany, there was a lovely display of candles up the wall, on the opposite side was the bar with liquor displayed up the wall a range of tequilas, beer, wines and non alcoholic beverages to choose from. It looked very clean and tidy. At the reception / front desk, a sign was displayed informing diners of there being a staff shortage. To expect delays. It was nice of them to have a sign informing diners, giving the diners a choice to be patient and kind to staff or dine at another restaurant in the area. We were greeted and seated. If you have a wide butt the outdoor seats are more comfortable with a wider base. Seated outside, the heaters were put on, and blankets were offered. Looking at the Mexican menu, the flying Burrito Brothers Albany offers vegetarian options. Noticed on the menu, all main dishes are medium spice. This did put me off a little. Medium spice? We're not all the same. What they think is medium spice might be mild for me or super spicy. I ordered a dessert, Banana Chimichanga. It's a banana wrapped in a tortilla fried served with caramel sauce drizzle around the plate and ice cream. The fried tortilla had a nice crisp crunchy texture, and the warm soft banana element combined with the caramel sauce and ice cream worked well together. Added some complimentary hot sauce to the dessert to spice it up. I enjoyed the chili hot sauce over the green hot sauce. I also ordered a Mexican hot chocolate to enjoy with the dessert. The Mexican hot chocolate was served in a beautiful mug. However, lacked the Mexican flavor of being spiced with cinnamon. Following the dessert, I ate the Quesadillas de yaca. A medium hot sautéed jackfruit, cheese and fruit salsa quesadillas served with a side a Mexican rice, black beans, and salsa. The meal tasted fine and was...

Terrible experience - we were served our food and drinks and 2 min later the duty manager - Tania - told us they are closing in 15min with no prior notice given to us before ordering. They rushed us out and asked us to pack our food in take away boxes; we were not even halfway through our drinks, not to mention our food and they weren't even willing to wait couple of minutes or compensate us in any way after a complete failure of communication from their side. Needless to say will not be going back.

Response to owner: We did pay our bill, the only thing we asked for is for the business the cover our not-even-half-drank drinks, which is the very minimum that your staff should have offered. We did not walk away, but politely explained to your staff why they are at fault when they asked to leave before we could even finish our meal. Train your staff on what proper customer experience is and you won't be getting such reviews or to the very least appologise for...

If there were negative stars would definitely give that. Pathetic food , one of the worst service in Auckland so far. Ordered the vegetarian burritos at the restaurants. The burrito had no taste there was no salt and no Mexican flavour, may be that’s why it’s so empty. When we told the server she asked to put salt on the burrito while eating. While placing our order we did request for the food to be hot- however the food was bland, not true to its own words of providing "delicate mexican spices". The server could have mentioned that we dont make spicy food. Why lie while taking the order? Have been to multiple mexican restaurants all around the world and this was truly the worst! You could taste their oil spray in your mouth and deifinitely have tons in your fingers while eating- food was super greasy and oily. The staff is very poor in communication and getting your order right. Definitely not worth the price. Was a waste of our money...