Ostro Brasserie & Bar — Restaurant in Waitematā

We were quite disappointed after our meal at Ostro last night. In short, the food was beautifully plated and very tasty, however the service and wait times were well below par, and we left still feeling very hungry.

We arrived and were told there was a 20 minute wait for a table - entirely reasonable on a Friday night. This ended up being slightly longer but as we were seated at the bar it wasn't an issue. However after being taken to our table we then waited another 15 minutes before our order was even taken. After I ordered I was told that my first choice of main wasn't available, which would have been good to be told in the 40 minutes of waiting before ordering. 20 or so minutes after this our mains arrived. We asked about the sourdough loaf we had ordered as a starter and were met with confusion. The waitress left, then returned after 5 minutes and asked which wine we had wanted. I replied that we didn't want wine, but were still waiting on the bread. 5 minutes after that our original waiter appeared, apologised, and left again. The sourdough eventually arrived at our table, about 5 minutes after we had finished the main course. This was an odd time to have a starter placed on the table, however we were still very hungry so it was a good filler!

The food was delicious. However it was served in very small portions, filling a side plate rather than a dinner plate. We were glad we'd ordered a side to accompany the main meals, but that was also very small. You'd really need to order 2 sides per customer alongside the main and your starter to leave feeling satisfied.

We had intended to order dessert but were still so hungry and sick of waiting for bad service that we decided to go somewhere else. The joke was on us though, as yet again we struggled to get the attention of any of the myriad of staff, despite our plates being cleared, and no one brought us a dessert menu or a bill. Eventually we left the table to try and pay, but were directed to three different pay stations by 2 employees, and ended up waiting another 15 minutes stranding by the front desk before being able to pay the bill. In all we were at the restaurant for 90+ minutes, but were only eating food for 10 minutes of that time. Our bill was $110 for 2 non alcoholic drinks, a side, 2 mains, and the fateful loaf of sourdough which ended the night. We left feeling very hungry, and not a little ripped off. We...

Went for dinner on a Saturday night - guy at front door was very pleasant but could have let us know there was a lift instead of a walking up 10 flights of stairs'! anywho got in the door waited around looking for a host or someone at least to acknowledge us nothing - although the waitstaff in the main dining room were having a great time catching up with an old friend - walked over to the service area of the bar where one of the waitresses from the bar area saw me trying to wave at someone told her we had a booking at 6pm looked up into the dining room lots of 2 tops open but apparently our table needed to be bused and we could have a drink at the bar first? would have rather just sat down at one of the many cleaned tables but no - bar stools were fetched from another area and we climbed up on the stools which I now realised I was overdressed and what I was wearing was not meant to be worn on a bar stool - finally our table right next to 2 cleaned ones from the get go was ready for us to sit at bearing in mind I was told I needed to vacate this table by 8pm so we were a little behind schedule after the surprise bar stop.

Also had to say a couple came in just for a drink and were made to sit outside in the cold wind and through the window was 3 empty tables that stayed empty for the hour they were there! - it's like the clean tables are scared or something - not the way to work a dining room.

Nice enough young waitstaff choose a couple of seafood dishes and sides tiny portions and the Prawns swimming in oil the small serve of seafood soup you could hardly get the spoon in the dish it was so tiny!

Still hungry after those snacks so thought we would finish with a cheese plate coming out on a cheese trolley? - that was just so wrong looking - lumps of dried up cheese that had sat out in open for too long didn't have the heart to tell the earnest young girl no thanks and choose the 3 best looking lumps on offer.

Really thought this was going to be a gastronomic experience but no - they need an adult to run the place and maybe Josh to stick his head in the kitchen to give them a tune up - luckily the wine was nice - but at $300 poorer after the experience left...

Food is amazing. But when finding out what our bill was I discovered they charged us for things that we didn't order. The waiter had mucked up one friends order and when telling him that we wanted the steak not the fish, he kindly told us he'd get the steak. Unbeknown to myself until I checked the receipt-

I discovered that not only did he charge us for the fish we didnt order, but also for the steak which my friend originally ordered????

Ordered five shots of Baileys, they charged us for ten. (Might of given us doubles, but I did not ask for doubles)

Charged for x3 carrot cake that we did not order.

Toilets not clean.

The water is not free and unfortunately our waiter didnt tell us it wasn't free. So we clocked up a big water bill.

Received extra dishes which we thought were side dishes, wrong again they were dishes that they just brought out and we supposedly ordered them???

Also we were a big group of maori descent, others did not like that and asked to be seated further away from us.

The blonde at reception very rude and arrogant.

I couldn't go back to ask them about all these wrongful charges, as I didn't look at my receipt till I reached home in Hamilton. I am very tempted to post of a photo of my receipt as there were ten of us and we all had 4 courses, plus drinks. Why on earth would we order all these extra things that Ostros charged us for? There was so much food that when I asked if we could take home all our untouched dishes, the answer was-" no we dont do that"- replied the arrogant rude blonde.

I felt very uncomfortable and was treated like I had no previous dining experience. All in all I felt disgustingly hustled down to the cent. Food amazing though! Ostros, you need professional...