烟火烤肉 Hustle — Restaurant in Waitematā

I have never had to abruptly leave a restaurant in my life due to bad service, but my visit to this restaurant was a first. Despite seeing low ratings, I thought I’d give it a try myself. Boy, was I wrong.

A tall guy with long hair brought our side plates and chopsticks. To my horror, a long piece of hair was on the pair of chopsticks on my side plate. When I alerted him, he simply said sorry, removed the hair, and put the chopsticks back where he got them from.

They first brought out our dipping sauces, after 20 mins, then made us wait another 20 mins before bringing out the pork belly. We ordered pork belly, which was extremely thin and practically non-existent by the time it was cooked.

As we almost finished the pork belly, we paused and waited for the potatoes to eat the rest with it. After 20-25 minutes, a side dish of pickled radish arrived then after 20 minutes or so seaweed salad arrived, followed by another 30 minutes before four lamb skewers came. The lamb wasn’t fully cooked and could have been done faster on the BBQ. Still waiting for the potatoes, we decided to hold off finishing the lamb skewers and wait for the potatoes thinking it’s cooked that’s possibly the reason it took so long.

After many more minutes, the same tall guy with long hair came and stood at the front counter next to us, just observing the customers. I mentioned that we were still waiting for our potatoes. He replied that they were coming and continued standing there, showing no concern. After another 20-30 mins he finally brought out two plates of raw sliced potatoes – one for us and one for the table next to us, which had arrived 20 minutes before we left. I was appalled that it took so long to bring out raw potatoes. His excuse was they had other customers.

The restaurant was not busy at all, with only a few other customers (9 in total including us) Two were there before us, a couple arrived long after us then 3 people shortly after. The staff seemed more interested in talking among themselves and loading items into a vehicle outside than serving us.

The service was atrocious, and who knows what the hygiene is like in the back. The food portions were not worth it at all. Unlike most Korean BBQ places, which offer free side dishes and sauces, this one did not. We left without cooking the potatoes and didn’t eat the tiny pieces of lamb left on the BBQ. The lady at the counter apologized and didn’t charge us for the potatoes, but we still paid $86 for a few thin slices of pork belly, four tiny lamb skewers, two side dishes, four dipping sauces, and two soft drinks.

I don’t mind spending at Korean BBQ, but thank God we didn’t go all out at first, as we were going to order more meat but wanted to see first. Don’t make the same mistake we did. I wouldn’t recommend this...

Went to hustle at 6.45pm. Ordered 10 skewer items. Waited 1hour and got 3 skewers. Bear in mind each skewer is tiny. Doesn’t fill you up. 1 hour 15 mins later when we inquired they said they were busy and could not tell us when they could get us the rest of our order. They said they’d check. 10 mins later no response. 1hr 30 mins we asked to cancel our order as we were dying of hunger and they could not assure us when our food would arrive. The kitchen was chaotic. Everyone was shouting at each other in the kitchen. So we went to the till to pay for the 3 things we ate. Even sorting out our bill seemed too hard for them. Again a man started shouting at the female staff member in Chinese. Then he left us half way through sorting our bill. Unbelievable. Let’s just say never experienced such horrible service for a very very long...

Never in my life have I been to a place so disgusting.There were bugs and spiders in the corner, the food was bland and definitely not fresh we even found a long piece of hair in the meat. Absolutely disgusting! The staff were extremely rude and unfriendly, we parked our car infront of the store and after eating we found out our car had been towed. The staff called the tow company and got rid of our car however there were no tow away signs which is extremely irresponsible and I was fined $420 because of them if I could give this place 0 stars I would. Absolutely terrible, me and my family will definitely not be coming back there ever again!!! P.S the staff were bribing us to give them a 5 star review for some free food....