Sweet Mother's Kitchen — Restaurant in North Island

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...

Honestly I've never written a bad review ever. I've worked in hospitality for over 15 years, working and managing various restaurants and cafes. This is why I don't write reviews in general as I have faced probably every complaint you can imagine and know how difficult it is to please people. My experience here started well, I was served fairly quickly. My coffee and food arrived quickly too. The food was actually really good (I had Flossy's favourite) I enjoyed every mouthful and was disappointed when I couldn't eat it all. After I'd finished the waitress cleared my plate and asked if I wanted anything else. I'd said no. I sat and drank the rest of my coffee and ironically as I did so my Google guides app popped up and asked if I wanted to write a review. As I said I don't write reviews but I do always try to add pictures of the places I visit. As I'm sitting adding the pictures the bill is literally dropped in front of me. It was such a clunk as the saucer hit the table and when I look up the waitress doesn't even look just marches off. I guess this was my sign that they wanted me to pay and leave. Honestly I felt so uncomfortable after this and had no choice but to leave. I've never given the bill to anyone before they've asked for it. It is just plain rude. At the time it wasn't that busy and honestly if they were desperate for the table back, I'd of been happy to go if they'd asked me. I'm a fairly understanding person. I'd been there half an hour in total (I was clock watching as I had a flight to catch) which I don't think I'd an unreasonable amount of time to use a table. Considering I also spent $29 it wasn't like I was drinking water and...

Dreadful experience.

Having dined here before and very much enjoyed it, my experience tonight was absolutely terrible, and will certainly be my last visit.

Ordered three starters and three mains along with drinks.

Five minutes later told two of the starters and two mains not available, so hasty rethink made.

Half an hour later the one available starter (garlic bread) arrived with one of the mains, 15 minutes later a second main course arrived, and ten minutes after than the final main dish arrived.

First dish to arrive was a nicely cooked steak, the second a very small portion of jerk chicken - the accompanying black beans dry and quite solid as though it had been sitting under a heat lamp for a long time. The third dish was diabolical - TWO pork ribs on a pile of fries.

I am loathe to complain, and I appreciate that times are tough, but two pork spareribs is not a main meal, and certainly not one that I am prepared to pay $27 for.

My complaint was escalated from the very helpful server, through to the duty manager and on to the kitchen, where chef reportedly feels that this is indeed a full main course size rib dish, and had sent out multiple such dishes that night without complaint.

After much back and forth between the manger and kitchen eventually the rib dish was deducted from my bill, but the whole experience was so disappointing, especially having so enjoyed the food here on our previous visit a year or so ago.

My advice would be to avoid and spend your...