Many thanks for your review and your recommendation

It is always great to have satisfied customers – we work very hard to enusre that we only buy the best steak and cook it exactly to your requirements

We look forward to welcoming you back

Thanks for visiting us and for your great review.

I am very pleased that you enjoyed your meal and thank you for your recommendation. Like you we don’t know what the writers of the neagtive reviews were on about.

Thanks again.

Thank you for your kind and gracious review and we look forward to welcoming you next time

Thank you for your review. I am sorry that you were not happy with your meal.
Your wife ordered her venison medium-rare and it was cooked to the temperature as shown on the cooking guide that was provided to you. After I spoke to you and you indicated that your wife’s venison had been undercooked I did follow up with my staff and they indicated to me that they had checked to see that the venison was cooked to your satisfaction – clearly they did not do this adequately and I will be addressing this with them.
Re the oyster deal it was very specific on the both the deal offer and on the voucher that the choice was either crumbed or raw – we do not offer an option of battered.
In actual fact the cooking oil was brand new – as I think I explained to you I have been experimenting with making our own chips – we have been using last seasons Nadines because they yield a very sweet chip – but because they are mature potatoes they brown up very quickly. I have been carefully monitoring customer comments on the chips since we started making our own and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
We have a very large regular local clientele who tell us that they are very happy with our meals and the service and the atmosphere.
Our prices are on a par with other restaurants in Dunedin and when you factor in the unlimited salad bar they are usually cheaper on the whole.
I am pleased that you enjoyed the salads.
Thank you again for taking the time to write a review and for your comments.

Thank you for taking the time to right a review.

I am very disppointed that everything seems to have been wrong for you.

What I find even more disappointing is that you didn’t raise any of these issues with me on the night and in fact you personally said to me that you had enjoyed your meal. Furthermore I have emailed you but had no response.

I recall your party of 2 as I noted that you had not eaten your venison.

I personally cooked your meal and to suggest that the venison and the potato were cold is frankly impossible – your venison was cooked to the temperature that is indicated on the cooking guide that you were given at the time of ordering. The potatoes were oven baked earlier in the evening and held in a steamer over boiling water so I find it very difficult to understand how they could be cold.

It is impossible for the table clothes to be greasy – we use large place mats and the table clothes are linen and washed by my mother very frequently. – again I repeat why did you not raise your concerns with me on the night when I spoke to you personally at least twice.

Neither I or my staff or other guests on the night noted any musty or unusual smell – it is possible an external smell from the street or elsewhere in the building was what you noted. Following your comment I have checked with my staff and other guests and nobody else has noted anything unusual.

I always take all reviews, good or bad, very seriously.
What I find difficult to balance in your review is that it runs completely contrary to other reviews and comments that guests make in the restaurant.

Thanks Kate,

It is always gratifying to get the food right, cook it to perfection and know that we have a satisfied and happy customer – we are in business of not only satisfying your appetite but we do our very best to exceed your expectations – I look forward to welcoming you back with another great steak

Thanks for your review and I am pleased that after 3 weeks you finally found a restaurant to cook you a great steak.
We are in the business of custoemr service and I will always open up to cook a steak for a customer

Kia Ora Sandra, thank you taking the time to write a review.
I am pleased that you enjoyed the food and that it was tasty.
I must say I am perplexed and surprised by your comments – the staff member in question is relatively new – she is certainly still learning and I have passed your comments on to her and discussed them with all of my other staff.
She is ebullient and very out-going and I realise that in some cases this can seem over the top – clearly you felt so.
Since she has been in my employment I have had a number of customers who have come to me to tell me how much they appreciate her service and attention – although I do not encourage or expect our customers to leave a tip, I do know that she receives many tips from satisfied customers.
Both her and I take your comments as a learning experience and I have asked her to be more aware and careful of the impact that she has on customers

Thank you so much for your review – it was our great pleasure to welcome you and to provide you with Christmas dinner when you were away from home – havea happy, safe and prosperous New Year

Kia Ora Emma
Thank you for your gracious review and we look forward to welcoming you back

Kia Ora

Thank you for taking the time to write a review

It is always nice to know that we have met our customers expectations.

We look forward to welcoming you back

Thank you for your review.

The salad bar and baked potatoes are unlimited and all you have to do is ask for more – my staff are trained and instructed to tell you that – I will check with them tomorrow for an explanation. – the following is copied from the front page of the MenuMania site for your information –

All main menu meals come with unlimited baked potatoes (just ask for more!) PLUS unlimited all-you-can-eat Salad Bar selection

In addition the website states the following

If your steak is not cooked to your total satisfaction PLEASE TELL US AT THE TIME – we will fix it!!
*** You are our customer – we expect to meet your requirements.

Since you were clearly dissatisfied with some aspects of what you received I just wish that you had raised the matter with me or my staff on the night so that we could have addressed your concerns

The orange is simply garnish and is for decoration

I am uncertain as to your expectation re the mignon sauce – the bacon is streaky bacon and is not intended to be a meal in itself.

I am pleased that your your steak was cooked to your satisfaction – all of our regular ribeye steaks are cut in the range of 220-240g per serving. There are 500g and 1kg options available on the menu.

We monitor our serving size carefully and based on the feedback that we receive and the left-overs we believe that the serving size is the size that our customers want

The decor is intentionally 40 years old – the overwhelming feedback and opinion from our customers is “don’t change a thing” – we are exactly what we say we are – a steakhouse that as been a Dunedin icon for over 40 years

I understand that the atmosphere was not to your liking and for that I am disappointed – regrettably we cannot be everything to everybody – however I track all of our reviews and all of our feedback very carefully and I have to say again that the overwhelming majority like the decor, like the atmosphere and love the food.

We are always looking to improve our offering and I take your feedback very seriously – I will be talking to my staff tomorrow to re-emphasise to them that they must ensure that all customers understand that they can have as many potatoes as they wish.

Thank you again for taking the time to write a review.

Kia Ora and many thanks for your review.

It is always pleasing to welcome back customers and especially when the steak, the salad bar and the staff meet your (and my) requirements

Thanks agan

Kia Ora
Thanks and happy to be of service – we are in the customer sevice business and happy customers are our life-blood

Kia Ora

Many thanks for your kind and gracious review – we try to keep it simple and do what we do well

Kia Ora Hanna

Thank you for taking the time to write a review – I have emailed you directly with some further explanation and an apology.

The behavior and mistakes by my staff member are unacceptable and not of the standard that I expect. He has left my employment so regrettably I cannot raise this issue with him

I am the chef and owner and I do care as you know

PeterB
Owner

Kia Ora

Thanks for your review and so pleased that we were able to meet your expectations – we look forward to welcoming you next time you are in town

Peter B

Kia Ora Paul

Thanks for taking the time to write a review – it always gratifying to have happy customers – we look forward to welcoming you back the next time you are in Dunedin

Peter B

Kia Ora
Thanks for your review and kind comments.

We work really hard to satisfy our customers and it is really appreciated when our customers not only are satisfied but then take the time to write a review.

Thanks again and we look forward to welcoming you back

Peter B
Owner

Thank you for your review. Frankly I am puzzled by your comments – I am not sure what your expectations were – both myself and my waiter checked with you about your meals and we were given no indication that you were less than satisfied – had we been made aware that you were not happy we could have addressed your concerns.

We receive consistent praise about the same steak and the same salad bar and a clearly stated view from most of our customers not to change anything.

Indeed the customers immediately before you thought that the meal was fantastic.

Like the salad bar the potatoes are unlimited and you can have as many as you wish – all you have to do is ask for more. My staff and I ate the same potatoes with our dinner tonight and I certainly didn’t notice any difference from our usual standard.

We always welcome constructive criticism but in this case I’m not really sure what the problem was

Peter B
Owner

Kia Ora and thank you for your review. I am sorry that you were disappointed and I really wish that you had raised your concerns with either myself or my staff at the restaurant so that we could have addressed your concerns at the time Our steaks are all cut to weight – we do have larger steaks – 500g and 1kg on the menu – the Steak Mignon that you ordered is served with a mushroom and onion sauce with bacon – like the salad bar the potatoes are unlimited and more are available on request With a range of 8 salads that includes curried egg, coleslaw, green salad, kumura, potato, banana, marinated red cabbage, and carrot along with sides of beetroot, pickled onions, gherkins and green olives I am puzzled as to how you could leave hungry – the great majority of our customers comment that have no room for dessert!

Kia Ora and thank you for your review
I am really disappointed that you were not happy with your meal and didn’t raise the matter with us and give us the opportunity to make amends on the night. We acknowledge that there was an oversight when your Tereyaki was plated. All of our steaks are cut from whole slab of steak and thus it very difficult to get thickness variation – what does happen with some cuts from some animals is that there can be different muscle groupings within the same cut of steak and these do sometimes cook differently. With regard to the salad bar we aim to keep a range of basic wholesome salads to accompany our meals – I always take all feedback on board and I will pay particular attention to the quantity of dressings that are placed on the salads. I didn’t own the restaurant 4 years ago so I sincerely hope you will give us another opportunity to create a positive impression for you. Finally I do have a simple request for all of our customers – if you are not happy with any aspect of our food or service please tell us at the time so that we have the opportunity to correct the matter Thanks again for taking the time to write a review Peter B Owner

Kia Ora and thank you for your kind and gracious review.

We work very hard to deliver good service and good food and it is gratifying when our customers take the time to acknowledge exceptional service.

Thank you again

PeterB

Thanks for taking the time to write a review.

I have shown your review to my staff and they; like you and me were mortified at the idea that they handed you a spoon in the manner that you describe – my and their sincere apologies – I have reinforced to them the way in which they should hand a spoon to a customer.

As you are probably aware the Huntsman has been a Dunedin icon for over 40 years and the consistent message that we get from most of our customers is keep it the way it is – therefore the salads may appear old fashioned and they are because that is one of our appeals – our salad bar is unashamedly our support act for the highest quality steak that we can buy – we only use export grade meats from Silver Fern Farms.

I am very pleased that your steaks were great and cooked to your satisfaction and that you enjoyed the desserts.

Thank you again for your review

Thanks for taking the time to write a review.
Being 3 staff down with nobody available at short-noitice despite my frantic efforts to bring staff in was not satisfactory – for this and for the fact that our service was far from optimal you have my unreserved apologies
I appreciate your constructiveness and would like the opportunity to provide you with a great meal and experience when you return – I have responded directly to you also

Thank you for your review. Clearly you were not happy with a number of matters and for that I apologise. It would have been nice to have been given the opportunity on the night to address your concerns and make things right for you One of the things that I find very disappointing about reviews like this is that my staff always check with guests to see that the meal is cooked to their satisfaction – our attitude has always been that if it isn’t right we will fix it – of course that depends upon our guest telling us if they have a problem.

I am uncertain as to what you expect in a complimentary all you can eat salad bar – we offer a tasty wholesome range of basic salads which we are regularly complimented on

Hi

Thanks so much for your great review. We are a service industry and there is nothing better to me than satisfied customers.

Thanks again and we look forward to seeing you again

Peter

Kia Oar EeLaine

Thank you for your review

I am disppointed that you didn’t raise your concerns with myself or my staff last night

Our portion sizes for our entrees are what is regarded as standard and in my experience our prices are at the lower end of the price range

I must admit to be being really puzzled by your comments about the salad bar – all of our clients have a choice of 9 salads plus beetroot, pickled onions and olives and gherkins

Apart from the salads that you mentioned there was a choice of colealaw, red cabbage, carrot, peas and corn, and curried egg

So there are only 3 carbohydrate rich salads, pasta, potato and kumura.


The banana salad is made fresh each day with banana, lemon juice, icing sugar and yoghurt and I am absolutely certain as you were one of our first customers for the night that customers had not mixed the salad spoons up – this is something that my staff and I check regularly through the evening

Our salad bar is an adjunct to our menu and is unlimited and complementary to all of our main-menu meals unlike at other restaurants where you either pay per serve or order specialty salads – we aim to provide a range of healthy, nutritious salads .

We frequently are congratulated on both the quality and range of our salads.

Aagin thank you for feedback and I am always happy to discuss your concerns with you directly if you wish to contact me

Thanks for your great review.

I am really pleased that you like the food and we just love repeat customers.

It is really nice to get compliments – we always will do our best to ensure that our customers leave satisfied

Thanks again

Peter

Hi Jackie When you go to a pub you certainly do not get Export Grade Prime Steer steak nor do you get an unlimited eat all you can salad bar. Our prices are comparable with other restaurants serving this style of food – I frequently dine out and compare our prices and the great advantage of the Huntsman is that the salad bar is free and you never leave hungry I am disappointed that my staff failed both your and my expectations The Huntsman is celebrating its 40th year this year and the style and decor are intentional – our regular customers have specificaaly reqauested that we do not change the decor or style Tonight I had a customer tell me that her steak was the best steak that she has ever eaten and another customer congratulate us on our salad bar I am sorry that you did not enjoy your meal and I regeet that you did not take the opportunity to raise your concersn with me at the time

Hi Kieran

I am disppointed that you were not happy with your meals and I would have hoped that you would have raised the matter with myself or my staff.

I make both the Lasagna and the Chilli Con Carne myself and both myself and my staff eat them frequently as do many of our customers who compliment us on both dishes

Both Lasagna and Chilli Con Carne can be prepared in many different ways and I am sorry that our style is not your style

Hi Anna

Thanks for your comments and I am pleased that your steaks were to your satisfaction

You have not said why you found the salad bar disappointing – we deliberately keep the salad bar simple and are frequently complimented on it

We make our own bread in and we do it it in a bun style and it is defintely served with garlic butter – I am soory that we didn’t meet your expectation and I would be happy to receive any suggestions from you as to how you think we might present the bread differently

Peter

Kia Ora Deana

Thank you for your review – I am certainly pleased that not only have we met the high standards of the previous owner but that we have improved upon them.

The new seating arrangement is working well for us – many of our regulars were keen for us to preserve the atmosphere as it has always been and we are happy that we have been able to make some alterations withour disturbing the fomula that has worked for 40 years

Peter

Hi Paul

I would appreciate if you could phone me dirctly at the restaurant as I am deeply concerned about your comments and I would really like to know when this happened.

We have a policy with all of our staff of asking each of our guests immediately after we have cooked and delivered their meal as to whether their steak is cooked to their satisfaction.

As stated on our menu wwe do tend to undercook rhater than overcook but we will ALWAYS recook a steak if it is not to your total satisfaction

I have spoken to each of my staff about your review and they are all adamant that they have never declined a refund for any customer – in any case it would not be their decision to make and they know that they must always refer decsaions like this to myself

We go out of our way to ensure that all of our guests have a good dining experience and every night we have positive comments both about the quality of the steak and in particular how the steaks are cooked

Please feel free to phone me or contact me at the restaurant if you wish to provide me with more details

Peter B

Thanks for your feedback – It would have been really useful if you had raised your concerns on the night so that we could have dealt with them there and then.

My staff have been instructed to always check with customers that their steaks are cooked to their satisfaction – in the event that they are not then we will always redo the steak to your satisfaction.

The squid rings are described accurately as shredded squid – we have now added calamari to the menu as an option for those who prefer whole squid rings.

The change from a baked potato to a roast potato is a decision that has been welcomed and commented upon favourably by many of our customers.

I can assure you that we strive to maintain a balance between what has worked for the last 40 years and maintaining the appeal to today’s customers.

I regret that your experience did not live up to your expectations – the changes that we have made have been carefully considered and commented on favourably by many customers.

To be frank and honest, i receive daily compliments about the quality of the steaks and the salad bar and indeed a recent comment from a very satisfied customer was that they come to the Huntsman because of the salad bar.

Thank you for your review – we always welcome feedback and like to know what we can improve – we are a steakhouse offering only the best export quality steaks supported by a wide selection of salads

Clearly we do not meet your expectation and I would like to know what we would need to change to meet your expectations

We are really pleased that you enjoyed your evening.

The restaurant has been going for 40 years and we try to maintain a balance between our customers who expect it remain the same and those who would like to see it changed – in fact since you were in we have made some more changes that we think are a major improvement in look and feel

We are really pleased that you enjoyed your meal and the service and look forward to seeing you again