Great Taste, maybe if you like a deep fried hair!
First and last time dining at this restaurant.
I thought I would try some deep fried sushi, when I cut a bit off and went to put it in my mouth I noticed a long hair hanging from it. At a closer look I saw it was stuck in the batter, I took it to the waitress still on my fork pointed out what was wrong, she said not their fault they buy the sushi in but would go and tell the manager, about 10 minutes later this guy came out and said he was the Manager and there was nothing he could do, it had been dropped buy a customer. Hello how does a piece of customers hair get into the batter on sushi, he was very rude, offered no apology or nothing. I was very disappointed and annoyed so had taken a photo and am now taking it further. Watch this space

FOOD QUALITY: 1/5
PORTION SIZE: 3/5
SERVICE & AMBIENT: 2/5
VALUE FOR MONEY: 2/5
OVERALL: 2/5

Food was quite terrible. There was hardly any versatility, nothing to choose from really. There were tacos but no dips. Apart from chicken that didn’t taste like chicken at all, they only had fried fish. There were lots of sides to choose from (spaghetti, plain rice, risotto, mashed potato, fries) but again, no warm sauces to add some taste to the food (there were cold sauces though but not what I would want as a warm meal). The choice of salads was poor and they didn’t look fresh.
However, leek-potato soup was tasty and apple crumble with ice cream was terrific.

Portion size was limited but the fact that there was hardly any choice – ended up having fish’n'chips practically – makes it poor.

Staff was friendly, a bit slow with removing dirty plates though. The ambient wasn’t too enjoyable due to people bringing little children and letting them scream and go trough food with sticky fingers – not very pleasant to see.

Overall food quality and selection make this restaurant below average, for $9 lunch it was an interesting experience, but will not be going back.

FOOD QUALITY: 1/5
PORTION SIZE: Not applicable
SERVICE & AMBIENT: 1/5
VALUE FOR MONEY: 2/5
OVERALL: 1/5

Don’t be deceived by the name, that’s all I can say. Major disappointment, and a certain rip-off. Went there for an afternoon buffet, which seemed like it could be worth the $9 – turns out it wasn’t at all.

There were lots of fat mommies with screaming babies putting their fingers everywhere they don’t belong, including jelly and cream that other people eat later on. Disgusting.

The buffet was promising to be limited by the looks of their website, but imagine my horror when it was actually missing half the food advertised on the website. I asked where is their beef and pork of the day, and they said it’s for dinner only. What should I eat for lunch then?

Seeing that nothing looked particularly appetising, I decided to try everything. Here’s what they had:

Pumpkin soup (smelled awful, but my partner said it was edible)
Leek & potato soup (tasteless goo)
Mashed potatoes (not really, it was the worst powder potato sludge of all time, it tasted like minced socks)
Steamed/Fried rice (edible, barely)
Seafood chips (adipose)
Fried chicken (what? that’s no chicken, the dark meat even looked like a rat)
Fish & Chips (I swear I’ve tasted better in all budget Fish & Chips places around town)
10+ choice of salads (mostly inedible apart from carrot and coleslaw with italian dressing)
Bolognese and mixed bean sauce (right, or if they just put a tomato sauce flask there, wouldn’t be any different).

Did you see me mention any meat? No, because there was no meat in a buffet restaurant. What a rip-off.

The only positive I can say were the banana cakes (quite tasty) and the apple crumble (mediocre) with their icecream from the noisy icecream machine. The icecream was actually better than in McDonalds, but that still doesn’t mean it was good.

Bottom line, I think such restaurants should be closed down. Avoid like a plague, I tell you, go order something in Meridian Mall, at least it’ll be edible.

This place used to be good, but not anymore. I ‘treated’ myself to a nice dinner out recently and left disappointed. There wasn’t a thing that tasted decent except perhaps the pudding. Dry mashed potato, awful tasting meat, hard undercooked vegetables. The place was full of screaming children at the time which didn’t help. Overall my experience was positively ghastly and I shan’t go back again.

Appalling. Do not eat here. Slimy fish. Revolting salads. Doughy fried chicken. Filthy bathrooms. The service was good, but could hardly compensate for the disgraceful food. Not to mention that the soft-serve machine is busted. Kids weren’t happy.

Great Taste is a good buffet, large selection of salads, meats, condiments and deserts. Been here numerous of times for birthday parties and lunches. Good food but the selection does become old tack after a while.

My son (11) went to your restaurant with a Boys Brigade group while he was at camp with them. He commented on your restaurant as “fantastic and so yummy!!! and the people were really friendly and nice he said. Thanks heaps for a great meal” From Jaymee

This is my best restraunt in dunedin cause it is an all you can eat bar and you can just eat as much as you can until you get sick. for my kid it’s about 7 dollors and he’s 11.

I didn’t rate the quality of the food here. Also the salad bar stacks there salads three back so the ones at the front are constantly getting reached over/things falling in them.
I think next time I will try the new steakhouse across the road!

So there’s places like this scattered in various parts of the country – some do it very well, such as the Garden Hotel restaurant in Christchurch which has a huge selection of really good quality good value food … but this isn’t about them.

Keeping in mind that I have probably been spoiled by the fact that I have been up and down the country and seen lots of restaurants get it right and lots get it wrong – in whatever their chosen cuisine style.

Great Taste unfortunately has a really misleading name – and it took me a second time of eating there just to make sure.

Overall the environment is good. Some of the tables however are a bit odd because the chairs don’t quite match up leaving you banging your knees on the underside of the table.

The food selection is severely limited. I have paid similar and eaten in similar places where they have whole roasts out to choose from – or wide selections of seafood. Essentially you get a choice of pasta, a couple of hot Asian dishes, rice and deep fried foods. Dessert is as limited as your mains.

The dishes themselves are a bit … well, ick … that’s about the only way I can describe it. Oil ridden Asian fare – the satay was the most visually interesting because the satay sauce looked more like brown lumpy gravy.

I wont be making my way back to try a third time lucky.

Great meals and great service at great prices – they live up to their name.
Have dined there on several occasions and have always been satisfied with the food & service.
Would not hesitate to dine there again in fact we intend to this weekend.

great taste was really good! The food was delicious! All of it was brilliantly cooked. Friendly service and overall just a great place to be. And…I LOVED the ice cream machine. IT IS AWESOME! Defiantly going there again. In fact I’m going this weekend for a birthday party. Yay I can’t wait!

Really nice atmosphere for a buffet restaurant, friendly staff too.

What a great place, good selection great prices we will be returning, my son ate loads and he is really fussy!!!

Excellent family restaraunt, there is something everyone can enjoy! Nice & clean, and the food is delicious!

Great taste, great menu, great price!! What more can you ask for. I took my 8 & 6 years old fussy eaters along on Saturday and they both thoroughly enjoyed it, as did my mum, sister and I. Something to suit everybody and cheaper than MacDonald’s. Very nice staff as well. We will be visiting again next time we are in Dunedin. Keep up the good work!!

Great value for money, easy place to choose when you have a family and want somewhere that everyone gets to eat what they want. Well worth it and great concept. No other in Dunedin

highly dissapointed….
terrible food and it is not worth your money or time . low quality food. anyone that can cook can cook better that the food at great taste. the only resonably ok food at the buffet was the fish and chips and they don’t cost 11dollars per person. the only fruits they have are can pineapples and some oranges, the fried rice and noodles are oily and hard , only vegetarian sushi and deep fried sushi.. never had that in my life and it tasted pretty bad. overall it is a terrible experience and will never go back.

This is a very great restraunt one of the best I have eaten at a wide range of meals friendly service and very reasonable prices

What a brilliant concept!
Fantastic buffet food with really good value for lunch or dinner. Heaps of healthy yummy salads, also with bolognaise, & nachos & all sorts of other things.
Amazing kids prices too.
I’ve really enjoyed having a healthy place to go with a huge variety.
People have told me the steak is amazing as well – but I haven’t tried it myself.