Rosie Parnell — Restaurant in Waitematā

Well, first my son and I had a bit of difficulty confirming we were at the correct spot. It was dark and we could not see any prominent lit sign on the windows or building. We could see people in the restaurant because it has a large glass facade on two fronts.

We found what appeared to be the entrance with a very small (to us) sign on the door - not bold solid type but outline type. Hard for us to see in the low light.

Getting in the doorway was also an experience. You have to go through two doors both at 90 degrees to each other. When you go through the first door, the second door handle is immediately to your right. But the door is quite large so that when you pull it open you have to step backwards. It is really awkward to get around it if you are the first person doing the door opening. The next person however, gets and easy entrance

Clearly this made an impression on me so much so that I have written two paragraphs before I even get to the food!

I liked the feel of the place. Service was very attentive. I ordered fish as a main and cauliflower fritters along with my main (normally served as entree). My son ordered the venison

The fish was served on a bed of couscous with courgettes and cherry style tomatoes. The pan fried monk fish was perfectly cooked and tasted soft and succulent. I really enjoyed that.The couscous and raw vegetables were only ok for me. I would have preferred to have herbed and vine roasted tomatoes and potatoes with olive oil. That just seemed to me to be the thing that come up with that dish. I mentioned that to the waiter to pass on to the chef. But I get that he wanted to offer something a bit different.

The cauliflower fritters were bang on and delicious. There were five of them but my son managed to scoff two! They were served with hummus and yoghurt - definitely worth ordering

My son's venison was cooked to perfection too but the beetroot accompaniment was only so so as well

I would like to go back again - maybe for lunch or early dinner in the summer since the place did look very cosy and friendly.

My son had mulled wine but thought there was too much sugar. I tried one of the craft beers - Sawmill Pilsner - really like the fruity taste.

All in all a...

The food was delicious, couldn't fault it in anyway. When we went to pay, the system dropped out. After waiting in a queue for sometime, we were shifted to another till and the wait was at least another 15 minutes there before moving us back to the original till and because we were top of the original queue, we became the last in the queue. We asked if we could have their bank account number, with NO being the answer. We were told by the waiter this was a daily occurrence and it would remedy it self shortly. The the same waiter said" Well you didn't get up from your table until 1.28 and it now only 1.40, we had not got up from the table at 1.28 , it was long before that, more likely 1.10. He said he would prove it on his phone, which he then couldn't do and added "Well you can't be much in hurry if you can let me do this". How rude. 30 minutes to pay is totally wrong and if they had given us the bank account number as originally requested we could have been out of there in no time. Another lady said they couldn't get the bank account because the number was in the till which wouldn't open. If this is a daily occurrence as we were told, surely they can get a better solution. No other establishment I know has their eftpos going out regularly. What had been a very nice lunch was ruined by this smart mouth waiter and the time standing in queues. They are only young and don't realise that older people have issues standing for periods of time. I have arthritis...

We arrived, nice friendly atmosphere but there were lots of flies. My food was delivered and was luke warm at best, other food at the table was incorrect. Ordered omelette but received scrambled eggs and toast. The chef corrected but not cooked properly. Was omelette on the outside and scrambled inside. Chef, scrambled eggs are NOT an omelette! We had ordered some bread to start, (as a starter funnily enough) with clear communication re it being a "starter", however, we received with the main food order (I had pretty much given up by this point)and the flies were everywhere. Meanwhile, I stopped eating, to be polite, and as expected, mine was then completely cold. Had to ask for our drinks twice and they served the wrong wine. Service was very average and staff gave a "plastic" caring appearance. EG: "Sorry about that", with little or no follow through. Used to go there quite often and thought we would try again. Not going back. Lots of other places to choose and too many flies, you need to fix that, it's a...