The West End Market — Restaurant in Dunedin

Went last night and found it confusing. The bar was beautiful, but the layout while trying to get food was crowded and the food was just ok and when my buzzer went off to pickup my food, they got the order wrong and I had to wait longer as it was not ready. There is little room for people to stand in line to get to the food vendors. The theme downstairs was disjointed with the lovely, upscale bar, then astroturf and tiki bar elements. Also the live music was off in a cramped corner up front, while there was a large open area of astroturf that was no being used. There is no space for live music, which seems to be a planning mistake. Also the staircase right in the middle broke up the space in a bad way. It was also hot sitting downstairs, while it was a breezy nice night outside, there was not a lot of air circulation inside. Can't imagine what it will be like in the summer. There was only one ceiling fan at the front of the downstairs space which did nothing for the rest of the area. The small clothing store also felt out of place. Also I found it weird that the main thing you saw when you looked up was a corporate conference room with glass front. Felt like they can't decide what they want to be - I understand it is a MIX, but there should be a cohesive feel to the space that ties it together. I wish they had stuck with the decor they used with the bar and carried that throughout. Upstairs also felt disconnected from the downstairs vibe, with the empty rooms, conference room, and odd glassed in bar that looked like a private space. We were disappointed after all the hype that has been happening since they opened. Seems to be a Armature Works wannabe that...

Well, I was excited to check this place out after seeing on the news. prices are reasonable, I was excited for the vegan place however.... it's not the best quality of products they use, and of all the chips in the world ... you get a bag of lays chips with your frozen vegan burger. not sure why I was expecting like maybe in-house made vegan burgers. so that was a no go.... but THEN JUST FYI, DO NOT TAKE YOUR KIDS HERE. We came with our kids because we love these places where we as parents can still enjoy an adult beverage in a chill environment while the kids are able to also not be cramped inside a restaurant. the place is VERY cute.... but 5 seconds after the kids finished eating their $75.00 worth of food (which btw was delicious from the Italian place) we were asked to leave because our children were not sitting like statues. We barely finished our drink and hadn't even ordered yet! So, my guess is that's it's more of a cocktail chill adulting only vibe and not a bring your kids and everyone chills kind of vibe. I think it was the Huli bowl guy that came out and said "sorry guys they want y'all to leave because of your kids" that did it for me. like, hang a sign please parking was not the best, my guess is they figure everyone will Uber there since it's cocktails...

My Husband and I like to make day trips to visit local places we see on the morning news (Charlie’s World particularly). We headed here looking forward to the rotating bar. The Bartender Mark was the best thing about the place. We were the only people there. We read each menu carefully and decided on the Hawaiian place. You would think he would have been happy to be chosen since there were ZERO customers, but instead he was ‘bugged’ that we didn’t read the sign that says ‘ring the bell’, while he sat there on his phone literally 6” from the glass window. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt that his humor was dry. Not the case. We drove 30 minutes to patronize this place and we were in great spirits. Everything in these 1 star reviews is true. Massively underwhelming. Mediocre food (which I was afraid to eat because of the attitude we received). Horrible service. Overpriced for the quality. We tipped generously in case Hula Boy was just having a bad day and he refused to even smile. We prefer charming Dunedin. We will never go back to this place and I don’t see how they are...