Lillius Restaurant — Restaurant in Waitematā

Due to the Word limitation, I only able to post partially of my response. Hi Shannon,

What I expected was your consistent arrogance attitude, both in your online written response and in the 15-minute call from Mr. McCarthy. There was not the slightest self-reflection on the feedback from your guests. What I didn’t expect was the sheer number of inaccurate statements you made.

Even though I felt humiliated by your actions, I held back my sadness so as not to ruin the memory of my husband’s birthday dinner.

“At nearly 7:00 PM, in front of our two young kids, at a restaurant which I booked a week in advance to celebrate my husband’s birthday, we were told that we could choose to leave by through a series of contradictory statements made by the restaurant owner who carries arrogant attitude all the time. What a deeply disappointing experience I ever had so far in my life!”

Mr McCarthy told me over the phone that you’ve never experienced a situation like this before. Well, let me clearly tell you—your attitude and approach to handling this matter were deeply flawed.

I don’t want to correct you anything anymore, just go ahead and keep your attitude..

This will likely be the only intersection our lives ever have. As for who was right and who was wrong—let future readers judge themselves.

Cheers Evelyn 08/04/2025 *This is my first time dining at Lillas, and I believe it will also be my last! The experience was unpleasant!

*Here’s the situation: We are family of four - two adults, a nine-year-old, and a four-year-old child. When making the reservation, I selected four people. After sitting down, I told the waiter that we only need three of the set meals priced at 195 each person. Because of our four-year-old child, we wanted to order some additional food for him separately. After checking with their manager, the waiter came back and told me this was not possible because, since I reserved for four people, the meal had to be for four people. I asked if I could speak directly with the manager, and shortly afterward, a female manager came over. She also told me that because I made the reservation for four people, they had prepared materials accordingly, so it wasn’t possible to choose a three-person meal. I explained to her and showed her that I had made reservations for the same number of people at The Grove and the nearby Anise restaurant through First Table, and when we arrived at those places, we simply told them we were ordering separately for the child, and there were no issues at all. The female manager replied that each restaurant has different rules, and if I had informed them in advance, it would have been fine, but now it wasn’t possible. I felt helpless and told her that her approach made me feel somewhat unhappy today. However, throughout the whole conversation, I kept a calm tone and didn’t bring any emotions into the exchange.

A minute after the manager left, she came back and told me that our reservation was for 6:15, but we arrived at 6:35, so we were about to exceed the half-hour time limit, and we could choose to leave. She said that any costs and ingredients loss will be borne by themselves. OMG, I can’t believe what I’ve experienced, how can she be so arrogant? Her actions made me even angrier. I don’t know if this female manager is the owner, but her behavior made me feel humiliated. Since this dinner was for celebrating my husband’s birthday, I suppressed my anger and didn’t engage in further communication with her, choosing to continue dining. But this experience was absolutely terrible!

*Additionally, this restaurant places the cutlery directly on the table without even a tissue underneath, which was quite surprising.

*During the entire dining process, there was a winged insect that kept flying near our food and cups, making the experience even more uncomfortable. And food...

I was excited to finally dine at Lillius after much anticipation and wonderful feedback. The restaurant upon entering is highly impressive and sleek, with polished concrete floors and matte walls with pops of gold and royal blue in the seating and booths. It was very aesthetically pleasing and the staff was simply exceptional, so hospitable, warming and engaging.

The options within three course menu were exciting and featured NZ sourced produce at its best. I was so excited to sample the food and the wine, starting off with a North Otago Pinot Noir which was smooth and silky on the palate.

As a prelude to my first course, I was offered some starters of sweet corn smoked custard with popped rice, tuatua with hollandaise and smoked pork finger and cured pork with creamed egg in rice wafer and these were mouth watering and the perfect preparation to dinner. Next to arrive was their home baked warm sourdough bread with buffalo milk butter and that was extraordinary.

My first course was pressed arrow squid with layered smoked trevally in buttermilk with radishes. This dish was a cold dish and the textures were lovely with the squid being the highlight.

For my main, I thoroughly enjoyed the Houhora pork featuring pork belly and pork loin with parsnip purée and an assortment of charred brassicas featuring Savoy cabbage, cauliflower stems and broccolini. The pork loin was simply heavenly and so tender. The entire dish was so loving and nurturing with the various textures and flavours which complemented perfectly. It was my favorite pork dish I’ve had in a very long time.

I ordered a rose hip hibiscus gin cocktail with freeze dried berries and dried hibiscus atop, it was simply delightful and to accompany my closing dish of NZ cheeses with lavosh, crusty sourdough bread and preserves, I ordered a chilled Yarra Valley Syrah.

The entire dining experience was exquisite and truly memorable from the cuisine to the the beverages and the spectacular service. I will most definitely return and am happy to have discovered a new favorite restaurant. What I appreciated most about the dishes was reminiscing about childhood food flavour memories that evoked at a more elevated level. The use of local produce was front and center stage.

This really is a 5 Star restaurant and it was a true privilege to experience dining here. Highly recommended with...

What an outstanding restaurant Lillius is!

The service was polished, the team at Lillius hosted our rather large and somewhat raucous group with much patience, grace and humour.

The dining room is visually beautiful and befits the food which is similarly attractive.

The food was exquisite, technically accomplished and cleverly uses textures to great effect.

Some interesting ingredients were incorporated into our 5 course tasting menu, especially in the dish that was for us the highlight- grilled white asparagus with green asparagus purée, a sesame brittle, cultured cream and rimu oil, yes rimu oil!

In conclusion, a highly recommend restaurant in the upper echelon of dining experiences in the country. It was a pleasure supporting the young owner/operators and I implore you to do the same, you won’t be disappointed.

Sadly for me, no bread will ever measure up to Lillius’ sourdough with buffalo milk butter, I can only hope it’ll be the...