Mezze Bar — Restaurant in Waitematā

Hi Mezze Bar 👋

We had a delicious dinner, great drinks and really gorgeous desserts - a big Thank You to the Kitchen team! ☺️

However, we would like to make the suggestion that your FOH team needs some more training in service best practise, very sorry to say 🙏.

The main staff member (possibly manager?) I was communicating with was very friendly, checked in with me for the timing of starters etc. He was great!

But the rest of the night was not run well at all for our table. The staff are friendly, however none of them checked with us to see if we needed water - we had to ask multiple times for this. We had several people so one jug of water was not enough - nobody offered us two jugs and nobody took notice that we needed a refill. I asked a server for another water and he went away and never came back. That’s Service 101 to notice those things.

We also had to signal to a server to take our initial drinks orders, because none of the staff took the initiative to do so and we were waiting a while for this.

We had to ask a server to take our mains orders, as again none of the staff took the initiative to do so. Really poor form.

Most of us have worked in hospitality before and we are understanding if it’s a busy night and the staff are getting slammed. The restaurant was almost full, but the staff were mostly hanging around behind the bar and not checking in frequently enough with the tables. We could see staff eating behind the bar - not a good look.

We felt this was worth commenting on because we really love Mezze Bar, it’s an institution! But the almost complete lack of service was a real surprise and disappointment. We hope that with some good training, your team can be back on...

The cakes at this place have been bringing me back for yonks! Usually come here for a night cap or a night cap and dessert. Featured is the Mezze lamb burger and one of my favourites for dessert, chocolate buttermilk cake and the almond cake. I love an orange cake but their one has thick rind in it which I'm not a fan of. Go on and check it out! Love that they have white port and their tiramisu is to die for.

Finally had brunch here for the first time after all these years and okay it wasn't during brunch time but hey the menu was still available so I went ahead and ordered the bacon and chip butty and so did the rest of my friends. It did the job and I had the chocolate buttermilk cake for dessert because it was a Sunday!

Went here for lunch with my friend and I ordered the Greek salad and the patatas bravas to share. Salad was delish but could have been a better portion for what is charged. I feel like the chocolate buttermilk cake has changed. It still tastes really good but it doesn't come out with the hot chocolate sauce anymore. I was telling my friend all about it so that was a bit of a bummer.

Was here last month for a night cap and dessert - ordered the almond tart (one of my faves) and the dessert wine. Quite a stingy slice so wasn't happy about that.

Had lunch here with my friend and I ordered the mushroom risotto and all I need to say is chef's kiss! Ordered a Hendrick's and tonic and found a cherry in it which was a very odd pairing. Also love the chicken risotto and it also deserves another chef's kiss - portion of risotto could've been slightly more. Ordered bread with feta to share with...

The food here is good, but pretty mediocre given the price. I used to love their Portuguese almond tart, but I have found that this seems to be of pretty inconsistent quality, and is nowhere near as good as it was a couple of years ago. The other cakes are okay, and no one can deny that the atmosphere of this place is incredible- really cozy and inviting. Unfortunately however, the staff seem to always be the exact opposite. Initially I thought that the people who were working at the counter were just having an “off day”, however after a couple of years visiting this place, I’ve found a lot of them to be not only incredibly unwelcoming, but actually a little rude at times. Given that one of the mains charms of a Greek taverna or Pinchos/tapas bar are the vibrant, welcoming people who are really passionate about their food and drink; this means that the authenticity of mezze bar does fall more than a little short. I normally wouldn’t be so critical of an establishments service, however, in all honesty, the sheer lack of warmth I’ve experienced at this place has made me realise the extent to which it impacts the dining experience. I’m willing to concede that I may just have been dealing with newer members of staff, or have just been consistently unlucky in catching them at the end of a shift, however I wouldn’t really expect the same attitude time and again. It would obviously be unfair to assume that any tapas bar in Auckland CBD will have a great price point, however given the cost, inconsistent food quality and very poor service, I don’t think I can recommend this...