I really can’t say enough about Four Kings, this restaurant is great!

Four Kings is the new sports bar, it’s located on the corner of Dixon and Taranaki Streets in the Hope Gibbons building. It has an outdoor eating area accessed from inside the restaurant, a large bar with a whole heap of LCD screens and an area for diners only to the right of the bar, they also have a more private (but not completely closed off) room available to the left of the bar.

Downstairs is the Four Kings lounge which has booths, lazy-boys and TAB facilities. According to their website there is more than 70 LCD screens.

I’ve been to this restaurant twice now, both times on a Friday night with a small group. I’ve had the fish of the day both times and this is served on delicious mashed potatoes with wilted spinach. It’s real comfort food, without being gross and greasy. They have a steak menu in addition to the main menu (and the food looks really good, even for me as a vegetarian).
Sol has had the ribs both times. The ribs are huge and come on a bed of thick cut potato chips. They have been different both times though, the first time the chips were seasoned with something really yummy and the second time there were less chips and they were unseasoned but there were more ribs! The ribs are cooked so nicely that the meat falls off the bone. You’re also given a finger bowl and lots of serviettes to clean yourself up after getting rib sauce all over your hands.
These meals are quite large so you probably wont need an entree or desert. Next time we are planning to skip the main meals and go for the entree and desert only.
Meals average at about $24.

The waiting staff are also excellent. We made a bit of a mess both times with the water on our table and there were no funny looks or grumps at us and the initiative was taken by our waitress to clean the table up without us asking (like it should be but often isn’t). The waitress even recognised us the second time we went even though the visits were a few weeks apart.

You really need to go and take a look for yourself. The service is so bad at so many restaurants that it’s a real treat to find somewhere like this that has so much to offer and isn’t over priced. They accept the Entertainment Book card as well.

My Grandparents were in Wellington with one of my Granddad’s French cousins last night so we all went to dinner at Dockside.

I’d done a bit of a search on Google to have a look at the menu and prices, and I had talked to people that had been there before and the general consensus was that the food was nice but expensive and the servings were small.

It was a Wednesday night so not too busy but we had booked anyway as we had a table of 7. The menu looked delicious (the menu changes daily) with about 6 different fish dishes on it. I wanted to make sure on the serving sizes so asked the waitress if we needed sides and was told it depended on the dish you were ordering but sides were serve about 3 people.

We ended up getting 3 sides for the table, a Greek salad, green veges and potato gratin. There were a couple of chicken orders for the table and we were warned these would take 35-45 minutes and asked if we would like some bread to start, we went for a garlic bread and breads with dips.

The breads for the table were huge. There was enough for a large slice of garlic bread and a roll with dips for each of us; the starters were priced between $8 and $28. I can only assume the sizes we were given were the usual sizes and not made bigger (and charged at a higher price) just because of the table size.

When the meals came out we were all surprised at the size. There looked to be quite enough on each of the plates to fill you up, especially with bread for a starter. I had the kingfish which was coated in sesame seeds and pan fried. It came on a crispy noodle salad and accompanied by a crab spring roll. Add some green veges and potato to the mix and I was left feeling overly full.
The sides only got half eaten and there was food left on most people’s plates.
The mains were nice, and a reasonable size but I wouldn’t say they were fantastic and I’ve certainly had more impressive meals at other restaurants. But it wasn’t bad.

The average price for mains was $35
Dinner for 7 people including 2 starters, 3 sides and a bottle of wine came to $390.

Finally a place I can give honest restaurant reviews without them being edited.

I went for dinner at The Establishment on Courtenay Place last night. I should have realised things were going to be bad when we asked our waiter what beer they had and he said “cold ones”. I guess he was trying to be funny? … Not so much.

I ordered the tuna and Sol got the lamb rack.

The tuna came out on a lettuce and peach salad. It was so overcooked that it looked like pork. It was the colour and texture of pork. I couldn’t finish it it was that dry and terrible.

Sol said the lamb was ok, not great but ok.

When the waiter came out and asked how our meals were I told him the tuna was overcooked. But I guess he didn’t really care.

Luckily we had the Entertainment Card so we got 25% off the meal. Never going back though!