Mistress at Manuka

Posted by: Clare, Griffith | 14 January 2010, 10.10am

Our first taste of Manuka was disappointing. We wandered around trying to choose which restaurant to eat at and decided upon Mistress at Manuka. We did note that there were hardly any customers but bit the bullet and went in. Initially I was confused as the coasters had the image of a scantily clad woman and then on the back was 'call me' with apparently the restaurant's number. Not wanting to seem naive but feeling a very odd atmosphere I asked the waitress whether this was a 'normal restaurant'!! To which she replied yes it was. We then proceded to order the $28 per head tappas BBQ and we waited keenly. It arrived in 6 small dishes with miniscule servings. The prawns were old and tough and the batter over cooked and almost burned. The chicken was old and the taste was so bad I couldn't eat anymore. The pork ribs had a good flavour but hardly any flesh on them and were practically all bone. The lemon slices had hardened on the outside as though they had been sliced one or two days ago. Overall it was incredibly bad. We have eaten at many fabulous restaurants that pride themselves on freshness and this place was the complete opposite. We ate it as we knew we had to pay $56 dollars for the meal (that we could have bought at a 24hr truckies diner). We left and decided to call them in the car on the way home. I explained respectfully and in a calm voice our experience there to which he replied "we have never had any complaints. What do you want?" I was taken aback at his reaction as professionalism in business is pertinent, especially in a small area like Manuka. I suggested he take on board what we have said to improve their business and possibly their restaurant would fill up like the surrounding ones (that were obviously much more popular as they were full to the brim and we were 1 of 3 tables which soon became just us). He angrily accepted this and that was the end. We will NEVER EVER go back there it was probably the worse dining experience we have ever had. Unfortunately for them we now live just up the road and dine out on a regular basis.

Food:			Visit: Tue 12 January 2010 Mealtime: dinner
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Posted by: ItsNotHard | 31 July 2009, 2.09pm

The food here was actually quiet tasty, but the service killed it. Slow, forgetful, had to ask for drinks several times despite the barman looking right at our table, we ordered a bottle of wine that was plonked down on the table - no offer to taste it, or even pour it for us (albeit he had gone to the trouble to unscrew the cap).

We ordered the 'all you can eat' bbq. The starters were nice, but quite small servings. The side dishes to the main meal were served a good 10 mins before any meat arrived. Finally 2 of the 5 meat dishes arrived, we were served one or two bites onto our plates, and then we saw the other 3 meat courses over the next 45 minutes. Eating a chunk of steak off on an empty plate... not the best dining experience.

There was no offer to top up our side dishes, or for any extra meat - not sure where the 'all you can eat' comes in.

We were very disappointed.

Food:			Visit: Fri 10 July 2009 Mealtime: dinner
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Posted by: Bluenomi | 20 July 2009, 1.34pm

I decided for my birthday to have a group dinner at Mistress since I've done the 'all you can eat' South American meat feast before at another place and loved it.
Hmm, the all you can eat didn't happen. It was a good 2 hours after ordering (even more since arriving) that we started to see the first stick which consisted of a few tiny bits of chicken that wasn't even enough for the people who had ordered it. The accompaniments had come 20 minutes earlier and had been ravenously devoured as we were getting pretty hungry by that stage! It was a good 10 minutes before the next lot arrived and over the next hour we got dribs and dabs for meat.
Of the 8 different types on the menu, we only got 6 and small amounts of all of those. Upon asking where the beef was, the waiter said he would ask and then never returned with an answer. It never came. The waiter was limiting how much we could have saying they didn t have enough food for everyone. It is advertised as all you can eat yet they seemed to barely have enough food for the people who ordered. Half our table didn t even have the all you can eat option so imagine the food shortage if they did!
2 people ordered the vegetarian tapas and got a tiny amount of food. As they we passing out the plates for the mains they gave them some saying theirs was vegetarian food coming for them. After we finally started getting our mains, they asked about theirs only to be told no they had gotten all they we going to get. We had suspected that was the case but after being told that they we getting more they were understandably annoyed about now not getting anything. Another friend asked to order another tapas dish and was told (at 9:30, an hour or more before the mains arrived) that the kitchen was no longer making tapas, just the meat on sticks.
Needless to say after not getting what we had ordered, and bad service, we asked to speak to the manager. Who refused to come out of the kitchen and sent his poor, young, under trained staff to deal with us. Apparently he was cleaning. The manager refusing to deal with upset clientele is not a good look

Food:			Visit: Mon 20 July 2009 Mealtime: dinner
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Posted by: Heama | 29 June 2009, 10.20am

I had planned a night out for my partners birthday and thought i would try something different. I had heard about this restaurant on the radio station 104.7.

I knew it was going to be a bad night when the manager had told me that all of there beers on tap were not working, so i ordered a bottle of beer for myself plus a lemonade for my partner; as I handed over $10 I expected to get some chnge back and was very shocked that no change was coming my way but instead I recieved a stupid joke about how they arent dodgy (I didnt know you had to pay extra for stupid jokes).

As we sat down and looked at the very, very confusing menu we started to ask alot of questions on how it all works (not being able to understand a menu is not a good sign) we then asked a waiter for assistance - Bad idea; he was just like the menu. Everyone agreed to go for the Tapas selection for two as we were all couples ($28 pp)2 couples went for the Snack Selection and the rest of us went for the BBQ Selection. The food arrived which left us wondering where the rest of it was??? the two couples who ordered the Snack Selection were best off, they got to share there meal as a couple; the rest of us (8 people) had to share from two platters - each platter had the equivalent amount of food as the Snack Selection. Other than the food portions being very meagre it was very nice.

Sorry about the novel but this was meant to be a night of clebration for my partner and because of this dump it was ruined.

Food:			Visit: Fri 26 June 2009 Mealtime: dinner
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