The Blue Breeze Inn — Restaurant in Waitematā

Let's start with the booking. I've been caught it by these online booking sites where you select a date and then it presents times and you find I've that fits, submit, turn up only to find out that the date you selected was changed to the next week. I thought there first time this happened was a me thing so after closer inspection I've found it happens for other restaurants booking systems. These are third party booking systems so not really the restaurants fault and off course if I took the time to actually read the confirmation email in full I would have realized....

Turned up 15 minutes early and had a bit of deja Vu when they couldn't find my booking for a busy Friday night at 6.15.... the staff, well, if management are reading this, you would be wise to look after them as best as you can, there was no fuss, no, "you got it wrong, tough bikkies", there was 100% pure hospitality, seamlessly, effortlessly a table was found (and not in a dark corner) and it was done with smiles and a welcoming that is not often found in hospitality these days. If I could give the service 10 stars I would, from entry to did knowledge to watching progress, cleaning the table so it's not so jammed up with finished plates etc. Yeah, bang on perfection. Thanks for that team.

The food, at first I was skeptical, not my usual choice of fare (daughter choose this place) but I was more than surprised. There was an eggplant dish with whipped tofu...I hear you... Tofu! Wow. Wow. Wow. And .... Guess what, I got to have a discussion about it with one of the team which was nice, sometimes when you eat something different and you're trying to put your finger on the flavors it's nice to have dialog with the team .. etc etc

Yeah, great service , great food, this is hospitality. Thanks for making it last night with our daughter so special (no the team didn't know this was a special occasion for us either).

Can't wait to go back to Auckland to eat at the Blue breeze Inn (on the...

We were a group of 6 who came for dinner to celebrate a family birthday. I wouldn’t recommend for celebrations as was too rushed an experience and the tables are too small/cramped for large groups. Felt like we were on a 4 person table for 6 people.

The food was ok overall - some dishes very very good (chicken dish on the main list, aubergine) and some below average (lamb meatballs which were too salty and a weird flavour, and the dumplings were nothing special at $5 each).

I think it was more let down by the service. The tables are very very small, the restaurant is quite crowded and cramped.

And unfortunately they brought out ALL of the food at the same time so it didn’t fit on the TINY tables.

I don’t think it was unreasonable to expect they bring the dumplings first, then a mix of the small/large dishes so we actually have time to enjoy the food we are eating rather than bringing 7 dishes out at once on tiny tables that can only realistically fit 3 dishes.

They should have told us when taking the order how the food would come out. The Dumplings were brought in midway when I thought they’d be entrees (since the mains were quite overpowering the flavour of the mild dumplings were lost).

We felt very rushed to finish food from serving trays so they could put the rest of the dishes on the table.

I think from the time of ordering to when we finished the food was about 25 minutes total, we stayed for maybe 40-45 mins total because we ordered a second round of drinks after the meal.

Other meals we went to in Auckland we had the table for 1.5+ hours and they spread out entrees from mains, which seems more reasonable for a table of 6.

Hope the management take this feedback on board so other guests don’t experience this rushed feeling...

Very disappointing experience overall.

1. Arrived at 8pm sharp for our booked table. Was sat down, then asked to move after 15 minutes. No order taken as of yet

2. sat at our new table preceded to wait another 5/10 minutes for our order to be taken. When the order was finally taken the waitress turned her attention elsewhere mid conversation leaving a sense of awkwardness amongst the table.

3. asked to add another item to a dish of three to make it four - paying for the extra of course. Was told this was not possible. Would have thought the buns would be made fresh to order so adding one wouldn’t be an issue.

4. kung pao chicken gave the sensation of chewing on a pot of vix vapour rub. Only to be told this ‘mouth numbing sensation’ was normal due to the chilli type used. Very strange - felt like an allergy. Can see from reviews others have felt the same too. How disappointing for a $40 main. This should be made clear before purchase.

5. no one came to check how our meal was.

6. bill for $650 was presented to us for the wrong table.

7. it was made clear to the manager and waitress we were not having the best time however no apology was offered, very strange vibe.

Will not be returning with the abundance of better value & quality asian restaurant alternatives...