foundation bar kitchen & lounge

my first visit to foundation bar and i will be back! the cleanliness, atmosphere and music were great. the food fantastic and the service i have to say was the best i have ever had at arestaurantin hamilton (20years). thank you michelle.

a great place to dine! the atmosphere is very relaxing yet lively with both arestaurantand bar side. i recommend booking in advance because it gets packed out quickly on weekends. i had the blue cheese fettuccine and it was amazing!!! where else can you get blue cheese pasta?! i rate the pasta 10/10. my friend had the lamb shank and rates it 7/10 (the meat could have been more juicy). a great level of service, staff are very attentive. overall a lovely location for a date night.

came down this way on father's day and took him out for lunch to this restaurant. having been here before and having a good experience that time thought it would be a not bad choice again.  and we were not proved wrong.  even though it was busy as when we went in we were quickly seated in a " conservatory " type area.  it was actually good because it kept us away from the far noisier main part of the restaurant. the service was really good and the orders taken pretty quickly despite how busy it was. we chose the sticky pork ribs for my other half, the steak, egg & chips for me and my parents both had the fish & chips.  i also ordered the boysencider....which as you can guess is cider with the flavour of boysenberry .  that added flavour made it quite nice actually...bit of a break from the normal old cider.  my parents had ordered a couple of glasses of wine but instead the waiter came along with a couple of coffees!! this was quickly remeded and the correct order brought to the table. this was the only flaw in the service and the reason why i didn't give it the full 5 /5. shame ....because everything else was great.  our orders came out quickly and enjoyed by all,  except the ribs though good were not as good as other ribs we'd tasted; the steak for me which i had asked to be done medium rare was done exactly as i had asked, the fries were nice and chunky ....great to go with the steak and the eggs were just perfectly cooked that when you cut into them the yolk ran out.  the fish and chips was very good too. still with enough room in our stomachs i ordered the rice pudding and my other half the creme brulee off the desert menu. the rice pudding was delicious and one of the best i've had in arestaurantfor quite a while. as for the creme brulee , i tasted a little and it too was very nice...the custard cooked well and the burnt sugar top cracking as it should. perfect.  so anyway overall the service was great bar that mistake with the drinks , the price what you would expect and the food great. all in all deserving a return visit sometime.,

stopped by for lunch and it looked the best option at the te awarestaurantarea.

therestaurantwas quite large and has a really nice interior. we just got a table in the main dining area but there were booths and outdoor seating as well.

service was quite good. aside from waiting a bit for menus, we were well taken care of.

lots of options on the menu, standard pub food selection. the scotch was good but a bit overcooked. the ribs were quite nice. portions were quite good.

nice place to stop by for decent food.

duty manager kick us out of therestaurantwhen we walk into there!!!!!

went there today for some dessert at wednesday night, but the first word heard from you guys when we walked into is not "hello welcome", its" do you have id?" !!! sadly my wife haven't bring id with her today and we been told to get out of therestaurantby the duty manager. what a stupid service there.i can understand u can sale liquior to minor, but i cant understand you kick customer out at the first beginning!! u should do it when you sale your beer!!! what a stupid manager u guys hiring...i believe she just want to shut down thisrestaurantby bad service....never been kick out arestaurantstraight away in nz. ridiculous

greeted and seated right away, so that's a good start. a;though we were not offered water glasses, so was forced to empty the candle glass and drink from that.

our first drinks came within a reasonable time frame considering it was valentines day and therestaurantwas pretty busy.
i had the chicken liver pate with apple jelly and cranberry reduction, wish there was more variation in terms of the bread on the board besides ciabatta. the other person had the pulled pork taco and enjoyed it.

for mains, i had the steak sandwich with chips. the menu said served medium rare and when i cut it open, hello it was overcooked. luckily the duty manager was in my sight and came to look at the steak-he agreed with me and immediately took it back. got a free mojito as a result of the kitchens mistake and his nice positive attitude.  when the dish was returned with the new steak, it was delicious.

my mojito tasted nice, but found the mint flavour didn't come through enough

a few things i found annoying
the sun was in my eye for some of the night, so had to wear sunglasses.
when i went to pay the bill at the bar, the person spoke to me in a rude and questionable tone. she questioned why my mojito was free, like if you don't believe me- find the dm and ask.
the girl who brought over the mains the first time, she did not know who had what dish. either she was new or lacked confidence in her role.

the dm as i said in a previous paragraph was nice and had a positive attitude, he made sure that my problem was fixed immediately.  

i would like to see a menu change as i noticed many of the starters had a substantial amount of cheese, cream based items or bread.

likely to be back as it is up the road from my house

my sister and i went out for dinner at foundation bar on a busy friday night. we were greeted immediately and seated in a lovely booth. our waitress (michelle) came over - introduced herself and told us the specials. she was very well mannered and helped me to decide on my meal (great mac n cheese!). the starter came out very quick - hot and tasty! michelle then asked if we would like our meals to be called away as we ate our starter - we said yes as we were very keen for the next course. everything was cooked wonderfully. we were offered desserts but were way too stuffed with cheese to eat anything else!

i used to manage arestaurantand this is how service should be. big ups to michelle who was a fantastic waitress - thank you michelle :)

overall a good experience, wonderful mains but needs work on some of the dessert options. next time would do a first course & main and forget about dessert, although a main would be sufficient for me personally - good size.
our waiter could do with a refresher in how to serve with a smile & the art of chatting regardless of how he felt about having to work for a living.
we were seated near the front, side and access for waiters was not easy - at times we found ourselves yelling our orders out to the waiter at the top of the table and when the food came having to pass food along in a chain. this was only in one area of therestaurantand not wide spread but we as paying guests like our space and personal attention.
would more than likely go back but not for a while.

my husband and i were recommended by friends to try thisrestaurantout. settings, menu and décor were really nice. staff were very helpful and friendly. we ordered our food and didn't wait long at all. i had ordered chicken and bacon cabornara and my husband fish & chips. we were impressed with the presentation of both meals but when we started eating the fish and chips were burnt and dry, and the cabornara tasted very old. the bacon was probably reheated and put into the pasta which tasted really horrible. my husband and i politely stood up and left. we have not returned but at some stage would like to give it another try.

we have dined in thisrestauranton 2 previous occassions and found the food to be excellent. however this visit was not any where near as good!
1. the steak was not hot and not medium to rare by any means.
2. the desert was not hot and took forever to arrive.
3. i had to leave my seat and go to the bar twice to get another drink.
4. the starters were cold and under-prepared.

hi i was impressed with the menu, the prices and the presentation of the food. i simply loved the pork sandwich. i've been there with mates about 6 times now and being arestaurantmanager myself, i am pretty impressed overall with what the chef has presented to us every time.
good work chef