Monteith's Rangiora

Our server was Lisa, she was really lovely. She needs to back herself as she was a delight and a natural but visibly lacked confidence in herself but that will only grow. Lovely meal. The strawberry cheesecake cocktail was super delish and the nachos were great - perhaps the beef could have been smaller chunks so the nachos didn’t snap when scooping up the mix but that would be the only negative. It was my first time here and I found it wonderful. We were greeted warmly and looked after well. I’m gluten intolerant and they had lots of options available which was a pleasant surprise.

Late lunch Sunday. Greeted from the only staff on the bar, serving and clearing tables, but she was ok about it(she told me). She was very nice. Ordered 2 cokes. Quick service. Ordered Garlic Parmesan bread. Quick service Alot of the cheese never quite made it on to the bread(was dry) and with the mention of basil(2 leaves)really needed not bother mentioning it and 2 half hearted slices of red radish Ordered 2 mains 1. The blackboard fish special. It was fine. 7 wedges under the fish. They were soft. It was served in a large round pasta bowl? 2. Wombok salad with so many pomegranate seeds, it wasn't funny and the rest of the salad/coleslaw was tasteless and no sign of a dressing to speak of? And get this you have the option of Deep fried "pork belly bites or Cajun spiced pan fried chicken breast" The Wife opted for "deep fried pork belly bites(tendr tasty little morsels with crispy crackle on top🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣, which were actually "battered" pieces of 3rd grade pork deep fried like you'd use in "sweet n sour pork" when the staff member came up and asked how our meals were, we query this and she said oh sorry about this, do you want the chicken because we don't have any unbattered pork? So its not even fresh pork(frozen im guessing) Too bad if my wife was Gluten free. We were comp'd a $1.50 coke(they are probably $6 on the drinks menu)for OUR trouble. No owness on monteiths Rangiora. We still paid $82 and got to write this review. Thanks for ruining my Wifes special day out. You had one chance to impress as we have never eaten there before and one chance to remedy this situation and you didn't on either. And the public want to know why some of these places don't survive this economy. There's a big reason right there. Everyone does not pay premium dollar for frozen battered pork in a bag from Trents possibly, that wasnt even on the menu? (I have a Trents account too) I wish I had've taken a few photos to show you.