Public Address | System (Home)

Posted at 11:15AM on 5 May 08. Permalink.

I'd pay fifteen bucks for that steak and feel happy. At thirty, I feel like someone's having a laugh.

Thirty bucks for a middle-market steak and chips? They're having a laff.

Posted at 11:16AM on 5 May 08. Permalink.

yup. new zealand service culture.

patchier than a grannys quilt.

half the trouble is that all our professionals are lodged in the half-decent places, and all the remainder are students who don't give a shit. as soon as they can they're becoming the customers.

i had a similar experience a week or two back when booking travel. i went back into the flight centre to ask about changing days, what ti would cost, etc.

the person behind the counter provided the absolute minimum of information, which i found frustrating. i asked to be provided with *advice*, not just info, and was promptly told that this person "would not be spoken to like that!"

sooo.... apparently providing advice is not a travel consultant's job.

Posted at 11:33AM on 5 May 08. Permalink.

One of those days, huh? he asks. I break the habit of a lifetime of amiable banter over a bar and say, levelly, "no."

Love that. ALso, how the "and fuck off & mind your own fecking business" is almost implied, but unspoken.

Nice.

Posted at 11:53AM on 5 May 08. Permalink.

Heh, while I appreciate it must be the devil's own job to create a service orientated team from The Youth Of Today, these guys need to realise that a shitty customer experience is not wiped away with a high five.

Myself and partner have been to that Lonestar before (Hauraki Corner?) with similar results - and they seem genuinely bewildered when you complain. God only knows why it's always so busy.

Posted at 11:59AM on 5 May 08. Permalink.

kia ora David: I guess I am the first Hamiltonian to jump to the defence my city of choice for the past 10 years. Nevertheless, I do find the need to do so rather tedious. It just seem ridiculous, in a country where you can travel from one end of the North Island to the other end in a day, that people continue to make gross generalisations about the places they pass through.

I have always been a great believer in making the most of the place where you live--and I have lived in towns such as Hawera and Stratford in Taranaki, and Palmerston North.

Still, glad you found Hamiton less dull than your expectations. I had my misgivings about the V8s (in these days of alarms about dwindling oil stocks) and we were in Japan whilst they were on. But, by all accounts, the races were a great success for the city but there is more to it than petrol heads. Come down for the next summer Garden's festival, or the balloon festival.

Posted at 12:00PM on 5 May 08. Permalink.

I had the pleasure a few months ago of going to a proper grown up restaurant with proper grown up staff, the kind who have made this their career.

Our waiter was a chap in his 40s. Our wine waiter was possibly in his 50s. Both were brilliant. The ability I admired the most was their sensitivity to the appropriate level of familiarity and humour. They let you lead them - starting formal and, as we got progressively cheekier, doing the same.

By the end of the evening the waiter and I were hiding around a corner, in stitches, discussing the resemblance between a guest at another table and a character from Meet the Feebles.

Now that's a class above.

Posted at 12:15PM on 5 May 08. Permalink.

this is not a reflection on NZ service culture .... it is the result of the unintelligent transplanting of lean production techniques. Most of the business and operations processes in overseas owned hospitality chains are based on Standard Operating Procedures that have been developed in the US (or UK or France). Their staff training is as well. It is all based on the need for consistency that is part of their "brand" - I bet if you went to the Lone Star in Wellington (I think there is one!) you would get exactly the same processes and menus and prices. Marketing of these places is not based on quality of either food or service - it is on an image (and people like you and I are not the demographic that they target!)

And of course their standardised recruitment processes mean that they employ the same type of people - primarily ones that don't challenge the ways that things are done (or if they do, they move very quickly on to workplaces that value their contribution to helping things work better).

The answer? Buy NZ in services as well as as products. There is lots of research that shows that NZers perceptions of "good" service are based on perceived "genuineness" and authenticity - and it sounds like Palate has it in spades!

Posted at 12:17PM on 5 May 08. Permalink.

As a former Hamiltonian I've always thought Cuisine basically ignored the city completely, good to see they've noticed it's existence now.

And yeah the V8's were great - it seems a bit ironic that now Hamilton really is a place where things "happen", they seem to have changed the city's motto to something else!

Posted at 12:21PM on 5 May 08. Permalink.

@rose, welcome to pa system!

but...

this is not a reflection on NZ service culture .... it is the result of the unintelligent transplanting of lean production techniques.

i dunno aeh... culture is a way of being, not just of doing. even in nzl-owned places here in wellington you get the same "she'll be right" attitude to service and complaints. it's lazy, haphazard, and undermines the entire industry.

Posted at 12:22PM on 5 May 08. Permalink.

NZ service never ceases to amaze me.

Euro restaurant, last Saturday night. Bill has been paid. Great meal - good table service. Expensive but ok value. Great tartare. Stood up to leave, approximately 3 metres from the manager. Waited for him to notice and bring us our jackets. Waited some more. Went over to him a politely asked for our jackets. Manager doesn't look up from a a bill he was reconciliating and says curtly, "Yeah yeah - in a minute."

The fact that I have posted this is testament to my amazement.

And Euro had the nerve to then publish that really aggressive advertisement suggesting how to eat a reviewer's balls. Get over yourself.

Posted at 12:26PM on 5 May 08. Permalink.

Waited for him to notice and bring us our jackets.

Had they hidden your jackets away somewhere?

Posted at 12:30PM on 5 May 08. Permalink.

Um ... yes. They offered to take them when we entered the warm restaurant from the chilly surrounds of Princes Wharf.

Apparently this is de rigeur for flash-as restaurants.

Posted at 12:48PM on 5 May 08. Permalink.

even in nzl-owned places here in wellington you get the same "she'll be right" attitude to service and complaints. it's lazy, haphazard, and undermines the entire industry.

And even in places that generally have good service and attitudes, when the owners or senior staff aren't present the standards can rapidly slide into indifference and rudeness.

Marketing of these places is not based on quality of either food or service - it is on an image (and people like you and I are not the demographic that they target!)

The ironic thing is that the demographic in question presumably has less to spend than those who go to supposedly "poncy" restaurants, yet the meals in chain places like Lone Star are no better value. Mid-range cafes such as Floriditas have food and service that are vastly better than that, yet you could get a good portion of main and side for no more money. I guess that the definition of a "good portion" varies, however, and some people think that anything less than obscenely Texan portions represents a ripoff.

Posted at 1:09PM on 5 May 08. Permalink.

And even in places that generally have good service and attitudes, when the owners or senior staff aren't present the standards can rapidly slide into indifference and rudeness.

and that's the thing. i don't ask for much when i go somewhere to purchase a service (and that's broader than just food/booze). i'm not asking to have my bum kissed. all i want is prompt, appropriately attentive, friendly service, and for problems to disappear.

if viewed like that you can get the same quality of service at kfc or at martyn bosleys, for different amounts of $$.

but... too many people in the service industry just *don't frickin get it*.

Posted at 1:17PM on 5 May 08. Permalink.

In defence of my original 70's and 80's place of upbringing, judging ANY suburb/town/lifestyle-cum-state-of-mind on the state of it's Lone Star is not going to paint a glowing picture. The new Takapuna Beach Cafe is meant to supposedly brilliant and possibly a better picture of the state of Taka these days.

That's as far as I'll go though. Takapuna these days can be too much like a cheap attempt at The OC for my liking...

Posted at 1:22PM on 5 May 08. Permalink.

And as for mid-range-food-&-service but high-range-price, I'm amazed by what some very average cafes consider they can charge. Tony Adcock of Harbourside (a place that can rightly claim being one of the few to have a decent service programme that has probably trained a very good percentage of the food service staff in Auckland) commented that a Lone Star-esque place can put $30 on an average steak with rubbish service, yet if he trys to put $40 on a Wagyu in one of Auckland's better long term restaurants he's shouted down. I'm not necessarily suggesting he should jack his prices, but just because Harbourside can charge it, doesn't mean Lone Star should.

Posted at 1:25PM on 5 May 08. Permalink.

Until just a few months ago, there was a brilliant restaurant directly facing Lone Star on Hauraki Corner. Ciao. An authentic Italian restaurant with great staff, fascinating food and an impressive cellar of Italian wine.

They had to close because the property is designated for road widening or something like that. They spent a long time looking for other premises but couldn't find anything that wasn't too expensive. They hope to find something within the next year - perhaps in Devonport, they told us on the last night, and I would cheer if that happened.

Posted at 1:39PM on 5 May 08. Permalink.

That's a shame about Ciao - my "family home" is two blocks from there and that was a pretty decent arrival for the olds. Was originally setup by a couple of guys fresh out of AUT cooking school apparently alongside a more long-time Italian chef?
And have heard that there's a new place called something like Wine and Roses (??) - about 8 tables, booked for months and doing genuinely good food (genuine being a little lost on many establishments in that area).

Posted at 1:40PM on 5 May 08. Permalink.

Nice to see a home grown chain like Lone Star are the benchmark of quality and service.

They're kid friendly & no-one leaves hungry & if you can't get a table straight away there is always the bar to entertain you.

Posted at 1:41PM on 5 May 08. Permalink.

David, it might be some consolation that the people who own the brilliant Richmond Road Cafe are soon to open a new place at the north end of Takapuna Beach.

Doesn't look like it'll be for kiddies though ...