The Original Tony's

Review date: 27 October 2006

Tony's is, apparently, Aucklands oldest surviving restaurant, having been established in 1963 and is, appropriately, located in the heart of Auckland, well within striking distance of theatres and major Auckland hotels. Tonys is cosy enough with comfortable booths for the clientele. It's got a retro feel, as though it hasn't changed since the place was opened.

Having been billed as a steak and seafood restaurant by the glowing sign that beams out from their shop front - that's exactly what we expected when we go inside. Well, there was steak all right - but heaven only knows which part of the menu the seafood was on. There was some - but not enought to for this place to be billed so gharishly as a "Steak and Seafood" restarant. But that was fine, we would settle for steak.

Mark selected the Fillet Mignon. This was to be an excellent choice. Tender and superbly prepared with rost potatoes and vegetables. My only slight gripe would be that the potatoes were slightly underdone more my particular taste.

The wine list is quite small and not that impressive. Furthermore staff knowledge of wine seems to be somewhere between totally lacking and non-existant. When wine is served, the bottle is to be opened at the customers table. It wasn't. When a customer tells the waiter/ess that a bottle of wine is corked, they should NOT (a) not gaupe at you like something out of a freak show (b) ask why you want the cork (which you didn't ask for!) and (c) have you explain why the wines no-f*cking-good. When the manager comes to explain that the wine wasn't corked, but simply not to our liking, he should not admit he only made a cursory sniff of the wine coz he's busy just in case the customer is arrogant enough to tell him to go and have a glass of it. The manager did have a point, though. The wine wasn't to our liking. Because it was corked. We did evenutally ask to see the cork again and were simply told that "it's out the back with hundreds of others." Judging by the state of the wine, it should have been more than apparent to whoever used the corkscrew that that the wine was just not-right. Some of us know enough about wine to know a corked bottle when we have it and trying to flob us off in such an (a) ignorant and (b) arrogant manner is just not on. When the second bottle arrived, they had already removed the cork. As we had asked for the cork for the first bottle this should have been brought with the second. Clearly these people have very little experience of wine service.

The bill was checked on the way out and judged to be accurate and without the duff bottle.

The kitchen clearly have a good grasp of what they're doing. Sadly, they're badly let down by arrogant, igorant and lazy front-of-house staff. Shame really as this has the potential to be so much better.

The Original Tonys

The Original Tonys
27 Wellesley Street, Auckland
http://www.tonys.co.nz/

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