The Paddington — Restaurant in Waitematā

So, in the midst of lockdown my boss decided to take me to the first pub he ever went to in New Zealand when he first arrived 20 years ago. Good selection of beers, reasonable table service, there were quite a few in so no issues there, it was never going to be as quick as going to the bar, but the cleanliness cannot be questioned! We had to move tables initially when we arrived due to the clean smell coming from the toilets, but it wasn't until my first visit I realized why! A million and 4 bleach blocks in the urinals, first time ever, in almost 50 years I've had no choice but to whip out my phone to take a photo in a public toilet, but just check this out!! The beer was good, the pizza was also fine, but I've never seen this many bleach blocks in a single place before! Am sure this was a one off and not the normal, and don't let this put you off going to what was otherwise a really pleasant pub, American football on TV, good vibe... Just a bit too...

There were 6 of us dining, we had booked ahead just in case. When we arrived there was almost nobody else in there. The bar has a nice large TV and several others dotted around for those who like to watch sports.

We all chose the roasts, tonight's choice was beef or lamb. Between our group we had the dishes covered. Nobody complained about their food, the main comments were that the meat was quite thinly sliced, and good have been thicker.

Our waitress was very nice and patient whilst we deliberated on what food and drinks were wanted.

It's a shame that it was so quiet, but being a Sunday it may be the norm. Guess we'll have to try another...

We were there with groupon vouchers, and the meal was most disappointing.

I don't know if the portions were small because we were on discounted vouchers, but the thai salad we had that cost $19 had only very few, small pieces of beef. The chicken on the chicken pizza was dry and tasteless, the risotto was good but the portions were small, the steak was medium, well done when requested for medium rare. They did it again, but for a $35 piece of steak it was really small.

If this is their regular portions then it's a very poor value for money. If the portions were minimized due to the Groupon voucher then it shouldn't be called a special...