Parnell 149 — Restaurant in Waitematā

Bitterly disappointed with the poor quality of our experience here and its exorbitant unjustified cost.

Parnell 149 claims fine dining but we left feeling like we had been fined for giving them a shot.

We booked a table for my birthday which also happens to fall on Valentine’s Day through First Tables. We were given very small notification at booking that on this day they were only offering a set menu. This wasn’t my first choice, however having seen their regular menu agreed to see how it was.

The Tuna Tartare started out hopeful though wait staff incorrectly served our individual whisky orders. We let this slide because they took so long to arrive.

By time our entree arrived I was distinctly disappointed with how overcooked and rubbery our scallops were. Despite being overdone both the scallops and Crab Roulade arrived to our table tepid. When served, without asking clarification, for whatever reason wait staff assumed my partner ordered the steak main course and I the risotto and adjusted our utensils. I didn’t appreciate this assumption (because why? Our genders? Pppft) noticing each time we were approached it was by a different server.

Our main course took forever to arrive, 1.5 hours into our meal. I chose the eye fillet steak and was instantly put off by the tablespoon size blob of cold mashed potato, 4cm of carrot and 2 green beans. I was expecting as is typical with fine dining that each morsel be exceptional however it was all entirely lacking in flavour, temperature and texture. Notably cold and bland potato. Limp mushy beans. The small piece of carrot was tasty, however comical in portion. My steak just skated by though unevenly cooked with parts of it over done. Our truffle risotto was tasty though the portion was also highly disappointing. This too arrived at around room temperature.

Because we waited SO LONG for our meals to arrive and expected that the set menu cost to be comparable to that of their day to day menu I decided not to send the plates back and enjoy each others company.

During desert we were interrupted and told within 10minutes we needed to vacate because they needed the table. This annoyed me significantly because of how long we had had to wait for our each of dishes to arrive and now we were being rushed out.

The set menu price we then discovered turned out to be priced excessively (about $100pp more) above their typical menu and we were left in complete shock at our final bill even with the first table discount applied.

My problem is not at all paying for quality food and service. My issue is that we did not receive this and left feeling completely robbed. Given the poor quality of not just the food but our wait service I can see absolutely no justification whatsoever for what we were obligated to pay.

It really seems that they overinflated their price due to it being Valentine’s Day. I am internationally versed in fine dining and can see no reason why the menu offered was priced so significantly higher than their day to day offerings. Had there been any indication of how excessively we were to be charged we would have respectfully cancelled.

I left extremely disappointed feeling my birthday had been utterly tainted. I understand their response to this feedback (if any) will likely be to attempt to justify the poor experience but as I see it there is no justification at all for allowing customers to leave with such a bitter taste.

My suggestion to customers is to avoid this restaurant. And to Parnell 149, be worthy of the...

If i could give zero stars i would unfortunately. I found the manager to be blunt, unapologetic and have aye if you dont like it leave attitude.

We were told upon arrival the vegan menu is not available unless 8 mains are ordered. No where does it stipulate this. The manager argued with us that it was on the website, when i showed him on my phone he said it was an IT issue, its still not there today and i have seen other google reviews show this os a common lie. We had 1 vegan at our table she was told she had 3 options like it or lump it. She was served supermarket falefal and dry under cooled flavourless risotto. Steak was delish but served with 2 single beans. Bizzare.

The service and quality issues started early in the evening and as my friends started to complain i asked them to stop as I thought everyone was trying there best. Boy i was wrong.

Espresso martinis extremely watery and poor.

Multiple times through the evening we were served the wrong drinks ( 2 of which we were charged for but i just paid for then as after the rigmarole we had with our bill it wasint worth the stress for $20). Our waitress was 16, it was her first day and she was lovely but completely unsupported.

Waitresses could not hear requests due to earpieces in there ears which was bizzare.

At the end of the evening our bill was messed up resulting in one of our table guests being over charged by $72. They also refused to let individuals pay for there own meals (which is what caused the entire issue) and instead the bill was only allowed to be split into 3 payments.

The manager was rude, unapologetic and argumentative. Instead of listening to the issue and resolving he went round and around in circles untill i was at the point of tears before he actually listened and admitted yes i was correct , that he had the wrong end of the stick, i had been right all along and that one of our guests required a refund and myself to pay and additional $36 due to the error. This was after 20minutes of asking me to stop talking and listening, telling me inwas wrong and bashing away on his calculator. I had asked him to refund and re charge the orders he refused and instead took my $36 and my friends bank account number to refund on monday or tuesday. All in all it was a horrifically unpleasant and unbelievable experience i have never felt more humiliated talked down too or embarrassed before. This was an extremely easy issue to fix , refund one patron and re charge the other, that he turned into such a saga and made me Feel awful. I also felt really bad to telling my Friends off earlier in the night for complaining when really….they were in the right. It was terrible.

This is supposed to be a high class establishment and honestly it struck me as a failing restaurant, Skimping on quality with extremely poor service that made me feel like a second class citzen.

I would not return...

Made a booking through First Table. When we got there, we were let inside, but soon after the manager came to our table and said they cannot accommodate us. Apparently they had tried to ring me twice to confirm my booking, but I did not answer. For this reason, they cancelled my booking.

Nowhere does it state on their website or First Table (as of writing) that you had to wait for a phone call from the restaurant to confirm your booking. To me, the fact that I booked and paid the booking fee already shows my commitment to dine. This seems natural, and has always been the case for all the places I have been to.

On top of that, the manager was not apologetic at all. In fact, he phrased it as if it was our fault that we did not answer their calls, stating it was their "service policy" to ring and confirm booking, and cancel the booking when the attempt to confirm is unsuccessful. He said this is because "some people book by accident." When I asked if I would be refunded my $10 booking fee, he simply shrugged and said "I don't know."

What a surreal experience.

EDIT: Response to owner's post: I appreciate you only hear one side of the story, so let me try to set some things straight (although it will be my word against your employee):

I have no complaint against your SOP's. To reiterate, my 2 complaints were: a) This "requirement to give phone confirmation" was not made apparent on the onset of my booking (through T&Cs in First Table). If it had been, I would have been on the lookout for a call. Just as you are busy, your customers can also be busy and not answer calls they do not expect. b) Your employee made it out to be completely our fault, despite me telling him I was driving and was unable to answer his call, AND I already booked and paid $10 (showing my commitment to dine which I believe far surpasses any phone call confirmation). There was no attempt to see things from our perspective - it was a pure one-sided "here are our rules, you broke them, so unfortunately we cannot accommodate you."

Your employee did not "advised (us) in a very polite & respectful manner that your table will ready by 1.30 pm". Putting polite/respectful aside (my post already addresses that), he advised us that they can accommodate us at 2pm, which is past our booking. If he told us our table will be ready by 1.30pm, we would have no problems with that. We did not force ourselves to be let in early, we asked your staff.

I hope this clarifies things, and shows how my original post "adds value/relevance in terms of me giving...