Mr. Morris — Restaurant in Waitematā

I had really high expectations of Mr Morris but won't be rushing back any time soon.

The reservation was booked for 6:30pm. I made a note on the booking stating that we had to be at a performance by 8:30pm. Upon arrival this was discussed again.

It started well and the entre and cocktail my wife had were good. We moved onto clams which were also good and then octopus, this is where the night went down hill. The octopus was incredibly tough, I try to be sympathetic here as it is a difficult protein to work with but my wife's was really tough too. I mentioned this to the waitress, who in turn mentioned to the maitre d, he confrontationally stormed up to us and said "what's going on". We explained that the octopus was tough, that we weren't being difficult and just thought we should mention it. He asked if they could cook it again but declined this offer.

The dishes thus far had come out at the pace expected with any tasting menu experience, until we mentioned that the octopus wasn't right. We were then left to wait 20mins whilst the couple next to us were bought starters and mains. During this time I mentioned again to the front desk and maitre d that we had to be at the Sky Tower for a performance by 8:30 and was ensured that they would take care of it and we would make it on time.

Waiting a further 10mins... the next dish arrived, pork, very tough... waiting 10mins, remind them we had to go again... dessert arrived

Upon settling the bill I was informed that they would remove our first two drinks, taking $30 off, due to the issues we had. I informed them that considering the experience we had, which in my mind was awful, I didn't think it was enough. I was then told by the front of house that they would remove the octopus instead of the drinks from the bill, taking $40 off. The incredulous maitre d came over and asked if he had upset me in some way, I informed him that his manner with us had been confrontational and rude. I said that I didn't think $40 off the bill was enough and was informed their system wasn't set up to take any further discount from the bill which I find absurd.

Maybe we were unlucky but I won't be wasting my money or time on this restaurant again. Go to Cassia, Cotto, Andiamo or Sidhart where they believe in amazing customer service and fantastic food!

In addition to all this, we were made late for the...

First of all, nice things about Mr. Morris. We loved the food, we thought the freshness and execution was masterful and creative. We loved almost everything. The entrees King Fish and Qual were excellent, the mains Snapper and Scotch were even better which is a winner as most restaurants do entrees well but always a let down on their mains but not here.

For the sides, we also loved the Brussels Sprouts but we didn’t like the Kumera at all. I didn’t think I would like it as I thought the Sherry would be too much for the sweetness of kumera. But my partner insisted because he loves kumera. So even he didn’t like this dish and I was giving him “told you so” moments!. The completely unrecognisable crunchy bits also didn’t work with us. We both had a small piece and left the dish uneaten. When the waitress collected the dish she didn’t say a word about the dish but asked if we would like to doggy bag the dish. 😂

We were quite annoyed right away after being greeted by the staff. The music and the diners were so loud it seemed everyone was shouting inside. Not a scene we wanted to be in. Here we thought we were going for a nice experience. Wrong!

The night didn’t get better as the service was really poor. The staff were all young and inexperienced. We constantly had to wave down someone to take our orders. They basically just come and take our food orders. Forgot to come back to take our drinks order. Delivered our food and drinks and that’s it. No personal touches, when they spoke, the noise was so loud nobody can hear anything!

When we were standing at the counter settling our bills. The young girl who had been serving us walked right passed us, she didn’t even stop and say goodbye. I can’t believe this is the service of what supposed to be the hospitality icon of Auckland. It’s trying to be the coolest place in town by playing loud electronic music but it’s obviously not as it was Friday night an at only 8.30pm, the restaurant was only half full, not that busy.

A really disappointing experience for us. Luckily the quality of food saved them. By 9.30pm as we were leaving, most customers had...

This is a hard one to review. Though the food was good, the whole dining experience was well below par considering this is a fine dining restaurant. Unfortunately the service was really bad and ruined our dining experience. The waitress was the culprit but the management was equally guilty for not providing proper training to the staff. To make it easier for reading, I will summarise my experience in bullet points. By the way, there were six of us dining that night.

Specials of the day was explained to us while one of us was away from the table (gone to the toilet). Didn't take our drinks order until just before our entrees were served. Cutleries weren't ready when entrees were served. Didn't ask or explain to us how the steak will be cooked and unfortunately they came out too cooked for our liking. Apparently we can request for them to be cooked a certain way but wasn't made aware to us. When pointed out to the waitress, she agreed that the steak was overcooked but did nothing. We insisted that she informs the manager who then made up for the mistake. Messed up our order and two of our mains came in one plate. The waitress gave us a spare plate and told us to divide up the food between us. We suggested that she take the food back to the kitchen to get it divided instead. This is the first time ever that we were told to divide up the food ourselves from a mistake they have made, in a fine dining restaurant if I may add! Missed putting in one of our orders so one of us had to wait for the main while the others are eating theirs.

We were really looking forward to an enjoyable dining experience as we have heard so many good things about this restaurant. It was a shame that it was completely ruined by the bad service we have received. I would like to think that this is a case of...