Acho's — Restaurant in Waitematā

Worst customer service I’ve ever experienced: We ordered food, the owner had a hissy fit and threw our money back in our face because we did not order any drinks, and staff laid hands on us to make us leave.

We ordered fried chicken at the till with no issues and sat down. A few seconds later, a waiter placed a menu on our table and said to us “I’ve been told by the owner that you have to order drinks as well”. We were confused as to why this wasn’t mentioned to us earlier but said “ok”.

Less than a minute later, the owner slammed four $2 coins down on our table and muttered something under his breath. At this point we had no clue what’s going on. Were we going to get our fried chicken? We hadn’t even been given the opportunity to order drinks if we wanted to…

After a minute or so, we came to the conclusion that no, we would not be receiving our fried chicken and that somehow we must have aggravated the owner by not complying with his irrational demand (Consumers Guarantee Act states “Conditions of entry must be spelt out when you enter the restaurant - they can't be unilaterally introduced halfway through the meal”).

The strangest and saddest part was that we had two other staff members come up to us and apologise on behalf of the owner. They told us that there was an unspoken rule that customers can’t order food without also ordering drinks - ok but we weren’t told that when we paid at the front. And even when we were informed, we didn’t have the opportunity to order anything before the owner threw our money back in our faces. The staff were very kind and very apologetic, and I felt it was very unfair that they were essentially doing the owner’s dirty work. We repeatedly asked them if we could speak to the owner himself as we thought it was quite irrational of him to demand such a request in the first place, act so childishly by throwing our money on the table, and then send other people to speak on behalf him. However we were told that speaking to him would only make him angrier. It appeared as though he did not know how to control his temper or how to treat us with a common decency.

We ended up deciding to leave after realising the owner was too cowardly to come and speak to us himself. Unfortunately as we left, the owner’s wife put her hands on my husband to guide him out the door, which made us feel like we were the ones who had done something wrong.

Although we were treated horribly, I’m most disappointed for the poor staff who have to work under such an erratic boss.

We were completely dissatisfied and disappointed with this service and will never enter this establishment (or Bozo’s, who they cater...

I was never really sure if this Japanese-style place was open or closed whenever I passed by, but today I decided to finally check it out. As soon as I walked in, I was asked, “Do you know this is a bar?”—probably because I had my child with me. I asked if we should leave, but they said it was fine to stay. I’d heard it was a Japanese izakaya, so I was expecting some proper Japanese dishes, but there wasn’t really a menu. There were a few things written in English with Japanese names, but I couldn’t quite figure out what they were, so I didn’t end up ordering any food. I ordered a highball, and it was served in such a stylish glass that I actually thought it really suited the place. The couple who seemed to be running the bar stayed in the kitchen most of the time, so we didn’t get a chance to chat, but when I spoke to them briefly as we were leaving, they smiled—and that made me feel at ease. Before writing this, I read through some of the other reviews, and honestly, I couldn’t imagine them behaving rudely like some people described. They seemed rather quiet and gentle to me, even a bit shy. If those reviews were true, I suppose I would’ve been shouted at and told to leave right away just for bringing my child—but that didn’t happen. They simply asked politely at the start, so I think next time I’ll just avoid bringing my child...

I wish I could give 0 stars. Never been disrespected like that before? My wife and I ordered some fried chicken and sat down. We were told by some friendly bar staff that we needed to order a drink to stay. Okay, so we considered it, but about 30 seconds later the owner came over to us, snatched the menu’s away, and slapped our $8 worth of fried chicken (in $2 coins from the till) back on the table signalling for us to leave. Keep in mind this is 1am and half the tables are empty. We stayed seated out of shock for a couple of minutes, trying to figure out what just happened? Some friendly bar staff tried to apologise for what happened, it seems like this happens often and they’re scared to confront the owner. I said I wanted to hear the apology from the owner himself who seemed to have a fiery temper. This didn’t happen, so on the way out I left the $8 worth of coins on the till in front of him as a statement, which resulted in the owners wife grabbing me from behind and trying to shove me out the front door. When I think back on it I really can’t believe what happened… We were having a great night and wanted to end it with some fried chicken. And it somehow ended with us being grabbed and shoved out the front door of Acho’s because we were disrespected and asked...