[T2DGirl]

Add your review of Allely House Selaks Vineyard Restaurant & Bar/Allely House Restaurant and be part of the fun .

Contact Details:
Corner Old North Road & State Highway 16
Kumeu
Auckland
Ph. 09-412 7206

Cuisine:
Winery, Bars




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[Fat Little Hobbits]

Over the years our families have been there for 8 times and have always come away unsatisfied.
Either the food has been sub-standard, the service half-hearted (abysmal) at best or, on more than one occasion - both!

Not really interested in going back and we try to talk others out of having functions there.

[The Bandit]

Went to Allely House for lunch. The food was divine, the surroundings were outstanding and the service was pleasant and unobtrusive. The scallops were to die for and the brulee was as good as it gets. It's a gorgeous place and will definitely return.

[T2DMan]

Nice to have you around improv bandits. The hobbits seem to have a balanced point of view on their reviews-a number of rave, a number of needs improvement. But a review from you is certainly worth a good amount

Improv Bandits - amazing what you can find around the internet.

reviews of Improv Bandits (via their own website):

"improvisation masters … intimate kind of mayhem"
The Waikato Times (NZ)
"very appealing improvised mischief and malice"
The NZ Listener (NZ)
...

All the best guys. You got any more restaurant reviews for the forum?

[The Bandit]

Had to post a review when I heard that the place we had a lovely time at had only one review and it was bad.

Thank you for the kind wishes and I'll be reading/posting more reviews.

Cheers,
Wade

[Fat Little Hobbits]

No we haven't left (smile) but Leah has just advised me that we will be going there again in January for a wedding - so watch this space..

[The Bandit]

Enjoy the wedding especially the catering. I recommend the fish - raw and wrrrrrrriggly. :-)

Bandit (aka Gollum)

[Fat Little Hobbits]

We went back as promised, a wedding reception for some close friends.
Leah and I, as if by silent agreement, never discussed our thoughts until later on during the night. It is amazing how similar our outlook was...

Our comments were also written separately and I have published these verbatim.


Leah's Comments:

Undeniably Allely House is a beautiful setting with gorgeous gardens to stroll through and a wonderful old villa to dine in. The tables are set with the care and presentation of silver service, but I am afraid to say, that for me, that is where it stopped. Taking the fabulous occasion we were there for out of our review I would be honest in saying I will not be choosing to go back there. The service was not professional considering the cost per head, one waitress was so overdressed that it was difficult to distinguish her between guests and staff. The management was efficient and friendly, but training and supervision of all staff is a must in an establishment of this class.

The food, well I wasn't the only one that compared it to Valentines! The food has always been the letdown of the place in previous visits, and still is, very plain fare. There seemed to be an attitude of making it go as far as they could stretch it, small plates, lots of individual dishes of basic dishes and lots of condiments to add the flavour. To run out is taboo, but to have the "tough luck" attitude is inexcusable.

Sorry Allely House, you still need a lot of work if you'll (want to) get a recommendation out of this girl.


Tony's Comments:

"You'll be waiting a long time - we have run out" (read on......)

Location:

This is a beautiful historic house set in gardens with the scent of old English white roses everywhere.

There was an orchestral trio (Name to be supplied) that played really nice music to entertain us during the lead-up to the "main event". While not an integral part of Allely House they were recommended by them. I wanted to thank the trio, myself for an enjoyable time - but they left so unobtrusively that I missed them. So team if you read this - Thanks for some cool music.

Setting:

There were 10 tables of guests and the building layout dictates that about half are located in the annex although you do not feel separated from the main room thanks to fully opening French doors.

Silver service, Leah has already commented on this (she has been trained to this standard).

Catering:

This was our third wedding during January, the first at River Mill (already reviewed), the second at a private property that was catered by A1 Catering and then this one. I came up with one word to sum up the latter two - and Leah said the same word when we finally discussed Allely house. The word was Valentines. For a mobile catering company like A1, this is praise indeed. For Allely House, Hmmmmmm. We were table 9 and come our time to dine, I commented to Leah that I was going to wait for the roast lamb. "You'll be waiting a long time - we have run out" was the reply. You NEVER "run out" of anything if you cater for a set number of guests. To their credit a small plate of lamb was brought out for the last 3 tables.

DJ:

We could not dance inside! That this guy had the music up (so) loud was bad enough but he also had so much bass that the distortion hurt our ears. I do not know how the bar staff coped. I know that the DJ is not an integral part of Alley House but I mention this, as I was surprised that he was not asked by management to tone it down.

We do not enjoy giving negative reviews but we make no apologies. We simply call the shots as we see them.

Sorry Bonnie & Phil, There is so much potential here and although the food improved, there is still a long way to go, especially with presentation.

[Smokey]

I went to Allely House for the first time last Christmas for a work function. There were approximately 150 people in our group and I didn't hear one bad comment about it.

The person who booked it was so impressed he re-booked for this year's Christmas function before leaving.

Everything was superb, the decor, the grounds, the staff, the food.

Not sure why Allely House has had such bad reviews.

[pjmccarrison]

I went here today with my partner for lunch. The whole experience was outstanding.

The rib eye with blue cheese was perfection and my partners salmon fillet abd risotto was, quote "The best I've ever had". The wine list was fantastic and the service was great.

We will definiely being going back, and telling all our friends as well.