Bricklane Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Whau

Had a 7pm booking, when we arrived our table wasn't ready and the staff were apologetic as they were running behind and seemed understaffed. We weren't bothered, got drinks at the bar and waited patiently.

At that point, although two different wait staff knew we were waiting for our table, it wasn't until we went and asked if our table was ready that we were actually seated.

One of the wait staff came to take our food order but we asked for a bit more time as we'd only just sat down. Eventually, after noone came back, I went up and mentioned we were ready to order.

A waiter came over and we all asked for mains. He told us "there'd be a long wait for our order" and asked if we'd like to order entrees. We assumed that meant they would come out quicker, so placed orders for entrees. The waiter repeated the order back to confirm.

We waited and waited. 8pm... nothing. A waitress came over to ask if we wanted drinks and we told her we were still waiting on food. She advised there were orders for two tables ahead of us, and our order would be next. We kept waiting.

Finally, it was after 9pm and still nothing. No other staff had come to check on our table, and the dining room had started clearing out. I went up to the counter and the lady asked which table we were at, as she thought I'd come up to pay. I clarified that we were still waiting to receive any food.

She apologised and asked whether the "blond guy or the dark-haired guy" had taken our order. I pointed out the waiter and she went to talk to him - when she came back she apologised and said our order hadn't even been put through, but that they would do it right away.

By then my friends and I had been at Bricklane for over two hours, so I asked that they cancel our entrees and just bring out the mains. She said sure, and that our order would be discounted. I thanked her and went back to the table.

I updated my friends and they were annoyed (super hungry) but understood. The staff brought out two sides of complimentary fries and apologised. The woman I'd spoken to (I assume a manager) came and told us our order was 15 minutes away and offered us a complimentary round of drinks. We thanked her and ordered a round.

About 5 minutes after that, a waiter came over with our drinks and told us our food would be about 15 minutes away. It was around 9.20pm at that stage.

When our food finally came out, most of the meals were excellent. Unfortunately, my friend's eye fillet surf n turf (which we'd encouraged her to order as we were celebrating her recent achievement) which was ordered medium-rare, was well over. She was really disappointed, but started to eat it anyway as it was so late that we were all ravenous.

We called one of the wait staff over (the same one who had not placed our order) and my friend explained - politely and reasonably - that her steak was overcooked. The waiter argued and tried to tell her that it was medium-rare. It definitely wasn't.

I disagreed and asked him to send the chef over so we could speak to him instead - he came back with the manager, who said she would take it back and get the kitchen to "put it back on". Not exactly sure how an over-cooked steak was supposed to become less cooked by cooking it for longer??

I said it had been 2.5 hours since our booking time and so my friend was hungry and would eat the meal, but we expected it would be discounted or comped since it wasn't how she had ordered it. The manager argued and mentioned they'd already comped our drinks. I pointed out that was due to the separate issue of our order being totally forgotten. She then tried to take the meal away and said if it was eaten, we'd have to pay.

I countered this and she finally agreed, but was rude and dismissive. We had completely lost our appetites by this point and shortly afterwards we left.

When I paid I explained the situation to another manager, who was reasonable and comped 2 of 5 meals.

0/5. Good food, terrible dining experience. No longer a fan and won't be...

Last Sunday 22nd may my partner and I took my grand daughter for lunch to brick lane. The restaurant was relatively empty on arrival. We asked for a table for three for lunch and where could we sit. Wherever we would like was the response. After sitting down at no less than three places and being told that each table was booked I suggested maybe a reserved sign should be placed on the said reserved tables. In exasperation I asked to be shown where we could sit there was apparently only one table available. We three then decided not to stay and moved on to have lunch elsewhere where we felt more welcome. But wait !!!!!!!there's more. Yesterday Saturday the 28th may around 3.30pmish we called in again in the hope of catching up with a friend for a drink. The place again was fairly empty and our friend was not there. We decided to have a drink anyway and stood at the bar and waited and waited with no staff coming to serve us. Finally as we were about to leave a blonde female waiter arrived behind the bar with the comment YES! I ordered our drinks reluctantly and was quite shocked to be asked to pay before drinks were poured. The drinks were plunked down on the bar and I asked if I could please have some ice in my wine. At this stage apart from the initial YES and the cost of the drinks this very rude and unhelpful waiter had nothing else to say, nor a smile. The glass with the ice was again plunked down on the bar and she was off out of site to somewhere behind the bar. I very angrily yelled thanks so much without any response from her at all. Just prior to her serving us a young man who said he was one of the duty managers heard and saw the interaction I had with the waiter looked somewhat bewildered when I suggested to him that her behaviour was unacceptable merely commented that she was just unwell. Perhaps she should have been at home instead of making our experience so uncomfortable. We had no apology from either him nor her. I...

We wanted to stay local & thought we would try something new. This experience made me wish we hadn't.

We (5) arrived on time for our 7pm reservation & waited to be seated. We weren't even shown/taken to our table, the guy at the counter just pointed & said "your table is over there". Waited 10mins before I had to walk back over to the counter & REQUEST menus for our table - in that 10mins the waitress passed us numerous times & saw nothing on the table but no offer to help AND the man at the front was on the phone. Said waitress comes to take our order after some time & I found her manner unpleasant & unbothered. I know hospitality is hard & I don't go out of my way to be rude but we waited over an hour for food with no updates. When the waitress came with finger bowls for washing, not food, I asked where our order was, she replied "oh, it will be here soon" I told her I would've appreciated her mentioning there would be such a long wait seeing it was just after 8pm now & it's not like the place was pumping. Our food arrives about 10mins later brought over by another man who had been serving on the other side & it was extremely underwhelming considering the price we paid. His manner, was alot better than the first.

We were considering just walking out, that's how long we waited & how uncomfortable this experience was. When you've booked somewhere away from your usual to celebrate, you expect more.

It wasn't busy, in fact it was very quiet even being a Friday night. I left feeling annoyed & like we had been shoved into a corner & not worried about at all after paying over $200 for our food. The service was terrible, the atmosphere under average & we definitely will not visit...