HI,
This restaurant is lovely, the food is very good, it’s a shame that this website didn’t book the reservation, after waiting two weeks for a confirmation, I rang the restaurant only to be told that they hadn’t got our booking so done it was done over the phone, very lucky that I rang as it was for a special occasion that wouldn’t have been

We have been going to the Christmas Eve buffet for the last 3 years but this year the buffet was a disappointment. The food bowls were not refilled and the service at the cavery and stirfry stations was poor. Cleaning the tables was very slow and the staff concentrated more in resetting the vacant tables then serving the guests. No excuses as the buffet had to be prebooked and we were there at 7:30, so not even late at night that they can say it was the end of dinner time.

For many years we have dined on the Sunday lunch buffet at least once a year. This Sunday were were very disappointed- things have gone back badly. Admittedly it was coming up to Christmas with several large parties present, but is no excuse for the poor selection of poorly-cooked food and non-existent service. The choice of carvery meat was between turkey roll and ham, and the turkey was mostly stuffing, with the small pieces of meat so dry and overcooked as to be inedible- only fit for soling your shoes. The “christmas pudding” was puggy and undercooked. The restaurant seems to be feeling the credit squeeze but if this is the best that Whitby’s chefs can do for a hefty set menu price, they need to be sacked and replaced before they do further damage to a once-proud reputation.

We’ve just had dinner tonight (five of us) for my husband’s birthday and our host was excellent, very attentive and friendly, thanks Nicholas (Nick). Food was good and the coffee was excellent!! Will go again!! From table 21..booked for 6.30pm

James Cook has always been my daughters and my favourite place for high tea. In the recent holiday break we returned for another special high tea and were highly disappointed. The cakes were either too sweet or too dry, the sandwhiches uninventive and the cupcakes a tad tacky Im sorry to say. bring back the mousse, cheescake, lovely mince savouries and fresh sandwiches. James Cook used to do one of the best high teas in Wellington and believe me, I have tried them all and my waisteline proves it.

The service – you can never fault that, always great service.

went for dinner last night, fantastic service and lovely staff, we are enjoyed everything except their food, meat are overcooked, prawn is not fresh and the quality of the food is not worth $45pp.

Went for dinner last weekend.Fantastic buffet, good value for money, they have this 20 dishes from 20 rugby playing nation promotion on,very delicious. Great meal with great service.

Not our choice but joined friends for a Sunday evening buffet. Very disappointing overall. The food was lukewarm at best or cold, the night seemed to be Indian themed but there was no difference in taste between the vindaloo & rogan josh and certainly no ‘fire’ in the food. Dessert options were mediocre although others in the party enjoyed the ice cream selection. The cheese selection was good but the accompaniments were basic. Service was okay & pleasant, initially very pushy but once wine was purchased the staff lost interest.The extra bottle discussed had no-one interested to take that order. I considered it very overpriced and disappointing against other dining options, not likely to return or recommend to others.

Went for dinner at Whitby’s few days ago and really loved both food and service.
Place was packed and yet the buffet looked lovely and the service was very attentive.
The young English maitre’d at the desk was absolutely lovely, very polite.
Keep it up…….

Took the whole family here…around 20 of us. The food was fine, some a bit bland, but overall everyone was really happy. Felt that we could have received better service. I put a bar tab on, yet I had to be the one that kept getting up and asking everyone if they wanted a drink. Was quite disappointed about this because I couldn’t see why a waiter couldn’t have done this for us. The bar bill was only around $100 (for 20 people!) – to me this is a reflection of the service we received. I would dine here again though because I enjoyed the food and the setting.

Dined here Tuesday night. It was for a business meeting so it was not by choice and nothing has changed from the reviews below.

The buffet selection is fine, but the food is either lukewarm, overcooked or tasteless (or all of the above). The dessert selection looked unappetising and tasted just as bad. If this restaurant wasn’t in a hotel and so didn’t have a semi-captive clientele it wouldn’t have survived five minutes in Wellington.

On the positive the service was good but pleasant staff and speedy water refilling doesn’t compensate for awful food.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve dined at a smorgasbord restaurant. A large group of us went to Whitby’s last night for a birthday dinner. Everything looked great; the entrees, mains and desserts were creatively presented in the buffet area. However, the flavours were less appealing with overcooked meat, dry fish and tasteless side dishes. Having a chef cook a stir fry in front of diners is a great idea, but the result was an overly salty concoction swimming in watered-down soy sauce. The same went for desserts; they looked fantastic but the ice cream and the cheese selection were the best parts. The service was average at best. We ordered drinks shortly after we arrived. We enquired half an hour later about our drinks and the reply was along the lines of, “we are extremely busy tonight. You will get your drinks eventually.” (Yes, they were busy and we eventually did get our drinks, but surely you’d want to encourage customers to buy more drinks?) Our tables were quite cramped and, as it took a long time for plates to be cleared in between courses, we ended up trying to eat among piles of used crockery. A disappointing meal for the price you pay (the post GST-rise price is far more than 2.2%).

Having read Sophie D’s review after having booked to eat here one week later, I wondered whether I had made a mistake? I ate here a lot in the 1980′s but only occasionally since then. My husband and I chose to have the Buffet. The seafood salads where superb. My husband who is not adventurous when it comes to food really enjoyed what looked like a meat curry, very mildly spiced on rice from the hot meal selection. Food was well presented and well cooked. The only disappointment was the desserts. There were laming tons that were tasteless and chewy most likely commercial ones that had been frozen and The Pavlova was sickly sweet with tough meringue.However the Mango Mousse was delectable.
As we spent the night at the James Cook we also had breakfast the next morning. There was very good range of breakfast foods including waffles and omelets made to order.
Over all I felt we got value for money pleasant ambiance and friendly service.

I dined here last night with some colleagues from overseas, we were all a bit tired, and wanted a simple tasty meal, and I have happily dined here on many occasions with family over the years, so thought it would be a safe bet. Not so safe… We chose A La Carte, as the buffet looked a bit average. My friends ordered entrees _ pumpkin soup and seafood chowder – both of which were described as “the worst soup/chowder I have ever had” (not a good start). For mains I had the only vegetarian option on the menu shiitake mushroom pasta – while it had a couple of good moments (the garlic croutons were great) it really was something I would serve to the kids on a weekday (quick easy and cheap), not what you would expect from the James Cook. My friends had the lamb shanks and lamb rump, both were described as ‘tough’, and the ‘lentil mash’ that came with the rump was inedible.
After waiting for about 40 mins after finishing the mains, (the wait staff were very busy setting up for breakfast) we helped ourselves to the buffet desserts, I had the worst looking excuse of a ‘lemon meringue pie’ (uncooked meringue and water at the bottom), the bread & butter pudding with custard was ok, but the ‘creme brule’ was curdy and just not good.
It was a disappointing meal all round. The staff were cheerful and helpful, but they all looked a bit disheveled, their uniforms were covered in food spots, and looked worn.
As I said I have been here many times before, and have noticed a slow decline in standards, but last night it really felt like I’d eaten at Valentines, I wont be returning. Not good.

Our family party of thirteen (age ranges from 5 years to eighty three years) dined here on the 27th December 2008. We have celebrated many, many family occasions here – first communion celebrations, birthdays, fathers’ and mothers’ days, new year, Easter and Christmas festivities, and a couple of years ago a golden wedding anniversary. In the early 1980s I also annually went with my work colleagues for a Christmas lunch. We have regularly spanned a great many years of dining at the Whitby restaurant. It is always a pleasure to be at this location. It is decorated and maintained in a modern, spacious and clean style, with immaculate bathrooms. The food is of a very good buffet standard and suits our range of diners well, and it is consistently good value for money. The service is good. Well done for providing a reliable and pleasurable dining experience for so long.

Christmas Buffet at Whitby.

We arrived to find Christmas Crackers with the usual condiments of bad jokes and little plastic toys, as well as party hats you dont want to be caught wearing.

We asked for seating by the windows for the views, but the only views you really get are the logos of the major banks perched on big buildings. So you dine to the tune of ANZ, WestPac and the National Bank.

When you’ve dined at a Working Men’s club you come to expect a lot out of buffet dinners – and to be honest I was a bit disappointed. There wasnt a huge selection and there were some odd things about the dinner too.

Service was average, having been seated at the wrong table and being moved some 15mins later. The waitress pouring glasses of wine when a bottle was requested, only to have her take the glasses away and return with a fresh bottle.

Its okay. Thats the best way to sum up Whitby. Its a nice place to dine and the food is edible, but disappinting as far as selection considering the price.