Been to velvet burger twice now, visits about a year apart (Octagon / Stuart Street branch).

Truly awful. Hugely overpriced. The burger was greasy and overly sauced, and the chips were cold.

Don’t bother – if you go, you’ll wish you hadn’t.

This place seems to have either very good or very bad reviews, but really it is less than average. The staff a young, immature and very ill-mannered, the whole facility looks old and dirty, and the food always seems to be burnt to a crisp- dry patties, black chicken and limp salad

When they are good, they are good. When things go wrong, they can be very very bitter. We went there a while ago as a flat. Most of us received good burgers but one of our flatties found some black scraps in his burger. He took it back and was treated like a garbage. He was reimbursed with another burger but the staff practically threw it on the table. Very rude. The burgers are good and the price is alright.

Iv been in Dunedin for 6 years now,coming as a student.Back when this was first open it was amazing….sadly after time it has turned to utter crap.Last time I was there with my girlfriend, they had 3 staff on (Girls who seemed to pay more attention about what happened last night than what they are getting paid for) and yet it still managed to take 25 minutes for 2 burgers and chips.I ordered the velvet burger (Supposedly venison,but I very much doubt it contains much actual venison since they changed their patties, pineapple, onion,tomato, lettuce, cucumber and relish) The girls obviously werent looking,they forgot my pineapple,burnt the pattie,put brown lettuce on and one slice of each onion and tomato cut in half.That burger cost me $12. And they managed to turn my girl friends chicken into what looked like coal.So my advice,try wok fusions burgers in mornington,at least its value for money

I completely agree with Amy from 16 May 2011.

I find the service at Velvet Burger in-keeping with the level of establishment I choose to buy from occasionally. Like she has quite rightly pointed out, if you are after the exceptional service then try a fine dining restaurant. I suggest the likes of Plato or Table 7.

What it comes down to is you cannot expect star quality service from a simple burger joint, just like you dont expect high level service from your local Chinese Fish and Chip shop, it just won’t happen.

I think the key point here is that Velvet Burger are not actually ‘claiming’ to have the high level star quality service that so many reviewers on here are craving, therefore I find their service in line with the profile the business is portraying.

Had Velvet Burger been making claims of really high end service and fine cuisine and not delivering, then yes I would probably have concerns, but they are not making false promises, and that is the key.

The problem is clearly a certain customer base having set their expectations far too high for what the place really is at the end of the day – a simple burger joint.

Went in on a Thursday night for dinner and well… what a trash place to go. Got the Velvet Lady and chicken was burnt to crap… chips were well over done… dirty looking kitchen and fryer looked black as anything. Will not be going back

s**t customer service completely rude. I rang up and asked about a booking for me and my partner that was fine. then i came in and they had completely forgotten about my booking and the place was full because its so small. so we had to sit outside in the freezing cold !. service was quite fast apart from waiting 20mins for a small bowl of chips. food was pretty disgusting, i had hair all over my plate and over my bri cheese. The burger itself was not as big as i expected and the chips were a little burnt and the aioli looked like it had past its expiry date. Disgusting place hate the atmosphere and would never go back there. thanks for ruining my valentines day.

Mint burgers team! we got some burgers after a terrible experience at the Angus Restaurant which i don’t rate at all.
We loved the burgers , fattie chips and the garlic aioli was primo! Gourmet burgers yum yum!

FOOD QUALITY: 5/5
PORTION SIZE: 5/5
SERVICE & AMBIENT: 3/5
VALUE FOR MONEY: 3/5
OVERALL: 4/5

The burgers are fantastic, although the choices on the menu are quite limited for someone who only eats chicken meat… But the ingredients (meat, vegetables and sauces) are delicious.

Burgers are much bigger than in McDonald’s or Burger King and have a much more ‘home made’ taste to them.

Staff is always in great mood and very friendly, although the ambient is not too pleasant (weird music, tiny ‘filthy’ dark space).

Even though the burgers are big and tasty, I feel they’re overpriced and thus come only once every few months with a coupon.

Overall, the food is great but pricey, but still definitely worth a try.

My partner and I decided to go here after finding a two for one voucher in the Entertainment Book. We were a little anxious about going after a terrible experience at Dunedin’s other burger place, Angus Burgh.

Fortunately, it’s better than Angus Burgh, but unfortunately that still doesn’t mean it’s good.

We ordered a Velvet Burger and a Hottie. The staff were cold and a little curt. No smiles or welcome. I disagree with the reviewer below who says if you want service you should go to a restaurant. I have been to far cheaper and crappier restaurants than Velvet Burger and at least received a smile and pleasantries. For a place that advertises ‘gourmet’ food, the attitude sucks.

Our food arrived promptly. The Hottie was not good at all. There was far too much of the overly sweet chilli/mayo sauce that it drowned out any other flavour present. There was so much pouring out the bottom of the burger that I needed two handfuls of serviettes to wipe it off my hands. The pattie was dry and pretty flavourless.

The venison Velvet burger was actually pretty good. A much better balance of flavours, and the venison patty was tasty. It was good for the half price we got it for, but I wouldn’t pay $11 for it.

Someone in Dunedin, please open a proper burger joint!

Burger was quite good, the aeoli was very good, but the music playing through this establishment was pure filth, and if this language was used on the street you’d be arrested! thats why the low rating. lower stuart st shop.

Had Velvet on Sunday afternoon and was very pleased! Top quality ingredients and great service. Quite pricey but good sized burgers and great fries!

After reading these reviews it strikes me that if you’re after ultimate customer service, attempt an actual restaurant? all they and Velvet Burger have in common is that they are both licenced, it is just a burger Joint after all…The staff are too cool for school and ocasionally quite rude, but they’ve got nothing on staff of other takeaway places…so give them a break. As for the food, I have never ever had anything to complain about..in facct its awesome. Plus’ and Minus’like anywhere… but seriously, Chill out.

I’ve eaten at Velvet several times and have always been impressed. The burgers are HUGE, packed with fillings and very flavoursome. I can’t understand why some of the below reviewers have said otherwise. My favourite is the True Blue, and it always has a generous amount of blue cheese. The service is a wee bit slow (usually about 15 minutes to get my food), but every time I’ve been in it’s been busy, and I think that when they’re cooking a burger from scratch, a bit of a wait is to be expected. I have always found the staff to be friendly and polite.

Great Service and Great Burgers. I go here quite regularly, and its always up to standard. They play great music and they are second to none in Dunedin. Have yet to have a bad experience. They also do a BYO which is excellent. Would highly recommend this venue to anyone in Dunedin

Amazing burgers.
Love this place so much. We go to this place atleast once in a week since past 18 months. Best burgers I ate in Dunedin. My favriote is home grown hero and Velvet lady.
Delicious fresh ingredients. The chips are amazing and crispy, love the aioli.
Bit pricy. Service is bit slow, but worth waiting.
Well done!!! will be back again soon!!

I went there today, payed for a hamburger, but didn’t get any meat in my burger, just bread and vegetables. When i told the staff they just said the couldn’t do anything about it, and they were making fun of me, just because i was a foreigner.

Love this place and as I live in Auckland I miss it. I ate the vegetarian burgers and normally people make bland tasting salad burgers with alot of lettuce. But this place gave a whole new meaning to vegetarian burgers with flavours that make your mouth water thinking about it.

Service was good but I managed to get in before the rush so burger was made relatively quickly.

Only down side is the price but you do get what you are paying for in terms of flavour and ingredients.

this place just continues to get worse, they used to be great but with burgers that are all bun and not much meat, rude staff(octagon branch) and a lenghty wait what is the point. went in with a group of 3 one night and was enjoying a beer only to be told a few mintues later that we could not use the toilets as they were closed, not for cleaning just closed which is illegal when serving booze. when this was explained to the young girl behind the counter we were told to use the toilet somewhere else, really good attitude for a licensed premise to hold. needless to say the burger did not go down to well that night, didnt appreciate having the bird flipped at us by the manager as we left (sober) i might add.

Best burgers and fast service! Even better than burgerfuel in Auckland

okay ignore all the other reviews as i have just red thru them all and have found them to be extremes of both ends, velvet burger , the 1 just down from the octagon was okay i think if your on a time constraint you are better going elsewhere, but if you have the time try the 1 with venison , its good, oh and if your burger is bland , take it back! its your right to be satisfied! , if the service is bad one day come back another just to make sure it wasnt one particular shift. last time it took 20 mins for a burger but think about it if they are cooking real chicken , it takes time to cook it right, but yea more pride is needed by the staff, if they dont want to work then they shouldnt be serving. =) ill still eat there

The positive reviews smack of the same fingers typing, frankly.
The negative reviews turned out to be spot on, (we were desperate after shopping one arvo. in spite of having read the reviews earlier that month and going Indian instead). The staff were far from being actually offensive- however it took about 15 mins for a bag of average-quality fries. We were the only two people there.
Do they squeeze the oil out of the gm rapeseed crop themselves for frying the chips? If the fries take 15mins, how long does a full burger per person take?
Maybe take notes from Burgerfuel. Potential is there, but far from realised Velvet.

Try to found out who the workers were that day it was a Thursday, 26 August on the George St. branch, and it was just me, my mate and two other girls who were there but my skinnies chips took 30 minutes! it took forever and my mate’s took 5 minutes longer than mine and the staff were chatting away and so slow! If not for the aioli which i love i wouldnt have waited and would’ve gone completely aggro. It was my mate’s first time as i told her it was real good there but she wasnt impressed with the service, they didn’t even smile! man you’re stuff that day sucked. every single one of them. i’ve been loking for ways to complain and so glad i found this. please tell me you’ve talked to those useless people, i’ve been to Velvet a whole lot of times and that was not the first time on the George St one that the service was slow but that made me angry seeing the staff actually lazying around when theres only 4 people to serve. I remember the name of the manager on the chalkboard was Gabe.

I only gave two stars for the aioli.

UPDATE
Just went today Saturday 9 Sept at 7pm, same branch, and despite being packed, the staff were faster and friendlier! So it definitely was just the staff that Thursday that did not serve us well

Big wait for a big disappointment, does anyone make a big burger in Dunedin? If so and you know please fill us in

The service is great every time I go there, although it does on average take 30-40 mins to get meal, it tastes great and I keep going back

If you are looking for an American-style burger, do not go to Velvet Burger. It is firmly in the NZ tradition of putting lots of sweet-tasting glop on everything. If you like that kind of thing, you’ll love this place. If you don’t, you will walk away feeling sick to your stomach.

I wish there was a 6th star that i could put in, i am 21 year old youth worker in dunedin. After i have got back from wherever in the south island babysitting wayward teenagers, i generally hoax (well not anymore) my fellow staff members into doing the post week development meeting in a much more comfortable setting
I love the food at this fantastic young and strong joint.
the staff and setting is all the better than a nice cold beer on a hot day up central. Good job guys!
Hi-10

Been there twice, once to the North end one and second to the central one. The service both times were poor, no “hello” or even a smile. and how could it be that my order takes 20 mins when I’m the only one in there? By the way this is the first time. The second time, there were a few people in there. Got a “hello” this time and that was it. But this time my Burger took 30 mins (as I was worried I was going to be late for work… so was keeping eye on time.) Both time the Burger was bland and a huge lack of ingredients. Another thing, Way over priced for what you get! Go to any chip shop and you pay a quarter of the price, better service, tastier and bigger burgers! I do not recommend going here, and I certainly won’t be ever again.

Velvet burger is amazing!
Have lost count of the number of times I’ve had a great feed be it for lunch, dinner or a fantastic after-town snack…i’ve never been disapointed! & to top it off the other day I scored a free burger for being part of the Velvet burger baby facebook group…cheers guys!!!

to the person below me maybe your just an upper class snob. velvet burger is a great place for a feed the food is delicious and the staff are nice and friendly i reckon anyone who thinks its a bad place needs to get a life! velvet you rock

I keep giving them a chance but every time I go I’m even more disappointed – staff that are too cool for school; burgers that are a pale imitation of Ferg Burger in Queenstown; slow service and prices that are on the steep side. On my last visit my burger took 45 minutes and they had run out of crumbed chicken and replaced the patty with real chicken breast (good) which was absolutely minuscule (bad). The other contents of the burger were skimped on and the fries where cold. $17 for a bad takeaway burger and fries – never again.

Fantastic food, great service. I’m sure the person below me had a bad experiance but far from my experiance. Really enjoyed my Goneburger and bottle of speights.

what can I say, all I can say is stay clear of this place, they have the worst customer service in the country, they are ultra rude, and very unprofessional they main concern is to rush orders and then get back to there friends that sit at the bar waiting to talk. It is weird that they don’t care about their customers the food is just average but hugely over priced and it doesn’t matter what burger you get as they all taste the same. I waited for 20min for one scoop of chips they messed it up they gave our order to the wrong customer and why did they do this because they were talking to their friends and not focusing on the customers.
I would advise people to stay clear of this place and not to even think about going there.

im a well rounded eataholic who enjoys the very FRIENDLY service at value for money…..my first time at velvet burger i ate 5 burgers that tasted divine, anita i agree with you the male staff are very sensual…very tight!

Really nice, friendly and tasty, burgers were tasty as well. Only one gripe, a few times the patties have been pink in the middle (didn’t make me sick, but still not a good idea for minced meat). Fatties rock my world.

I love Velvet Burger!!!!

Weather it be the casual lunch or the meal for the trip home at the wee hours of Sunday morning, Velvet is a favourite.

The burgers are packed with flavour owing to the freshest ingredients being used. And the chips and aoli dip are to dye for.

i just cant get enough of this place. The staff, the food, the atmosphere, everythings just so perfect! What is there not to like about Velvet Burger?

Velvet Burger is the man. Seriously like not only are the burgers amazing and a decent size but the staff are pretty sensual for the eyeballs too…
an experience.