Giraffe — Restaurant in Waitematā

No one could fault the food but in saying that our group had huge disappointment with the way we were treated by the staff. When it came to paying the bill we found that there was $90 difference in the bill. So asked to see who had paid what for their meal as we thought maybe one of the guests had skipped and not paid. This request turned into a bit problem for the staff as they said they couldn't tell us who had paid what their POS didn't work that way. So after a lot of talking they finally passed over the total bill and we then had to work thru it marking off each persons meal only to discover that the restaurant had added two extra meals. There were 8 ladies and yet there was 10 meals. When we told staff what we thought the problem was they were very curt and told us to wait until they spoke to wait staff and kitchen staff. This took another 20min. I remembered that a waiter had come to our table with 2 extra meals so went over to tell the receptionist who pointed at me and told me to 'go away I'm talking to MY kitchen staff - go and wait where I told you to' - so rude just unbelievable. Finally receptionist came over and started tell us that she was so annoyed at her staff and that they had mucked up things. And just started going off her head. Finally I interrupted and said that I thought she needed to keep that in-house and just simply apologise to us for the mistake. She then said 'well I'm trying to tell you what happened'. I told her all she needed to say was that she was very sorry they had made a mistake - but that was like pulling teeth. Finally she said I'm sorry. The way were were spoken to was just so aggressive and we were just taken aback. One of our party told her at that stage that she had read the menu online which said you could get breakfast until 2pm but when she mentioned this to the waiter he told her she was wrong breakfast only went till 11am. But when she got home she looked it up on line and it did say breakfast went to 2pm on one part of the menu and on another part it said 11am so she rang the restaurant and told them that there were 2 times mentioned the receptionist said no it doesn't then looked it up and said 'oh that is a mistake by our IT people' it was nothing to do with the restaurant staff - again no apology and very arrogant. One guest also mentioned that our waiter had spit coming out of his mouth when he was speak to her and actually she had spit on her face. After all of this which took a total of 1hr - the receptionist said 'look I'll talk to the management and see if I can get you 2 free meals'. So on the next Monday I had a missed call and when I checked found it was from Giraffe . There was a missed voice message but no message had been left on my phone. So no only had they made us feel like idiots when we queried the bill and made us wait for an hour before they could verify what we had worked out was the problem they couldn't even follow thru with their offer. I would never go back there again after the rude, arrogant staff reception...

Fxxxxxg Amazing!

This was the answer I gave my sister when she asked me how my dinner tonight was.

I’ve been eating so much food recently. Like luxury delicious food. I eat so much I’ve lost interest in eating. I don’t even feel like eating crayfish recently, and I love crayfish.

When I came into giraffe I was expecting another standard European restaurant with a sarcastic “Woopie”.

My daughters kids meal came along and it was like a full kids degustation with duck fat chips and perfectly cooked pasta. The ribs was ok. The dessert was too good for kids to understand and enjoy.

Then came our entree smoked Kahawai sandwich. Our eyes lit up and I was like “dayum son!” Wow, finally something different and creative.

Then came pork nose to tail. Cheeks and tail. The green sauce was delicious. Better than any lettuce wrap I’ve had. A must try as well.

Cured eye fillet was good. Like better than most restaurants. But I was still in shock with the previous dishes.

The king crab was out of this world. I literally had to close my eyes to taste the mixture of flavours. A must order or you might as well not come to this restaurant.

Portuguese duck was kinda like soy chicken and gravy. Sounds bad but imagine luxury soy chicken and gravy. I personally love seared duck breast more, I make the best duck breast with my sous vide and cast iron. But this was still extremely good. More Asian than Portuguese.

Fillet of fish was amazing. Was told the fish was tarakihi! Which is usually tough as it’s easy to overcook so I was a little reluctant to order. I’m not sure how this was done, at first I thought maybe sousvide, but then there was a wrap around the fish so probably steamed. Cooked perfectly. Very very VERY impressed. The vege salad on top was not necessary. My daughter ate half the fish. And she doesn’t usually eat fish unless its sous vide groper. This was a lot better I have to say.

We only had a chance to eat 1/3-1/4 if the menu today. Let me rest for a bit and I will be back to try the social feasts menu which looks amazing too.

The waiter was amazing. A gentle gentleman with a stylish full beard. Unsure at time, but polite and genuine. One of the best waiters I’ve met in a while. I feel guilty not tipping.

Also every dish came with new cutlery. Awesome ambience and was just perfect. Be in for a treat. Bring anyone along and get ready to be blown away.

Service: 5/5 Food Quality: 5/5 Food Quantity: 5/5 Presentation: 5/5 Environment: 5/5 Price per...

Sadly I'd expected far better. Ordered a blue to rare (ribeye) steak, and it truly was grey, in other words medium to well done. Whilst the staff admitted the meat was dramatically overcooked they blamed (yes, blamed!) the state of the meal on the meat being Australian (!!). I've NEVER heard such appalling rubbish, our group felt almost embarrassed having to listen to that. They offered nothing in the way of anything to compensate for the main aspect of meals we couldn't actually eat (the steak), despite agreeing THEY had completely failed to provide the meals we'd ordered.

Whilst the side dishes etcwere actually great, a restaurant at this level SHOULD be able to do a basic steak. If they can't, then something is VERY wrong, but worst of all were the ridiculous excuses, and to top that off - where's the 'fix'?? We all went away almost feeling as if our intelligence had been insulted - the four of us spent over $300 for that meal - and the BEST excuse (and it IS an excuse) for the meal's inadequacy was that it's Australian beef?? SERIOUSLY?

Do yourself a favour, and skip this place. If they stuff things up they do it royally, and offer nothing but the most absurd excuses to take home with you.

Dine elsewhere. You have plenty of great choices in this pricerange, and this abysmal service ruined an important, meaningful, celebration for...