First Mates, Last Laugh — Restaurant in Waitematā

I have really been looking forward to dining at FMLL but unfortunately, left disappointed. I rarely post about bad experiences but for fairness, I think this is warranted.

The food was overall good. I couldn't fault it. Stand out for me was the taquitos. We got 2 of each flavour and I liked both the salmon and tuna the best for their flavour. Other foods were prepared well.

I also really appreciated the effort that the restaurant put to make my dessert special for my birthday.

The major let down was the table service. I don't know if it's just our server, so I can only speak from what we experienced. I generally am quite ok with mix ups with orders and don't mind them too much depending on how the issues are resolved. I think we were pretty patient as there was not only 1,but at least 3 issues with our order.

The wrong item being ordered was one issue. The next was the server put through two orders instead of swapping out an item as I had changed my mind. Even though my husband clearly heard me tell the server to swap one for the other. Both issues we didn't make a fuss of as ok, I understand it can be confusing when serving a bigger group.

The thing that really upset me and put me off was how the server responded to the last issue. My husband and I had ordered 2 desserts, a chocolate tart and a strawberry bomb. The chocolate tart didn't come and when the server was asked if it was coming, her immediate response was to point out that it was because I was trying to decide between the two options. Yes, I was undecided between two desserts and it might've caused confusion, but the two options I was tossing up between were the strawberry bomb or strawberry shortcake. The chocolate tart was the first thing we clearly ordered.

I think I would've had a different response if the server had not been so defensive to lay the blame on me. But perhaps to say, "sorry, I got confused as you were tossing up between options".

My suggestion to the restaurant is to get your servers to repeat the order back to customers to avoid such issues.

In reflection, I felt that the service was overall cold and unwelcoming. A little inefficient as well as we kept running out of water. I also felt low key judged for ordering less than one Main per person as we shared food amongst 5 of us. Mind you, we ordered 4 entrees, 3 mains, 2 vege and 3 (though only 2 got delivered) Desserts. Plus drinks. On average, 70ish spent per person.. So really, I don't think we went cheap either. We just aren't big eaters and wanted room for dessert.

The location is gorgeous. The restaurant ambience a bit loud but hey, I guess you can call it lively.

I wanted to love the place as its such a great location and would love to have gone back. But I dislike rude service with a passion. So that's really put me off. The service was really disparate when compared to my more recent dining experiences at comparable places, eg Sails, Ragtag and Aigo. So, while I am sorry to have to leave this review, this is as...

Ultimately, like many of the lower rating reviews for this restaurant - I have to say the issue with FMLL is their pretentious and unaccommodating service. In a city where diners are spoilt for choice - it’s just unacceptable now for restaurants to not make an effort to welcome, impress and spoil patrons from start to finish. And unfortunately - despite the myriad of reviews provided - they just don’t seem to have the right training or perhaps the right people in place to elevate these aspects of the customer experience.

Our server failed to welcome us, introduce herself on arrival, didn’t give us any information about the menu or seasonal/daily specials - and just really failed to make a good impression on our group throughout the entire 2 hour sitting.

When taking our order - she critiqued our choices and quantity for each item making the process seem like a school recitation exam. Whilst suggestions are appreciated - advice around portions and number of dishes to feed our table could have been provided at the beginning of service instead of at this stage where it seemed unhelpful and quite frankly - rude.

One of our meals was forgotten - we had to ask about this after the rest of our table had almost finished eating. Our server then said “oh it won’t be long” - and then proceeded to hide out of our view for 20 minutes until she could bring this main to the table. No apology or acknowledgement of the mistake at all. Again - just rude. The rest of the table had already finished eating at this stage, so this one person was left eating alone with all of us watching on. So many ways this could have been handled - and if the server had bothered to build rapport with the table or explain the delay, perhaps it would not have soured the experience further. Avoiding the issue rarely tends to make anything better…(a life lesson on a plate).

We had planned to stay for dessert but given the poor service, delays and unfriendly server - we opted to take our business elsewhere for the final course.

It’s a real shame as the food here is wonderful (once it arrives) - but the wait staff really are the Achilles heel of the whole operation. And most of the FMLL responses to negative feedback here involve them “hoping you’ll give us another try”… seems a bit rich when you’ve got months of reviews (since your opening) highlighting table service/waiter issues and your solution is for people to come back and spend more of their hard earned money with you. A bit tone deaf in this economy…

In closing - the first mate of this restaurant-ship urgently needs to sort out the staffing issues because there were no laughs to be had about our experience. And ultimately the stack of unhappy diners talking about the bad service here will have - the last laugh. And please don’t bother replying to this review - that time would be better spent, re-training your staff on how to take care of your customers. A bit of humility, relatability, personality, care and a smile would go a...

Really fantastic food on our first visit here and cannot fault it - sashimi platter, tuna sashimi tacquitos and ceviche were incredible.

The restaurant itself is lovely and new, and decorated quite elegantly. The price point for food and drinks also seemed very reasonable for the quality and quantity that was served.

There were just a couple of moments throughout the night that left me feeling a tad disappointed. If these things are refined or tweaked by the venue it will definitely be a 5 star feel.

When my husband made the dinner booking for us he asked whether dogs were allowed. He received a reply saying the venue was dog friendly outside and that they had a lovely outdoor seating area which was covered overhead but not enclosed. We were totally fine with this! When we arrived however there had been no mention of us bringing our dog on their notes, and instead they had designated for us to be sat inside. There seemed to be a bit of confusion and we could see the booking request notes were lost along the way. Once we were seated outdoors we felt very isolated. That night we had continuous rain in Auckland so all other diners were dining inside. I think it would have been nice for the venue to have contacted us before hand perhaps by email or text to say “ fyi hey we’re seating everyone inside today because of the weather” etc…then we may have actually thought ok we won’t bring our dog along with us tonight! But then again this courtesy could have only happened if they got their booking request notes right to begin with.

Once we were seated outside I realised the glass door was locked when I got to go to the bathroom. I had to get a member of staff to unlock the door for me. It felt like we were truly forgotten outside.

As mentioned the meals were really nice, but some of the staff seemed a little inexperienced. I had to move the table next to ours to create a larger table when the food started to come out. Normally the waiting staff would anticipate this and do this for us. We left bit of the starter bread on the plate, and when the small dishes started to come out the waitress took away the bread plate to make room on the table. We weren’t actually done with the bread…

My husbands side plate also got cleared at one point and not replaced, so to share the mains he ate off the serving plate while I continued to eat off my side plate.

I do look forward to returning and hopefully not experiencing any...