Dixie Browns — Restaurant in North Island

My family and I visited Dixie Brown for the first time recently by accident on the 19th of Jan and I am glad to say it was a very good accident indeed. Before I get to the good part of our experience, unfortunately there were some negatives. As we entered in, our family was forced to enter into the restaurant again as they could not check our vaccine passes at our table. The waitress then took us around and we got to seat at the exact table we chose at the very beginning. The unfortunate part was that the family at the next table had their vaccine passes checked right at the table. There was some obvious discrimination there by the female staff. Also, its very difficult to get service at the table, and we were not given any cutlery or serviettes with our meals. Please bring the cutlery along with our meal. It also would be recommended to have some type of service device on tables as it is very challenging to get service especially during peak times. Now to the good parts and there is more than one! Our main server George was absolutely amazing, we experienced some great customer service from him. He was attentive, friendly and talkative. He is a perfect example of what excellent customer service should be and how it should be exhibited. Now to the most important part... THE FOOD!!! We initially went in thinking we would order drinks. We had the Irish coffee, Death by chocolate, lemonade and ginger ale. The Irish coffee is highly highly recommended by my Mom and Mom just wants to go back for more. All their drinks, spot on. We then had a look at the menu and decided to order some deserts. We had the cheesecake and waffles. One negative was that the dishes were too sweet, the syrup on the waffles would be better on the side rather than pre-poured on the plate. Just so the customer can choose the amount they want. The cheesecake was to die for, also very sweet but definitely worth it. At this moment we were having such a good experience we decided to look at the dinner menu. Let me tell you, we would have regretted making that decision if we had walked out after the desserts. We ordered the special that day which was the Lobster tail and rather than eye fillet we replaced it with the fish. Excellent no complains there, highly enjoyable and worth it. We also had the BBQ chicken pizza, it was smokey, it was cheesy, it was crispy. Again very highly recommended. This place is definitely recommended for anyone who visits Taupo even if...

I sent this email to your email address back in February and you didn't have the courtesy to even acknowledge it.

Hi Michael,

I just wanted to send some feedback about our dining experience at Dixie Browns Taupo from tonight.

We are Taupo locals and have dined at Dixie's in Taupo since it opened, and we have also dined at Mount Maunganui on many occasions.

Tonight, we dined with my sister and brother-in-law who were visiting from Auckland, Dixie's had been recommended to them from their own friends who had dined there and also their own experience from Mount Maunganui.

Unfortunately, tonight's experience was the worst we have ever had and probably has put us off dining at Dixie Browns in Taupo in the future.

We choose to sit outside because it was a very pleasant evening. We ordered inside 4 entrees, 5 mains and drinks.

2 entrees came out to the table, followed pretty immediately by mains for those eating the entrees. We made a comment to one of the wait staff about the mains being delivered so quickly after the entrees appearing and her response was that we should have advised whoever took the order that we did not want mains to be served with the entrees. It happened to be the same waitress who served me at the counter when I placed the order. NEVER before ANYWHERE have I had to tell staff that I wanted mains to be held for however long, so that we can eat (and enjoy) our entrees first.

Next came another entree, with the main being delivered at the same time, followed within a few minutes the 4th main, and a few minutes later the entree for that person. This was a really disappointing start to our dining experience.

The next issues were the mains themselves - my sister ordered the Tequila Lime Chicken, which she couldn't eat, it was not a pleasant dish at all. Kindly one of your wait staff went and had a chat with her supervisor and my sister was refunded for her main. My brother-in-law had vegetables with his steak dinner and the cauliflower was horrible - it tasted as if it was too old to be eaten. I had the fish and chips, and the fish was very overcooked to the point where quite a lot of the batter was very hard and dark.

Unfortunately, the quality of these mains tonight would have been the worst we have ever had at Dixie Browns Taupo.

A response would have been appreciated. But your loss and we won't be recommending Dixie Brown's in Taupo to...

Went to Dixie Browns Taupō for Mum’s 65th—mixed experience, but some real highlights!

Shoutout to the amazing woman at the door—super friendly, welcoming, and sorted us a wheelchair-accessible table quick as with zero fuss. Accessibility is great here, which we really appreciated. We’ve been coming every year or so for a decade and would say the vibe remains the same—family-friendly, cosy, busy, quite loud (good to know if you’re navigating sensory needs).

Our first server was lovely with great energy!

Cocktail and mocktail were delicious & quick, but water took three asks and ages to arrive.

Food came in good time. Chowder was too hot (had to wait forever to eat), seafood overcooked but tasty. Garlic bread was ok, reg toast would’ve been fine. Pork belly pizza was sadly underwhelming—little grey pork bits were a bit sad, no blue cheese flavour, and the pineapple wasn’t a win (I usually vibe pnaps on pizza!) Lumberjack pizza was better but still kinda average. Truffle fries had a great texture but lacked flavour—bit salty with clumpy parmesan. There was a suuuper light sprinkle of truffle dust, which was meh.

Service started off strong, but after our server left, we felt forgotten & had to wave people down for dessert menus and to order. Cabinet desserts were so pretty but a bit of a miss. Mud pie tasted exactly like a kids’ party plate (I liked it though!).

Chur for the birthday discount—didn’t expect that!

I get it takes a whole crew to pull off dinner service—I've worked hospo for years—but a bit more care and attention to detail would really help it feel worth the price.

Probably won’t do dinner again, arohamai, but would come back to try...