Wynyard Pavilion — Restaurant in Waitematā

The ordering process/lack of service was absolutely ridiculous. Customers are expected to place order by scanning a QR code on the table, which takes you to an online ordering system - all good, have done it before & is simple enough.

To place the order one is then required to enter personal details such as your phone number & email address. Sigh. Fine, record my personal data just so I can order a meal. After a few insociable minutes of my table ignoring each other to place the order on a mobile, the system requests a code verification via text, except after it verifies it loses the order & I have to start over again.

Go through the whole ordeal yet again, only to get an error right at the end stating thay none of the 4 food items we ordered was available. I try to wave a waitress down without luck. I get up to stand at the concierge table to get someone's attention. After a few minutes of waiting, someone turns up & tells me that the online menu has now been update to include dinner service items & to place the order... yet AGAIN.

Third time seems to be the charm, but wait, what's this?! A "would you like to add a tip for the service today?" appears before the payment screen to slap me in the face. What service exactly?

We were hoping the food would redeem the gross ordering process, but it turned out to be...

Sorry but the online ordering system might have seemed like a good idea at the time but this whole concept of scanning to order put me off as soon as I sat down. The service was slow considering the online order is supposed to speed things up. For me the whole point of getting out to restaurants is to eat good food, socialise and have great service. Having your customers reach for their phone to order undermines all three. The ordering plays a huge part in the experience of eating out. You can’t replace personal customer service with an online ordering system that is better suited to McDonalds. To have a gratuity tip option to pay up front for a service you don’t know is going to be good or not is a stretch. I normally tip well but didn’t feel comfortable tipping up front before the service. Pity the staff probably have seen their tips slashed. With the food taking almost an hour to be served and the very salty pavilion fried chicken and under cooked squid I am glad i didn’t tip up front. The staff were friendly and were good to explain how things worked. So the service is nice when it happens, just slow. However, this is my own personal experience and I see from other reviewers that their experience was more positive, which I...

My friend and I came here for dinner and a drink after work. She made a booking. When I arrived, I waited at the “please wait to be seated” sign at the door for ages watching staff chatting at the bar. No one came to seat me. Eventually I just walked in. We sat at a table set up with water glasses but no water. After a while of talking and no one speaking to us we eventually guessed that we’d have to order online through the QR system that charges us an online surcharge. Food and drinks came - they were okay but nothing to write home about. We told the waitress that we were sharing the food but then had to flag down another waitress for sharing plates after trying to get someone’s attention for a while. No one meal checked us. There were a crazy amount of flies that we had to be swatting away throughout our meal. After our meals, we tried to order desserts but we assumed the kitchen had closed as the menu was no longer available on the app - also something that wasn’t communicated to us. As people with front of house experience ourselves, we can say that the service was terrible. In fact, it was non-existent. Not a single person spoke to us for the entirety...