[T2DMan]

Pompino is undergoing renovations as at January 2008, and will be reopening under a new name. We wish you well

Address:
2 Queen Street (Corner Quay and Queen)
Central Auckland CBD
New Zealand (NZ)

Cuisine Type: European, Filipino, New Zealand, Steak, Seafood

[Fat Little Hobbits]

A plea from him to all those offering Caesar Salad on their menus - a poached egg please????

We booked this through the Time2Dine e-mail service - oh so simple - a big thanks guys and girls.

Now we like heritage buildings and the ambience of Pompinos certainly suited the location.

A noticeable feature is the large exhaust duct above the veranda that wafts the aromas (unlike the stink that emanates from fast-food outlets) from the kitchen giving either a hint of delights to come or a happy reminder of treats had.

A clean well laid out restaurant with wooden dining tables and chair.

The meals were adequate. One of our party had recently returned from the UK so was hanging out for a real meal a fish and chips! She was very satisfied. Being a café also sets a certain standard and the Bourbon chicken I felt reflected that, nice enough topping but the chicken itself was a bit bland, not the ‘infusion’ I expected.

The music was pleasant but one of our party had a partial hearing loss and this was noticeable during some tunes. Just an observation not a criticism.

A minus was the condition of the rest-rooms – come on team give a scrub out not a good feeling when your eating at a place and their standard of cleanliness is below par.

[T2DMan]

Hey Woody - how about you respond to this one. You certainly have a great restaurant, and its nice to see that the Hobbits were kind in their review .

All the best.

Pompino Restaurant

We had a great family dining experience, where the menu catered for our two children as well as ourselves.

Service was ok and the location was the best. Nothing like a busy street corner to keep the family amused.

Leslie Wooller.
(T2DMan - on behalf of Leslie from an email received from her 18/3/05)

[TomRix]

It was my first visit at Pompino and we all had a great time. Had that pork meal and it was really good! Friendly and relaxed atmosphere...and live jazz music is certainly a good idea. Will definitely come back!
Russell

[pylades]

Dined here 16/8/05.

Crumbed garlic mushrooms as a starter are very nice. They have an awesome seafood platter with lemon tartare, chilli dipping sauce etc., oysters, mussels, smoked salmon, calamari, fish bites- the works. $45 a bit pricey but the place deserves full marks for great music (jazz, blues, funk, soul) and a great ambience- a sort of neon-glow metropolitan/urban feel.

Sticky date and banana pudding for dessert was yummy but I was slammed on nearly an entire bottle of Torlesse Waipara Hills Riesling so maybe I'm not very objective.

Only gripe?- it isn't BYO and the special coffee was almost cold.

[double_clique85]

We had made reservations for 7.30 on a Saturday night... got there about 7.40 (trying to find parking in Auckland city - enough said!)... they didn't take our dinner orders til about 8.15 (Never have I had to wait half hour to have my order taken! And we weren't even drinking heavily...) ... I ordered an entre which never came... and our dinner was served around 9.20... that's right, 9.20!!!!

We had asked about 3 times how long the food will take and were given very vague 'I'll find out and get back to you' .. which they didn't til about 9.10 and said that the food was being plated...

I've been out for dinner to a hell of a lot of places, but never have I had such awful service.

Apparantly they had a big order that came in but it wouldn't have killed them to let us know when we got there so we could've either gone somewhere else and be served our dinner at a reasonable time, or be warned that we weren't going to get our meals at a decent hour.

Given, the manager was a gentleman and wiped our drinks bill and we only had to pay for the food. Still, I will not be going back there and I will be spreading the word to make sure no one else I know goes there either...

[T2DMan]

I have heard stories of restaurants not "Apoligising" in such situations.

Clearly you had a bad experience, but I consider that the restaurant needs to be given a chance:

Given, the manager was a gentleman and wiped our drinks bill and we only had to pay for the food.

We are entitled to get things wrong. What we are not entitled to do is fail to acknowledge and apologise. I would have given them a second chance, and certainly not publically bagged them. But then again, you did mention the apology...

All the best.