My experience at Coco’s at the Roxy was similar to my experience with online dating about a decade ago; and for anyone who has ever tried online dating, you know you never actually end up with someone based on whatever was written online.

I read through some of the other reviews, and Coco seemed to be all style and good looks without the girl-next-door niceties and sassy-smart personality you’d find in someone you’d want to take home to Mother. Everyone seemed to come to consensus that Coco was a hot date, if somewhat inattentive and snotty at times.

Was Coco really like that? Not on our first date. She was dressed elegantly, done up like a 1920′s art deco doll. She was smart, attentive and knowledgable and made a lasting impression with her food.

We ordered a ceviche to start, accompanied by well-made cocktails. The martini I ordered was dry and up, the Moscow Mule was fragrant and a good companion to the ceviche.

Then came a duck for two. A half-duck with mandarin and middle eastern spices, a new take on duck a l’orange. Coco described her duck with winter vegetables, but my guess was that she forgot to change winter for spring as I saw asparagus, spinach and french beans; all of which are spring vegetables.

The duck fat fries had to be the hot make-out session of the night, with potato wedges that had crisp and flavorsome exterior and fluffy soft interiors.

All in all, I’d take Coco out for a few more nights, but she’s quite a stylish lady and I’m sure she’ll be happy with more suitors and attention from other leading men if given the choice.

I do not normally take the time to write one of these but decided that it was the least I could do after being looked after so well.
My husband and I booked in to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary and I was impressed from the first phone call.
I had originally thought that I would have to go through a few channels to get our tickets for the movie and then to book in for dinner; this was not the case. A polite and helpful young lady answered the phone and within minutes I had a table reserved and tickets booked which we would later find waiting for us on the table when we arrived.
Being a Saturday night it was naturally busy. There was a line at the desk of people paying who seemed to have had a good time. We were then welcomed and lead to our table. Our waitress surprised us with 2x glasses of bubbles and congratulated us on our anniversary (I had mentioned it when making the booking). A small gesture that was not expected but extremely appreciated. From then on it was a delightful night with good knowledge of the menu for the questions we had and friendly service without being too intrusive. The staff obviously knew what time our movie was and kept us to schedule without rushing us through our meals.
We shared a few entrees to start, a delicious lamb rib entrée and some of the tastiest pork and prawn dumplings I have had in a long time.
For a main I had the chicken, which the only criticism I had was the portion size, but when told it was priced based on the cost and quality of the ingredients I was ok with as it was a very yummy dish. My husband had the beef which was cooked to perfection and was accompanied by the Kiwi favourites of mash and green veg. (and a bowl of fries of course).
We declined the option to have desserts only to be happily informed that if we wanted to have an ice cream in the movie, all we had to do was let our waitress know and she would deliver them (or anything else) toMore us so we could avoid queuing at the box office. An Amazing service if you ask me.

After reading some of the other reviews and speaking with The Maitre’D and wait staff I am happy I took the time to share our experience at CoCo at The Roxy. It is so easy to share ‘bad news’ these days that I do no think people take the time to express when something is good.

Thank you Roxy for a lovely night that both my husband and I will remember for a long time to come.

I visited the place in the early afternoon on Saturday, I am so impressed with the place and a magnificent exhibition of costumes that seem from a world of fantasy, like the entire place. Unfortunately I was a bit too late for lunch but we settle with Coffee and a Cake, service was great with everything brought to us unlike most cafes this days where you wait standing to take your cup back with you just to drop it on the way, chocolate cake was amazing and Coffee was good, maybe a bit too light for my taste.
Overall magnificent place and great service, keep up the good work.

Went in for coffee and cake on a Saturday afternoon. The place was quiet but the service was sloppy and uncoordinated. All three items arrived separately and one was completely overlooked. The staff here come accross as casually indifferent. Won’t be back any time soon, there is much better in Wellington…

Was my first time here (I know took me long enough!). Great interior and a great spot for an arvo coffee and catch up.
Will be back to sample the meals.

Shockingly bad service – Took 2 hours to be served a 2 course lunch – Staff utterly hopeless and slightly nonchalant, no doubt brought about by the somewhat overly pretentious environment, lacking tight management for the sake of being cool.

Not wanting to give a lesson on how to run a business… but you’d think they would have their best staff on the busiest days – ie. at the weekend – but no…. You couldn’t have compiled a more useless bunch of waiting staff with no concept of how to deliver service to its clientele. Towards the end I expressed my displeasure at the length of time it had taken, and the response was, ‘we’re really busy’, when half the tables were empty.

The food (when it eventually arrived) was excellent – but certainly not worth the wait.

The overall experience would have been awesome if the customer service had the same attention to detail as the food and restaurant ambiance.

Wow went for dinner on Friday evening 20 April 2012, four adults and one child.

Awesome food and great service, our 11 year old son can’t wait until we are in Wellington again to be able to go.

Even with a big group in as well we had a very memorable evening – keep in the good work

We visited Coco at 1.30pm-ish yesterday (Friday). We were quickly seated, offered water and the menu and then, it seemed forgotten about. We had to crane our necks to get someone’s attention to order. Placing our orders (open chicken/ava salad sammy and the vege tart), they arrived 30 minutes later. Understandable if the place was heaving with customers but there were only three other tables – around 7 people in total. Food arrived, you could see it was freshly made and it tasted devine. Very good food (although twice cooked pastry is never going to turn out good – so well baked difficult to cut through). I had to ask for salt and pepper – as did the other table – something I dont think customers should have to do. Once our meal was delivered and the pepper grinder dealt with we were left to our own devices – not approached once to ask if the meal was to our liking or if we wanted more drinks. We had to, again, crane our necks, turn round to get someones attention. We ordered our second round of drinks when our meal was finished. The drinks arrived and the waitress just walked away without clearing the dirty plates???? Strange!

Once last thing, when we paid and presented our entertainment card, the staff didn’t know about it. It took a lot and I mean a lot of flaffing about to get it sorted. Would be good if they took that learning and shared it with the rest of the staff so others dont endure the same.

Overall the food was good. Coco I’m sad to say, you need to invest more in your staff and their customer service training.

I’ve eaten here a number of times, and I can’t fault the food as it is usually delicious (if pricey). However, the service is at times lacking- I agree with another reviewer who noticed that there is a lot of waiting- to be seated, to be served drinks, etc, while wait staff hang around the kitchen area. I was willing to put up with the slow service though, as it is a good local restaurant. But my mind changed this past weekend due to being very rudely bumped just a few hours before our reservation. We had made it days in advance and were warned that a wedding would take up half the space- we were fine with that (and even fine with coming in almost two hours before our movie due to the kitchen being slower at this time), but we were sure to double check that our reservation was do-able. Yes yes yes, they assured us all was booked, and then rudely phoned the day of to tell us we could no longer dine there. If you have a wedding party taking up your space, that’s fine, but don’t allow other guests to book in at that time, as trying to find somewhere to eat at the last minute on a Saturday night was a nightmare!! Plus they were quite rude on the phone, no apology, so I guess that’s their way of saying they really don’t care about their customers We will definitely pass next time, which is a shame since the theatre is so great.

Went to Wellington last week, for a break with my mum Marina. We live in New Plymouth. And met my sister and nephew there who are from Christchurch. The Roxy was recommended to us for fine dinning and excellent movie venue. Yes, couldn’t fault the excellent movie venue. The dinning was excellent too! The waitress was fantastic, she assisted us in the menu etc.. We got the individual plates of food..well to die for!! We booked for the same table at the same time for the following night…We went back, the service once again great! We ordered the fish, sorry for $32.00 per meal, and coming from a fishing family, we all agreed we should of stuck to what we liked! The sweetie bar was a bit expensive, but all in all 7- 10 for food. 10-10 for service. 10-10 for venue….I will be returning to the Roxy on my next visit to Wgton. Awhina

Food better than expected interesting menu and wine by the glass selection. Loved the decor and feel of the room found staff helpful and friendly.All and all a thoroughly enjoyable night

I agree with the last review. We had an excellent meal at the Roxy -the fish and risotto were very tasty and well presented.

Service was friendly and professional.

We liked the addition of the new seating/ glass in the middle of the restaurant – creating a more intimate environment.

Well done.

This restaurant is fantastic. Dont know why some people were so critical especially soon after it opened. You have to give the staff time to settle in and get their act together. Someone even compared it with that cafe at the Penthouse! That’s almost an insult. Thank God for the Roxy and Coco.

My wife and I went to the restaurant for lunch, having read a review in the local paper. What a total,utter let-down! The waitress had difficulty in understanding my wife’s simple request for a “dry house white wine” to the point where she decided to go without the wine. The menu was not very tempting to either of us and I thought seriously about leaving right there and then. However, I ordered a prawn dish with “rice noodles” and my wife finally ordered a Garden Salad, described by the waitress as a “…green salad…”. Imagine our surprise when we both received the same dish!!!!! It comprised very thin rubbery and elasticated noodles, prawns, coriander and Thai chili sauce.The explanation was, “That’s what both dishes are today!!!” The dish was almost inedible and we left most of them. Yuk!! Not a good look. We will never go back there again. Did we complain? No, we just wanted to get out and leave this awful dining experience behind us. We are not novice diners. Get your act together Co Co.

I was like many locals was feeling very excited about the opening of cocoa. We asked friends from the kapiti coast to join us for we assumed a delicious dinner. All four of us were feeling very upset at the quality of our meal. How sad
I certainly won’t be returning to our local theatre for a meal
Unless I know that the menu has improved. Please make changes so locals are able to enjoy our local theatre and restaurant like neighboring suburbs.

Love the setting, decor and staff – they are lovely. But my dish, menat to be Warm Beef Salad with Kumara and Toasted Rice – was horrible. Beef was ok and the kumara was nice, what there was of it. But there was no rice of any description, just awful white cabbage coleslaw, tons of it. Spoiled the dish for me. However, will go back again – husband liked his dish. And I really want to like it. However I had a hot chocolate afterwards and it was divine! One of the best I have ever had.

About once a month we like to go out to see a movie and have a meal afterwards and so when Coco opened we couldn’t wait to go “local”
The decor is stunning. My partner ordered one of their Coco Burgers. He said chips were over cooked and burger nothing special and definitely not worth the $21 charged . As I couldn’t see anything on the menu that appealed to me I ordered 2 of their “Sharing Plates” – Koftas (9.00) and Arancini (11.00) 2 plates arrived with what looked to me like 3 small meatballs on each – how many could you share with ?LOL – for the total $20 charged for these I would have expected more. We were so disappointed with our meal. Such a shame as the decor is beautiful but unless there is a change in the menu and they start serving proper meals (a good restaurant should cater for ALL tastes and appetites) next time we go to see a movie we will not be dining at Coco.

I’ve eaten at the Roxy a number of times now and I’ll keep going back for more.

I’d go back many times just for the chips – I’m not sure what some of the other reviews are on about when they complain about the chips. I understand they are hand made on the premises each day, so they’re a refreshing change from the chips you get almost everywhere else.

The Coco has a great atmosphere and the staff are very attentive, friendly and helpful.

Asides from the chips, I’d particularly recommend the chicken burger, the creme brulee, the donuts and the iced coffees.

Owner has to replace chef. Wings were not wings and were raw. Garlic bread was oily to the point of being disgusting. Chips were soggy and uninteresting.

Service was good. Waitresses nice and prompt.
Ambiance was great!

Review the food. Change the chef.

We went to have dinner and see a movie out at the Roxy last week. I read the reviews, but needed to try it for myself as it is a new place and of course they are going to be trying to work out the kinks. The place is beautiful! They were very busy and we didn’t have a booking, but we were seated in a timely manner. I liked the idea of the ‘around the world’ theme on the menu. There is something for everyone and the prices are mid range. You can order small plates to share(which we did), burgers, pastas or salads. They have a great wine selection and classic cocktails on the list. The service was good and friendly, not pretentious. You could tell some of the staff are still learning, but of course, they have only been open a few weeks. The cinemas were stunning and the seats very comfortable. We had a great night and will be back! Thank you!

I thought everything was great but I ordered the fettuccine with bacon tomato and onion, no mention of olives on the menu, the meal comes out and it’s 30% olives with olive sauce. I don’t like olives and wouldn’t have ordered if I had known they need to change the menu or the meal. Everyone else was happy with their meals. I don’t want to knock the place but don’t want other people to be disappointed.

After reading the previous reviews we thought it would be a good idea to give the new restaurant some time to sort out there issues.
Our experience on Wednesday night was Fantastic!!!
Not only is the building absolutely stunning, with such great attention to detail (especially love the door handles)we were warmly welcomed and invited to have a pre-dinner drink in the upstairs bar while waiting for our friends.
The staff were able to rush our meal as we ended up running a little late for a movie and they even carried our deserts into the theatre with us so we wouldn’t miss the start.
It is nice to receive such service at a cinema and we can’t wait to go back
Tom

I have eaten twice at Coco and have not been impressed at all. Both times the service was lacking, with some staff being a bit ‘uppity’.
The staff were not welcoming and I had to ask on the second visit for someone to take our order only to be told ‘please wait, someone else will be with you shortly’. Whilst waiting for our meals to arrive we noticed a queue of people waiting to be seated and no one at the front counter to help, although three or four staff members were milling around or standing by the bar. The brunch menu is limited and consists mainly of eggs on toast and add ons like bacon, salmon etc… There is only one size for coffee as well (my sister mentioned the hobbits were working the kitchen lol) and arrived after the meals did.
When we went for dinner we ordered two adult mains and a fetuccine pasta from the children’s menu. The pasta had olives and was so spicy that it was virtually inedible by either my husband or I, suffice to say my 5 year old was disappointed too. The cabinet food is uninteresting and so you don’t want to buy anything. They need to look at the food that they serve at Penthouse, Polo and Maranui which are super yum and with oodles of variety. This is a place in the suburbs so they need a menu that caters for children and the clientele that live there.

Went to Coco last night in a group of six. We had made reservations ahead of time. The service was excellent, the waiting staff were very attentive and timely with everything. Unfortunately the food wasn’t so great. I noticed the smell of fryer oil as we were walking in from outside, never a good start. There seems to be some confusion about what kind of restaurant they are – plates and burgers? We sampled quite a few of the plates, and found most of the deep-fried ‘plates’ oily and over-crusted. If you have had ‘plates’ at Havana, you would definitely not be crossing town for these ones at Coco. The hand-cut fries were some of the worst fries I have ever eaten, oily, discoloured. Two of our table had a pasta dish that had bacon, mushroom, olive and chilli and both said the only thing they could taste was the chilli and they couldn’t finish it. There was no fish option at all. There was a lovely rose water flavoured creme brulee and there was a tasty and attractive salmon sashimi plate. The desserts were all heavy and/or rich. Nothing with lemon or fresh fruit. It was my birthday, and usually I would order a good quality NZ bubbly – none on the wine list. I think they could take a leaf out of the Penthouse Cinema cafe/restaurants book, which seems to have nailed it in terms of a consistently good menu for this type of venue. Also, the restaurant being at the back of the cavernous space with no partitioning didn’t really work for me – it felt like a cafe hurriedly installed in a ballroom space. So, fairly disappointing all round.

after seeing a movie we went downstairs to have dinner and were told we had to wai 20minutes for a table, which was fine. we had a few drinks while we waited and were offered starters. after waiting 45minutes we asked how much longer it would be and we were told, “not long” at we were hungry so we paid for our drinks and left. the host and bar staff was very nice.

We went on a Wednesday for lunch. The food was lovely and tasty. The atmosphere was really nice and so were the staff.

A bit expensive but it comes with that type/ quality of food.

Hopefully you are not in a hurry and can sit down to enjoy your meal because it is a little bit of a wait. Not too long though.

Food was a bit bland. A bit ‘meh’. The staff seemed untrained and thrown in the deep-end where they didn’t seem to know what they where doing. Order not coming out all at once. Atmosphere best thing about it, remembering that you are in a cinema. Very cool 1930′s. If only the food was as good as the surroundings. Disappointed.