Hideaway Bar and Restaurant Ponsonby — Restaurant in Waitematā

Stay away at all costs. Quite possibly the worst experience I’ve ever had. We came for the bottomless brunch, we arrived at 12 (when we booked in for) and were told no cocktails until 12.30. Despite being a bottomless brunch, we had to get all the drinks ourselves at the bar, this would have been fine (although taxing) if it wasn’t for the 2 hour time limit, you waste half your time in line for the bar and even then still waiting as there was often no glassware etc. also they basically never had glasses, and they would use hot glasses straight from the dishwasher when they arrived and also kept the wine on the counter behind them, which meant for very warm wine every single time, not what you want on a hot day, don’t understand why they can’t put the wine in the fridge? As for the food, it was meant to be bottomless pizzas (and fries? This was confusing as we got different answers from all the staff), however, we only got our ‘bottomless’ pizzas right at the end of the 2 hours. 2 hours for the most basic and rubbery pizzas that were all the wrong order. As for the tapas, the portions were outrageously small and also took an hour to arrive. We had arrived quite early on the day so we were also able to see that at the start of the service, the portions were well sized for other tables however, halfway through the bottomless brunch I guess the kitchen staff … gave up? The manager was also just outrageous, he was very rude to the staff and had excuses for everything, he said to us that the reasons our pizzas took 2 hours was because the chef was currently in Blenheim … respectfully, we don’t care? Don’t open your restaurant for service if you don’t have the appropriate staff to cater for your customers. We are aware that they only opened recently and could anticipate some teething problems however it seemed like the whole time no one knew what was going on and it was just confusing, for example some tables had drink tokens, some didn’t, staff were confused on the drink policy and they never knew about our food. Also chatting to friends and other people on different tables during the brunch, it seemed like everyone was annoyed at how things were run and had terrible experiences there in the past, no idea where these 5 star reviews are coming from. For $70 there is no way I’m wasting my money again to wait 2 hours for food, have to serve myself and drink hot wine.

TLDR: came for the bottomless brunch, not worth the money food took 2 hours warm drinks rude manager and...

Came here for a bottomless brunch. Food was really nice apart from being advertised as bottomless pizza and only about four came out over the two hours for a group of 20. (Plus lots of sides but still) Then we asked for more pizzas to come out nearer the end of our booking, when they asked if we wanted anything else. when our two hour slot was finished, everyone was eating and enjoying the pizzas because we were all hungry, and we were rudely told that everyone needed to leave the table immediately- with unfinished drinks and most of the pizzas only half eaten. I understand that the bottomless brunch is a two hour time slot but surely that time should be for ordering food and drink. We were told it was because they needed the table for the next time slot of brunch but we booked the last time slot for the day. The dinner doesn’t start until later on. If there was a large booking or something after us- surely we should have been told. I have never ever experienced this at another restaurant or bottomless brunch. The staff were extremely unaccommodating about this. We also were not allowed to take any of the half eaten food away with us due to it being bottomless. I understand this because people could take advantage but surely let them eat it at the table. They said it was because the staff would eat it later which i also find super strange and unhygienic. Do not recommend this place...

$70 bargain

A group of my friends and I went for the bottomless brunch and all 11 of us were absolutely impressed. We have tried our fair share of bottomless brunches and this one at the hideaway is now our favourite!

On arrival all the staff were super friendly and welcoming, giving the choice of a cocktail on entry between an aperol spritz or an espresso martini. We were told that they run things a little differently to other bottomless places. At the hideaway you go up and collect your drinks yourself. Being explained to that this service allows us to get as many drinks a we like without being held back by staff delays. At the start this seemed a little tedious. But with people taking turns at grabbing multi glasses for the table the service seemed to work better than other more traditional bottomless places.

The “small plates” were delicious. We went for the squid and the fried chicken. Each was very well cooked with tasty flavours. The pizza was all you can eat too! Although filled with mimosas we didn’t get around to that. The pizzas were quite basic and not really anything too flash. This did not bring down the over all experience one bit.

The owner Ben was super charismatic and friendly. Well done on providing such an awesome experience!

We will...