Lucky 8 — Restaurant in Waitematā

We attended the so-called "Lucky 8" establishment on Sunday, 4th of June 2023, at 2100hrs in Ponsonby for the major hyped eatery from social media platforms.

I have made the booking for four people two weeks in advance and further confirmed the booking on a Friday. We arrived at the establishment 10 minutes early to our booking for 9 pm for four people and were advised by Nathan Holden (Duty Manager) that our table was not ready as he scanned my name in their system and was further told to wait. My cousin and I stood aside away from the stairway near the bar, awaiting patiently like with any other restaurant booking. During our wait of 10 minutes, I noticed that there were a 10pax, 6 pax and 5 pax of table vacating the tables. Whilst the line of other booked customers lined up and a mixture of walk-ins followed.

Tables were cleaned, followed by 5 pax of a young group of European girls accommodated to take their seats at the table. A Maori couple came through as a walk-in to dine and was declined and abruptly turned away. At 0910pm, I approached Nathan a second time as we could see two tables vacant across, kindly asking if he had forgotten about us while he was accommodating payments and other mixture of other guests coming in. Nathan advised: "The table for three is still not ready as we are busy, and we still need to wait so stop asking". Again my cousins and I stood back and awaited in a similar spot near the bar. We further noticed that another 6pax of European group around the mid-30s was warmly welcomed with gestures of hand clapping, fist pump, and tap on shoulders as they were escorted to the vacant table that we could all see in front of us.

A different couple, Pasifika background guests, came as a walk-in, all dressed appropriately to the occasion and were again further declined to be fully booked and observed the facial grimace of disgust as this beautiful couple was turned away. At 0920pm, I approached Nathan (Duty Manager) for the third time; I asked that there is a table across the bar; we had been waiting patiently now and requested if we could have it. Nathan said (condescending/shouting), "We just need to wait; stop being impatient as the restaurant is full, and other guests are booked in". In response, I explained that we had a booking at 0900pm; we arrived at the establishment 10mins early and were told that a table would be ready at 10min. It was already 0930pm. Nathan advised, 'Bookings are a priority, and no walk-ins are allowed'. I challenged Nathan if that was the correct manner to defend his position.

I explained that we had noticed that two sets of guests of European backgrounds were automatically settled as soon as they entered. Compared to a Maori and Pasifika background, guests were turned away with disgust. Nathan confronted me, "You don't have a booking; you are not a priority; I (Nathan) have been working since the morning exhausted". In utter disgrace, I pulled up my phone and showed the confirmed booking. I objectively pointed out that discrimination of race, unconscious bias, disgraceful attitude and behavioural negligence are not acceptable to any means to guests with a defence on Nathans's end that they are exhausted since the morning shift is unreasonable to treat others negatively in a low condescending manner. Nathan walked away with no sincere apologies for taking responsibility for the negative situation caused to us. We were escorted to the vacant table at 0940hrs.

Not a well-deserved evening for a dining experience that was indeed not Lucky Eight enough for...

How my 1star became a 3star: Read below for the 1star review....

I know I said I might not visit again, but the owner decided to listen to my less than happy experience and offered us some free food and who am I to say no to free food 🤷‍♂️

1pm booking on a Saturday: We got to taste a variety of dishes - unlike last time where most of the dishes were sold out. Though the restaurant was busy, service was good, our waitress was polite and listened to our requests.

Food was good, of the bunch of stuff we ordered our favourites were: The chilli chicken, lamb skewers, crispy prawn, ribs, potato salad (the potato salad and the skewers won hands down for me, the flavours were exceptional).

The cucumber salad was refreshing (if you like a clean flavour this will go well as a side for the gamy meat below).

Beef cheeks, crispy pork, lion head were a bit gamy for my taste (but thats just my preference).

Lastly, thank you to Lucas for trying to rectify the situation. It was great to be heard 👍. -‐-------------------------------------------------------------------

The 1 star experience:

Was a huge let down!

Please be advised (I really wish some one had informed us)that if you make a late booking (9.30pm Sunday) there is a high chance that a lot of the menu will be sold out.

Out of 8 dishes we wanted to try ony 3 made it to our table, the other 5 dishes that we would have loved to try got sold out (we would place an order in their online menu and the pop up would say SOLD OUT)

To top it of our waiter decided we were the perfect candidates to execute his ill timed joke (inappropriate even for some people) when we were getting frustrated that anything we wanted to order was getting sold out.

The joke: Us - what's the meat in this dumpling? Waiter (in a fake asian accent) - **min meat. Me - Cumin meat? Waiter - HUMAN meat...... .....silence...... Us - 😐😶 Waiter - jokes its pork. Us - 😓

Food review: The chilli chicken, the beef and pork dumpling was good. It was not out of the world, one of a kind delicious but for $8 I cannot complain. The drinks were okay - nothing to rave about.

I was disappointed because my experience did not live up to the hype. Would it have been a different vibe had we booked for an earlier time is a question that unfortunately I cannot answer because I doubt I will revist them - even if the food is affordable. Lucky 8 unfortunately was not all it was hyped up to be, atlest that was the...

Concept: 5 ⭐️ Food: 3.5 ⭐️ Service: SHOCKING!! Worst service experience I’ve ever had at an Auckland restaurant and I’ve pretty much eaten at most of them as my group are major foodies and we also like to support local.

SERVICE: I booked the private room 3 months in advance for a birthday. Group of 16 including overseas visitors. We were running 10 mins late and it was pouring down with rain. Only to arrive and find the previous group of people still enjoying themselves in the room. I asked the manager if he could kindly ask them to finish up to which he brushed off casually with a “they’re finishing up soon”. I said no I have a big group, it’s already past our booking time. (One had to catch a flight later that evening) and he replies “we’re busy please wait outside” (it was freaking pouring down with rain outside!) I nodded to my 74 year old nana who’d just walked up the stairs and asked him whether he was serious and he replied again “yes please wait outside”. It wasn’t until my big island brothers walked up the stairs that he picked up the nerve to talk to the group and ask them to finish up (they still had to clean up the space). We ordered an extraordinary amount of food and beverage. One waitress was already flustered from the busy evening she snapped at one of my group who were trying to help her give out the dishes. Another waitress obviously wasn’t taught how to smile acting like she’d rather be on the other side of the world. At the end of the evening half the group left and the other half stayed behind and ordered a round of cocktails which they waited 30minutes only to be told “sorry it didn’t come through our system”.

FOOD: We ordered everything but the dessert.

Notable dishes: Beef cheek Lamb Ribs Dumplings Banana leaf salmon Sliced Potato salad (yes the potatoe salad) Golden crusted shrimp with mayo

Average dishes: chilli chicken and pork belly fries

Would I bring another big group here or even recommend a big group? Hell no. Despite the tasty food, the service absolutely killed the experience.

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