no. 4 bar

date night here tonight first time my husband and i have been out since baby 3 arrived 10mths ago. we were ready for a rare treat! we enjoyed a wine and beer plus some ciabatta which was tasty. we decided to try a cup of soup and have a light meal. the soup was good and came out promptly after the bread. however service then took a dive and we waited and waited for our light meals which arrived 1hr 30 after they were ordered. a chickensaladand a burger and fries should not take that long. also the burger patty was pink and looked undercooked. thesaladwas boring and lacked flavour. both meals we hardly touched. the waitress took away the burger and said it was the herbs in the patty that made it look pink?? aren't herbs green? she offered us a complimentary dessert but by 10pm we were ready to go home. she took the burger off the total bill but we still left disappointed � we won't be back on our next precious date night. what was worse was my parents had given us a voucher as a christmas present. what a shame we didn't get to enjoy it.

i went there for lunch with a friend who'd flown down earlier this week and have decided never to eat there again.

i ordered the seafoodsaladon a sunday afternoon. i would have thought that most 'gastro pubs' are fairly busy on the weekends but perhaps not this one. the white fish used was clearly old and was quite dry. the rice balls were inedible. i assume they had been kept uncovered in a fridge or freezer overnight and brought out to cool for my order. they were dry, hard and disgusting. i was really shocked they were even served - we're talking a $25 or $26 salad. the rest was just a bit of salmon, lots of dressing and some salady bits. it was rubbish.

i wanted to complain but as i hadn't seen my friend for some time, i left it as i didn't want to make a big issue of it. i've been annoyed at myself all week for not saying anything. i had resolved to say something if service asked how our meals were but they didn't.

i would never advise anyone to eat there. it's in the middle of merivale and costs a lot but whoever they've got in the kitchen is someone with little pride in their work and as a chef/cook, that is the writing on the wall in my opinion.