We went to this restaurant and bar for the first time last week and have decided to write a review because we were very impressed with the food and service. We didn’t have a reservation but were welcomed in and seated in a cosy, comfortable corner. The staff were very attentive and organised. We ordered the large fish and chips and a beef burger – both huge portions and very scrumptious.

We will definitely be recommending this restaurant and visiting again. Thanks for the great night!

I’m really writing this review to compliment The Elephant Wrestler on their fantastic service. We dined here on a very busy Valentine’s evening, without a reservation, and were seated and served without any problems. The staff were charming and knew the menu inside and out, something I really appreciate. Our steaks ($15 Thursday special) were excellent. Will definitely return – thank you!

Had a great time at the Elephant Wrestler-really liked the courtyard setting specially as it was nice and sunny day.
Our waitress was charming and bubbly – our orders were promptly taken and the drinks came soon after. One of the beers was wrongly ordered however our waitress replaced it without hesitation.
Found it a bit on the pricey side however the food was fabulous – though it was a bit of a wait but then it seemed quiet busy with al the tables occupied with people.
The beef carving board we shared was worth the wait looked amazing -and the portions were generous – loved the peppery mash potato that came along with the dish.
Amy had the Sunday roast which she said was really satisfying.
Most of all really enjoyed the atmosphere. Would certainly be back soon.

We went there last Saturday for a lunch to celebrate my mother in law’s birthday. The outdoor area setting was lovely, beautiful weather, fairly pleasant but not very attentive staff. The total let down was my overpriced ($22) Baby spinach salad with grilled marino lamb. Instead of grilled marino lamb I was served with sliced pieces of old lamb roast doused with bitter tasting very unpleasant gravy. I could not finish it , sent two third of my meal back and quietly asked waiters to pass my message to the cook that this is not grilled marino lamb. She looked at me like she didn’t understand (or didn’t care ) what I’m talking about at all. Very very disappointing. That was my fourth and last visit to the Elephant Wrestler.

The restaurant looked lovely, the outside area was nice, and the location ideal, however the service myself and friends have received on an ongoing basis has been appalling, our table had no cutlery to begin with, and it was an effort to get the waitresses’ attention to bring us some (after already asking her when we received out meals). We weren’t offered drinks, our table wasnt given any water, and after sometime without service, finally having to walk up to the counter and ask a waitress to bring us some (while chatting away to two other employees). The amount we paid for the “handful” of chips was daylight robbery, and the dessert (selection of ice creams) tasted almost crystallized, and tasteless…Was not happy, have been here a few times now with different friends (not by choice) and each time feel like I have wasted my money, and let down with both food and the shocking service. If I could give this place a zero I probably would.

My friend and I visited the Elephant Wrestler on Sunday night and while the staff were friendly and the atmosphere reasonably good, our experience was not.
Our waitress was well presented and friendly, however was quite incompetent having to be asked a few times about basic items like cutlery, side plates (for bread), and sugar (for coffee). However, this is minor compared to the main meals. I ordered the miso pork belly and my friend ordered the rump steak. When the dishes came out they both had great presentation, however from here, everything goes terribly wrong! The taste was terrible. The pork belly was overcooked, dry and very tough. The steak was tough and tasted purely of charcoal!! We were both extremely disappointed.

My family and I decided to go to the Elephant Wrestler on Sunday night and had a really lovely meal. The Sunday roast special was cooked perfectly and the service from the waitresses and bar staff was good. However we found the maitre d’ to be rude and unprofessional because she spent most of the time we were there talking loudly and inappropriately with other staff members. It was disappointing and ruined the otherwise lovely atmosphere.

After a great afternoon at the beach we decided to treat ourselves to a beer and fish and chips. We choose The Elephant Wrestler over the others on the strip because of the decor, ambience, menu and there was a good vibe going on (it was busy). The service was fine. We paid $20 & $26 for a small and large fish and chips, pretty pricey but we had high expectations. We were sadly very disappointed . The fish portions were very small and the batter oily and overcooked, the chips were average quality and the coleslaw inedible, it was quiet frankly just horrible and looked old.

The staff didnt ask us if we enjoyed our meal, if they had I would have told them what Im now writing here.

We would go back for a drink but not to eat, plenty of others in the area to choose from for that.

Poor service lets a great location down.

I really want to like this place , I love the layout the location etc.. I keep going back time and time again ( work lunches \ social drinks etc ) The food is ok and fairly priced but the staff and their service is sub par and it frustrates me that is I keep spending my money there.

I feel like staff behind the bar use it as a social club for young 20 something discussing their plans for the weekend and that customers are a annoyance they must endure to fund their lifestyle. The amount of times I have waited in line at the bar while they skip past myself and others to serve their friends I cant begin to count.

If they could sort their staff out they would be on a winner.

Went to the Elephant Wrestler last night with 3 others. The location, atmosphere and decor were all great, and the service was actually pretty good (I was a little surprised given other reviews here). The wine list was good and the size of the meals was “North American”. Unfortunately, we all made the mistake of ordering beef and that was where everything fell down. Two ordered the roast beef, one chilli beef salad and one the steak sandwich. The latter was completely inedible – it couldn’t even be cut with a knife there was so much gristle! In fairness to them, they replaced the entire meal, although the replacement steak was also quite tough, as was the beef in the salad. The salad was quite tasty, but there were only 3 small tortillas on the plate, not quite what was expected. The roast was let down by undercooked veggies and a cheap cut of meat that lacked any flavour. My learned companion (a butcher of 30+ years) suggested they should use a rolled roast for the meal instead, but clearly they were going for quantity over quality, which is a shame as it’s actually a pretty good venue. I would come back, but only to drink.

Great looking bar with quick and engaging service.

We both had burgers which were nicely presented and came with well cooked crispy chips. However both burgers were a little dry.

Worth a stop if you are walking past.

Really lovely place to catch up with friends over a beer or wine. Great burgers!( try the peri-peri)Mum had the fish and chips.. She said was great! Service is bar style, sometimes you need to pop into the bar for a top up. Lovely outdoor area.

I ordered a grilled chicken caesar salad here. Was very disapointing. The chicken was very dry and there was not enough dressing with salad. Was very expensive for what it was.

A bunch of us thought we’d try out the pub quiz here for the first time and I am sorry to say the service was absolutely appalling. The waitresses kept walking past us without attempting to help us find a seat. When we finally got one I had to flag down a waitress to get grab us another chair and the waitress was never seen again. We had to ask for menus and ask to order after waiting at least half an hour each time when the waitresses would walk past us and ignor us, even ignoring the empty plates and not clearing plates when they were doing nothing. One person’s wine did not come at all. The two dark haired waitresses were friendly when we did get their attention but one blonde waitress in particular was very rude everytime we asked her for something. Seriously need to provide better service. Waitresses were a nightmare.

Food is often okay – I’d go for a pizza or the sliders. The steak sandwich was pretty pathetic – the tiny sliver of steak was completely dwarfed by the two huge chunks of bread.
But worst of all was the service. It was a Sunday afternoon and not particularly busy – only a couple of tables occupied outside, not sure about inside. But the waitresses were terrible in spite of not having much to do. Took us a very long time to order drinks from one unhappy waitress and when they didn’t come, had to go to the bar to order again. Not good, guys.

Went for Easter to have lunch, wouldn’t serve us, waved the waitress, went to the bar, was told to wait to be served, is half an hour to long to wait to even be greeted, so left and went to GPK…. REALLY bad bad service

We’ve only had good experiences here, but go here realising that it’s foremost function is a pub that serves food, not a restaurant that serves alcohol. Haven’t had anything yet that I wouldn’t recommend. Deserts are great (and I don’t do deserts). Love their pizzas. Wish they would use proper Bacardi rum – not the white rum substitute that so many of the pubs are using now!

We headed here last week for my hubby’s birthday. After checking out the reviews it sounded like a good local place to try;

Possibly a gastro pub wasn’t the wisest choice for a couple closer to 40 than 30 (however we do enjoy a good night out just to be clear), however the music was very loud (it was about 8.30pm), so much so that our friends that joined us declined to stay for dinner as it was simply too loud to have a decent conversation. Given we were on the clock with our babysitter, we decided to stay on and order.

We were looking forward to the pork board for two given the great review given here. Having ordered we were somewhat surprised when our meal was delivered, minus the crackling. When we queried this we were advised they had run out which is why we didn’t receive any. Given this is an integral part of the dish, I would expect we should have been told this upfront so we had the opportunity to order something else – which we would have – lets face it, pork without the crackling is not that special. They did offer us complimentary wedges or fries, however we said we would prefer a discount off the bill at the end and to be fair they did give us a reasonable discount (wedges and a beer off the bill).

Service was on the thin side – we would have ordered another two glasses of wine to have with our meal if anyone had come remotely near us once our meals had been served – it was literally impossible to get anyone’s attention. To be honest, we could easily have left without paying and we wouldn’t have been missed until we were long gone.

Overall, it was ok – I hate to moan – but given these days we don’t get a lot of opportunities to dine out, it is disappointing when the basics are not done right.

Wife (of 25 years) and I went there and luckily got an outside table. Great ambiance and good service. Being frugal with our money, bought the pizza on special ($10) – couldn’t believe how good it was, so we bought another!
The enjoyment of a restaurant depends on 3 things –
1/ Value for money (good food at good price)
2/ Good service (not just looked upon as a walking wallet)
3/ Good company seated with you
The Elephant Wrestler (weird name) delivered a 10/10 for us both – well done!
Will be back!

I went last night – 6 of us and really enjoyed it. When arriving things were a little slow. We had to go get our own drinks. As the night went on 1 waiter was great and our other not so good. However the food rocked. You must try the Pork board for 2! We were the envy of the table. Its was sublime – perfect crackling and beautifully cooked loin with a lovely jus. We had it with the apple and fennel slaw which was the perfect compliment. Def. going back for it again. And so are the others that were with us and didn’t get it….

Family of four looking for a mid week dinner, this looked perfect. Sat outside, excellent ambience, well spaced tables, good atmosphere. BUT, after a 10minute wait, had to go to the desk to ask for a waitress and menus. After another 10 mins, flagged down a waitress so we could order drinks. And they took another 10mins. Specials menu was not explained, food ok but expected more than Rocket and 1/2 tomato as the salad with Fish and Chips. No we wont be going back there.

The food was disappointing. My hamburger was made up of a rather stale ciabatta bun and a processed patty which claimed to be angus beef, but tasted more like plastic. The burger looked impressive, but was difficult to eat, and not worth the effort. The outdoor area was nice, but wasn’t enough to make up for the lousy, expensive hamburger.

We took overseas visitors there for lunch before a rugby game and have to say the food was good but unfortunately we were given the incorrect bottle of wine and unfortunately this was not picked up by the person who had ordered it until we were half way thru the bottle then one of our guests ordered a glass of sauvignon blanc but was given chardonnay instead. Really need to hire a barman who can read!!

Went to check out this new bar last nite in Takapuna before heading elsewhere to watch the rugby …well we didn’t leave it was fab great food probably the best steak I’ve had in Auckland and the French rugby players sitting at the table by us we watched the rugby in the courtyard great experience to be outside watching TV with the sound on and a really great atmosphere to top it off the game finished and there band started so we stayed and danced the night away awesome night and great venue we have defiantly found our spot to have a night out and watch the world cup thanks elephant wrestler and see you soon

This place is awesome. Went there on a Sunday avo and it was packed. Great outdoor bar area – sun was beaming in and it created a really great atmosphere. We had a few different starters – the chicken skewers, the salt and pepper squid, and the risotto balls – they were all perfect. Another friend in the group had the risotto as a main and she was raving about it. Will definately back at TEW in the near future for a full meal (and a few cold Heinekens!)

even though i only went there for SUnday afternoon bevvie with friends, i already know this is going to provide some stiff competition to the ever popular Macs bar down the road.
Nicely laid out and spacious inside area, but the outdoor area makes it – will go off in summer!
The menu looks awesome, and apparently the risotto balls and are superb!
Will definitely be back to further sample the menu, and make the most of the outdoor area!