The Empire Est 1950 — Restaurant in Wellington

Booked my 30th birthday celebration at the Butcher and Brewer and the staff were amazing. They made the process super easy when organised the venue. I initially was only booking a dinner/table in the main restaurant for 30 people and they offered my their private room to have my celebration as my group was quite large. The only hiccup was an issue with my booking being deleted by the system but this was handled amazingly as well - I came in the day before my Saturday event to make sure everything was organised, and the manager had held the room for both the Friday and Saturday because they weren't sure which night I had booked and my contact details had been lost with the booking. When I came in they reassured me that I would have the room and we re-confirmed the time, # attendees and the process for pre-booking meals. All of this for a very reasonable and minimal deposit (nothing compared to the couple thousand $ you would usually have to pay for other venues) which I was then able to credit on the day for the dinner for me and my family and a few drinks.

Everyone individually pre ordered dinner because there were quite a few people coming (and the main restaurant also had a number of dinner reservations for that night), and the meals came out on time and with no issues. The staff were happy to accommodate any last minute requests and would come and check regularly to ask if there was anything else we needed.

The night was really relaxed and I was able the enjoy the whole thing with no stress or issues! I would 100% recommend holding an event at the Butcher and Brewer - great location, great atmosphere and amazing service.

Thank you for making my 30th celebration a memorable one for all the...

We ordered two fish and chips, described by the eaters as "nice", a royale burger, described as "OK" and two steak sandwiches. The steak sandwiches tasted good, however the steak was stone cold. After a few minutes of eating a waitress, who was possibly the manager, walked passed and who we flagged down. We advised that the steak sandwiches tasted good but that the steak was cold. Her response was an uninterested "OK". There was no apology or offer of a replacement. As the food tasted nice, we continued eating. Upon finishing our food another waitress came over to clear away our plates and on doing so we mentioned again about the cold food. Again the response was "OK", but at least this waitress acknowledged that she would let the chef know. Our bill then arrived, without any recognision of our issue. We attended the bar and asked to speak with a manager. The initial waitress returned and after some discussion reluctantly agreed to give us 10% off the bill. This issue was dealt with poorly and unprofessionally by both members of staff, but more so by the waitress/manager who we initially reported to. We advised that although the food tasted good, it was cold - the issue should have been resolved at this point. We shouldn't have had to mention it to a second member of staff and thereafter request a manger. On a separate note - if serving food on a plate, get rid of the paper the food is served on as it becomes soggy and...

This place (Butcher and Brewer – Petone) needs proper management and staff training. Despite being almost empty we (a group of 7 people) had to constantly ask for service or leave our tables to ask staff for assistance. Menu is poorly presented (a stapled 80 gsm paper that was full of greasy, wrinkled and looked like it was printed on a domestic ink jet printer). Instead of serviettes they put kitchen paper towel on the table. The cutlery is placed inside a food can which still had remnants of the original label (Did the previous customer touch my fork? Really? Are you aware we are in the middle of a pandemic?) Food was pretty bad (All of us left the place unhappy with the taste and the presentation of the food we had). The only food that was descent was the bread but for some odd reason the butter had mustard seeds. After finishing our meals, all the plates on the tables were left there. Nobody came to collect them nor asked us if we needed anything else. Again, I had to get up and go to the counter to ask for a dessert menu (which they gave me one single page that we had to share - we were a table of 7). Dessert was disappointing (merengue was dry and with a nasty after-taste). The funny thing is the last time we went there (2 years ago, the food was great, the staff was friendly and attentive, and we were expecting similar service this time). Not coming back for sure (none...