southern cross garden bar restaurant

went here on saturday morning for breakfast, my god the service was amazing i'm a complete hospo snob and actually couldn't find anything to fault even with a 3 year olds birthday party going on behind us, every little detail was looked after the food was fast and the waitstaffcouldn't have been nicer - congrats guys, that's how it should be done everywhere!

the fish was dry, the chips were cold and overly crispy, the coleslaw was haphazard (no love). 3 sirloins all came out well done, such a waste. thestaffhowever were friendly and they had a good beer selection.

vegetarians are not welcome at the southern cross.

i attended this morning. as required by law, one must purchase a meal to have coffee. thats fine. but not when they don't serve vegetarians.

there were no reasonable vegetarian options. so i asked if i could buy one of the lesser options. but no, thats not a meal apparently. so i asked if i could buy multiple. nope, apparently even if you eat more than what they call a meal, its not a meal.

i noticed one of the advertised meals had a vegan option and asked for that. but no, if you have the vegan option its not a meal apparently. so you can only order the vegan option if you order one of the non vegetarian options as well.

make sense? no. it doesn't. in short, you could only eat there today if you are not a vegetarian.  they may as well hang up a "vegetarians not welcome" sign out front. that kind of discrimination is disgusting.  i have encountered open hostility fromstafffor being vegetarian there on a previous occasion, so this should not have surprised me.

do they know that some religions are entirely vegetarian as well? so whole religions are being discriminated against as well. whats next? banning people based on ethnicity or sexual orientation? wouldn't surprise me.

way to bring a major downer to such an important day.

i will see to it that vegetarians and vegans far and wide are made aware of this establishment and its attitude towards us.

what a fantastic way to end our amazing weekend in wellington! the place is absolutely gorgeous, awesomely decorated and laid out and so comfortable, i could hang there all day and not tire of being there i’m sure. it’s gorgeous and has so many different areas that are equally as beautiful as the rest.

thestaffare so wonderful! the girl that served us was a pure delight!! we all absolutely loved her.

i got the vegan portobello benedict with cashew hollandaise with added hash browns, which i didn’t need cause i was so full!!! but, hash browns, i couldn’t not right? the meal was so very delicious, like give a mouthgasm type delicious. and the hot sauce they have is amazing, i wish i’d taken a photo of the hot sauce because it made my hot sauce loving taste buds dance. it was pure perfection with my breakfast that’s one thing i know for certain.

my daughter made up a breakfast from the sides of giant beans (which she said were the best beans in the entire universe - i tasted them and said i think she’s right), hash browns and avocado with sourdough toast. she was so happy with her breakfast that she said she wanted to rewind and go there for breakfast yesterday too.

we were going to go there for dinner on saturday night as well but had decided not to for some ridiculous reason. boy did we regret that decision when we were there for breakfast.

i will be going back, every time i’m in wellington.

wasn't wowed. upmarket, well presented restaurant. food was a let down - sounds fancy but doesn't taste like it.staffwere brilliant and the beer selection was not surprisingly very good. wanted to love it as the ambiance was excellent but unfortunately food isn't worth the price. didn't feel like a great place for kids - but that is personal opinion - just putting that out there in case.

awesome paleo steak and salad just ask and they will leave out the carbs. very friendlystaffand great garden bar on an awesome wellington day.

just had the best dining experience ever!!
food was fantastic andstaffwere just as great.
i had the big breakfast which is no lie, the amount of food you get on your plate could prob serve 2 people.
my husband had a 400g rump stonegrill which was a first for him and he smiled from start to finish.
definately going back once a month thats for sure!

hi, i am currently sitting in the garden bar, the last time i was here was around a couple of years ago, that visit was pleasing. this one however was shocking. one plate of brussel balls came out and were black and over cooked, the corn balls under cooked, thestaffthat serevd us all had different responses to "can i order a drink out here in the garden bar."
eating out in nz is expensive, eating out in wellington is 9 times out of 10 a good experience, and if it isn't for the customer then they won't go back because of the amount of other options.
i grew up in hospitality and understand the pressure that can be under with customers, but in this case there were too many short falls, which leads me to this write up.
sort it out please! i'd like to come back and not have the same again.

went here last weekend on a saturday morning. it was a busy time, and there was a bit of wait on food. i got the kedgeree and my partner had the big brekkie. the kedegree was delicious however it was a small portion and they had forgotten the mushrooms on the big brekkie, and our coffees. it was not until we finished our meal that we had asked for them — they took it off our bill which was nice. we didn't mention about the missing mushrooms as we knew it was so busy for thestaffthat morning and we were so hungry, couldn't wait. 

hopefully, a better experience next time— but i don't think i'll be back anytime soon.

the best size of meat offered here for stone grill. and suprisingly economical. the ambience is 5/5. thestaffwere 5/5 as well, very great personalities! they have food promos which are remarkable. would def come here if we go to wellington again. the first restaurant id love to dine again in wellington.

my bf and i came here for drinks and dinner last night (a tuesday) and i can only describe the whole experience as abysmal. thestaffwere trying their best, but this is a big place and was very obviously understaffed.the girls on the bar were clearly struggling with the amount of people to serve and dirty glasses and plates sat piled on the end of most tables. my $16 mojito arrived after a 20min wait and was downright offensive. two mint leaves, lime cordial, soda, and i assume some rum. i didn't know a mojito could be defaced so badly, but hey you learn something new everyday. after over an hour wait our burgers arrived. sadly they had zero flavour and were dry as were the accompanying cardboard-esque chips. i've never been so thankful for tomato sauce as a saviour for that whole meal situation. while the bar has pretty cool décor and thestaffare nice, it really feels like the southern cross management know they have a good thing going for them and don't feel the need to try anymore.

came here last night with a few friends and we all really enjoyed our food! was fairly busy but service was pretty reasonable. i got the buddha bowl which i found really delicious and would definitely order it again! staffwere friendly and accommodating. i think slightly overpriced overall, but would come again for sure and i think everyone enjoyed themselves!

came to have brunch with a bunch of friends. the menu looked good and the place was warm that day.

by the door thestaffmentioned there would be a 30mins wait for food, which thought was pretty normal in wellington.

we sat down and ordered straight away. the waitress came and mentioned the wait was actually 45 mins. since we were already sited so we just ordered the food.

it didn't come until the next hour and a half. every time we asked any of the waitress they kept mentioning how busy the kitchen is, without even helping to look how far our food was. very unhelpful.

by the time we received our order we have finished our coffee and felt far beyond hungry and tired. the whole brunch experience became dull.

not recommending this place for breakfast or lunch. bad service and kitchen management. only gave enough stars because the food was fine, still nothing special.

food is ok, had pie and fries. chips were to salty and the gravy to runny and not even warm.

they misheard my order and thought i only wanted fries rather than pie and fries. that's ok. they asked me to pay the difference $3.50... i'm just about ok with that.

what annoyed me was they than didn't bring me chips with my pie. i had specifically wanted fries to dip in the gravy. as such the dish was incomplete. i dint eat the gravy and the pie was boring by itself.

thestaffwere nice - i think this is a failure of policy by the company to guidestaffin these situations.

cup of fries would of cost a few cents...

went to southern cross over the holiday period while the location is a winner and the venue great. overall alittle disappointed with outing.

service was really lacking they were very eager to take drink orders from the get go i ordered a juice, said juice didn't come till some 30mins later . repeated requested to understand where the juice was were meet by its coming it's going to be here soon. in the end the juice arrived after everyone had all but finished their meals which were ordered after the drink :( at no point tostaffsay how sorry they were or that they should have warned us on the problem they gave with juices.

food was pretty good however if paying $22 for a big breakfast to get store brought hash browns is a rip.

i'm sure i'll be back for beers some time, maybe just not brunch