speight's ale house

i used to dine atspeightsin 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 thespeightsale house. coming from christchurch i have been many times to our local restaurant and have always had a great dining experience. however thespeightsale 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 allspeightsale 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!

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 otherspeightsale houses and this was by far the best experience we had . thoroughly recommend .

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 recommendspeightsale house to anyone that asks, best restaurant food ive had in a while.
customer service was excellent too

i thoroughly enjoyed my experience atspeightsale house. i ordered; crispy squid & prawn twisters for the entree and black cherry chicken as my main.

the entrees were good, the squid pieces were a tad small but tasted delicious and the prawn twisters, were also a table pleaser.

overall my main was a great size, and very fulfilling. the black cherries added such a nice tough to the beautifully cooked chicken.

great place here. especially for my first visit to this area.
unfortunately some of the other people on my table were a little dissatisfied with the food.
however i found no fault in the food i was given.

i have dined atspeightson 2 occasions recently and have had a positive experience both times. it has been some years since i have dined here but it did not disappoint. we were seated promptly even though we were early and the waitress very quickly explained the specials of the day before taking our drinks order. i chose the bendigo steak and my fellow diners chose lambs fry and the special of groper. meals arrived and we tucked in to a scrumptious dinner. the steak was cooked medium rare to my liking served with potato gratin and broccolini. the other meals were pronounced as being equally delicious. for dessert i chose the sticky date pudding served with a brandy snap, my friends ordered cheesecake and an ice cream sundae. all in all we enjoyed thespeightsexperience even if it was a little noisy with the increase of patrons. i would happily dine here again.

had a lovely meal atspeightsale house nelson this evening. the staff were very friendly and the small this are important as they brought a small taster of their new beer with my first pint.

the starter of beef rolls and chicken bitter bites were nice. the filing lacked seasoning so missed the umph in flavor but overall it was ok. my main of pork and cracking was very nice. pork maybe a tiny over but i am being very picky.

the ambience is the same as most of thespeightshouses, to dark for my liking but must be a look they are going for.

overall a lovely meal and would go back.

awesome place. just been here for my mums 70th. my mum flew all the way from the uk for her birthday and i wanted it to be special. the staff actually went out of their way to make it memorable.
the food was delicious. fairly priced too.
thank youspeightsso much.

coming from dunedin, the originalspeightsale house is far better than this one. service was ok, had to wait for about 5 minutes for tables to be cleared on a busy dinner service. food was good and as usual, the three stars was good for a beverage!

normally a fan ofspeightsale house and have hired the function room etc. but won't be returning now as we went out for an anniversary dinner, ordered the 'garlic bread' and were served a loaf of un-sliced bread and butter on the side that had no garlic flavor to it, so we said that we weren't happy with it and said we wanted to return it, which was fine and then went to pay and the waiter said that the manager sam was still charging us the $8 for the bread - so overall they did nothing to make up for what was un-satisfying and the customer service from the manager was very immature, seeing as there were no adults or experienced customer service workers around we paid and left with disappointment in the place that states themselves to be 'generous to a fault' . the actual meals were great but the manager running the place made a rude decision that has ruined their reputation for the sake of $8 - and i felt sorry for the waiter who looked embarrassed to tell us that the manager was still charging us and when i asked for the reason he had no response - even he knew that was the wrong customer service move.

recently took my parents for dinner atspeightswhile they were here on holiday. my dad is 86 so one of those old school meat, three veg people. he is also extremely chatty to anyone who will have a chat.

the staff were great. happy to have a chat and laugh with dad which he really appreciated.

the food was great. lots of options and the waitress was happy to check if the evenings lamb special was g/f for me. note, it was so i had that.

the portions are decent. not so big that you can't get through the whole thing (like lone star) so you feel like you get your monies worth.

the drink selection was good too. mum and dad were happy with the beer and wine they had, while i stuck to diet coke as driver for the night.

the place was quite busy with some large tables but the service was good and food came out quickly. well done speights! will be back!

i never really know what to say about the child friendly aspect of a place - i suppose it depends upon the age of the child. for me, it would be inappropriate to take a child to a bar or a fine-dining restaurant. personally, i would only take kids under 10 to fast food chains with playgrounds. but that's just me. i mention this forspeightsbecause it s a bar, with bar patrons, but my numerous experiences here have never been impacted upon by children.
i try to have something different every time i go tospeightsand each time i enjoy the meal whatever it is. the calamari is particularly pleasing because you get so much, when so often as is the case with calamari is that you get hardly any for an outrageous price. i do find that the veges are a little too under-cooked for my liking when having the lamb shanks.
the service always very attentive and satisfying. i will keep going back time and time again. the jalapeno cheese balls, pork croquettes & garlic bread are simply divine - the portions big enough to share. most recently i had the bannockburn beef - a huge steak sitting atop truffle oil mashed potato with field mushrooms and bernaise over the top. you don't need an entree when you have this - it is very  filling. it comes with salad which i feel is not needed - mine barely touched the plate. i would also recommend the lamb shanks, which i've had on many occasion. the place can be a bit loud but it doesn't matter - the decor and staff are awesome!

here's what the hubby thought:

"haven't been here for some time, and lacking imagination we came back last week as we wanted somewhere we knew and remembered to be ok. we were warmly greeted by the barman when walking in, and offered any table. no sooner had we sat and he was there with water and another welcome. beverages were ordered. efficient but not imposing. she ordered a deep-fried cheese ball entree and a 400g sirloin, the actual name of the dish escapes me. i ordered bread with garlic butter, pulled-pork croquettes and the drunken steak.

the bread arrived at the same time as the entrees, all were very good. the garlic butter was flavoured how it should be and very generous and half ended up on my steak. my croquettes were also very good and for $10 it was a generous portion, and word was the cheese balls were also well received.

steaks arrived, and these too were of a good standard. generous and well cooked. the veges i swapped a salad for weren't the most appealing but that is the only negative that comes to mind. prices are starting to get up there, and if i got vege like that again i would be asking questions, however these dishes still represented good value. no room for desserts unfortunately.

looking at other tables, the fish dish looked impressive and the burgers to-die-for. all in all a great experience, and we will certainly be back soon.
"

dreadful lunch today. decided to go somewhere kid friendly and i have visitedspeightsale houses in other cities and thought their meals reliable and generous. our meals took way too long to arrive and arrived well after other guests had arrived and been fed (?). when eventually they did the serving portion of chips for our kids was seriously not what we expected. we asked for more chips and more came. my husband said his calamari was delicious. but my steak got sent back (having arrived after a long wait, and with now tired kids, i declined to reorder). the steak was completely overcooked. beyond even well done. i saw other frustrated customers too and one who sent her steak back as well. something not right in the kitchen there. the manager didn't charge us for my meal and threw in two ice cream sundaes for the kids but the experience left us all really annoyed that we chose there in the first place. spoiled what was supposed to be a special family lunch. grrr.

had a great lunch atspeightsale house today. it was very busy but the staff were great, told us there would be a 30 minute wait for food, but we got our garlic bread appetiser straight away, and the drinks arrived promptly. the food was excellent, two of us ordered the battered blue cod and chips, one had the big breakfast, and one had chicken carbonara. we all enjoyed our meals. we also had deal vouchers and thought we might get second-rate service but this was not the case. wouldn't hesitate to go back.

huge thank you to gareth, caitlin and the team atspeightsale house nelson for a great night on saturday. our friends and family were all impressed with the amazing food and great service. we will all be back!!!