speight's ale house

staff is always friendly and professional. never been disappointed with the food when dining in and if there is an issue, it is always quickly taken care of. great place to grab a bite!

i dined here for my birthday recently after family members recommended it. i'm so pleased we did. the food was devine. everyone loved their meals. service was great too. will definitely return soon

i used to dine at speights in petone on a regular basis and we went in today expexcting the same quality of food....however we were very disappointed.  when our meal arrived i thought there had been a potato famine with a very small amount of fries on my plate.  for the price i would have expected much more plus my meat had a weird taste to it which made it almost inedible.  will no longer dine there as i feel its gone backwards

i only have the best reviews for the speights ale house. coming from christchurch i have been many times to our local restaurant and have always had a great dining experience. however the speights ale house nelson was a whole new experience. we took the family down on saturday night and even with it being fully booked we still received the the friendly response and great service we expected. our meals were received in an expected time frame and constantly had a waiter ready to take a drinks orders when needed. it had a great vibe about the place as all speights ale houses have and would recommend anyone who hasn't been before to go down and give it a try. we'll defiantly head back next time we are up!

me & my partner were completely blown away by their entrees, the jalapeño cheese balls & arrowtown meatballs were sublime. service was very fast considering how busy it was. my partner ordered the scotch fillet steak & enjoyed it & i ordered the calamari salad which was pretty good.

just another lone-star type. big meals not cheap. decent service - but run by kids who aren't very interested. had lamb shank - it was fine. steak tasted of nothing.

what a disappointment.
rather than make a fuss and ruin a birthday treat we finished our meals and headed home.
the caesar salad was expensive, small, and littered with hard, over cooked, tasteless chicken. the croutons were like small cubes of wood.
the seafood chowder as a main was very ordinary and expensive.
the chicken salad had very little chicken and was also very expensive for what it was.
as for the child's bangers and mash - really? you seriously think it is ok to serve dry, over cooked sausages on a lumpy mash?

the only positive was the mud cake.
add two beers and you have a substandard meal of three mains and a child's 'meal' at $108
lesson learned, we won't be back.

i always expect a little less from restaurant chains... i suppose that is because they seem to be a bit more like a production line.

but the speight's ale house in petone has spoiled that concept for me - the food was really good. solid portions, with lots of taste. the service was great too, and there was an energetic pub vibe bringing it all together.

we only had one night in nelson as part of our tour of the south island , we decided on the ale house nelson as it had been recommended by a friend and what a great choice it was , we had a great night , the food was excellent all arriving together and the atmosphere was spot on , as our travels took us around the south island we tried a few other speights ale houses and this was by far the best experience we had . thoroughly recommend .

i had the pleasure of having a bar lunch here when i was down on business 17th may 2012. service was excellent and friendly and the food was superb, i recommend the flounder, my mouth is watering thinking about it.
the atmosphere was the best i have been in since i lived in scotland.
this is a great place for either social or corporate meetings or presentations.
regards will - auckland

un-enjoyable night out. the service was below average...we didn't get given any plates with our entree, tried to catch someone's eye but didn't have any luck, we were only offered drinks once during the evening, when our mains came out tried to order a coke, wait person said yep, left the table without checking if anyone else wanted a drink (which they did), and proceeded to also forget the order.the food was average, not great. the atmosphere is not great it is really quite noisy. we had to ask for dessert menus after waiting quite a while after finishing the main - don't really like that happening. on settling the bill found we had been charged for double the drinks though easily clarified all in all not a great evening out though. last time i came the service was excellent shame that its not the same.

came here with my partner and sister. the food and drink was really good however was quite loud inside and felt like i had to shout to have a conversation. wait staff were very friendly though and super helpful

friday night at speight’s in petone is a busy one. lots of busy tables and staff were hurrying around from table to table. still very friendly and attentive though.

we only ordered off their grazing/starters menu - pork belly, salt n pepper squid and buttermilk chicken.

food was mostly disappointing unfortunately. chicken was overcooked, pork belly was absolutely swimming in the hoisin sauce which overpowered what could have been a nice dish and the salt n pepper squid was mostly okay - except that some of it was overcooked and chewy. some of it was fine and those buts were lovely, but it was inconsistent. it was also severely lacking in the required salt n pepper.

the chicken and the salt n pepper both would’ve been great but for the over cooking.

food also needs an alternative sauce option other than just wasabi mayo and chipotle with the chicken - just in case you’re sharing with kids who don’t like the heat. just a consideration.

three of us had a meal , , not very good value for the price, judging from my own dish i ordered, battered fish, only glad i ordered the large meal as the piece of fish was about 5inches by 3inches,x2, , in the small meal there was only one piece,,
and nothing wonderful, feel ripped off,,,

few problems with the food:

all entrees were too good i had to over eat

steak was cooked perfectly i almost licked the plate

belt had to be loosened as the meals were a good size

i would definitely recommend speights ale house to anyone that asks, best restaurant food ive had in a while.
customer service was excellent too