Uff… where to start? I think anyone reading the recent comments will already be able to tell, that there are new owners who have essentially totally mangled what used to be an iconic spot in Pōneke / Wellington.

I don’t know if it pays to reiterate, but basically the food was exceptionally bland - neither my partner or i could finish our meals. The “salsa” tasted like tomatoes straight out of a tin. The chicken was greasy and flavourless - we didn’t think it was possible to make fried chicken taste so bad. The wait staff seemed stressed and disorganised. They failed to order the beignets to our initial coffee order and when i asked after them they told me they were out. The wait on the mains was extremely long. There were ZERO homemade pie options available. There were also no hot sauces on the tables and the waiter has to search high and low to find some unlabelled dodgy bottle. The vast selection of legit Mexican imported sauces used to be a staple.

The music which was an integral part to the experience was replaced by generic boring 90’s radio music (and no, not the good ones). And this drove us almost to tears as we waited forever for our inedible lunch.

I have no idea why Diana sold SMK and allow something so special to many to leave (literally) such a bad taste in our mouths. If someone knows, please share!

To the new owners if you read this: you have taken on a huge project here and obviously folks have high expectations if you. Why not try find a way to make this place your own, and be forthright about the changes instead of trying to continue something which you clearly have insufficient knowledge about? I sincerely wish you the best, but please stop breaking our hearts by serving cheap imitations of our favourite dishes 😢