New Zealand Herald

Reviews for Knights On Albert Restaurant

by Anna
9th February 2013

Me and my Fiance dined here as we were staying in the Hotel. I was not looking forward to dining in a Hotel Restaurant but was immediately impressed by the staff’s attentiveness. Once the meals were placed in front of us (mine the beef fillet) my partners the (lamb) quickly was I surprised. The meals were devine – cooked perfect & mouth watering. Front staff and chefs thank you so much for a wonderful experience will definitely be back on my next trip to Auckland

by Tabe-Aruki
17th April 2012

I read the reviews on this website regularly, but this is the first time I felt compelled to leave a review.

We like Kabuki and Sansui (in the same hotel) and we went to Knights once for their lunch special, but this was the first time we had dinner there.

Their staff was very friendly, and they were pleasant about our last-minute booking. However, in hindsight, this was probably because they get no customers (the restaurant was completely empty when we arrived).

It took them over 45 mins to serve us our Caesar salad and Roti Paratha, even though they were just entrée-sized dishes. The Roti Paratha was quite nice (why I gave them an extra star), but the Caesar salad was definitely not of a standard we expect from a hotel restaurant, with soggy bacon that looked like leftovers from their breakfast buffet.

The reason why we chose Knights was because of their special chocolate implosion dessert, advertised on their website, which contains a hot chocolate sauce that you pour onto a ball of chocolate mousse, encased in valrhona chocolate ($29 each). We had to wait another 45 minutes for this, which made no sense at all since we had to pre-order it when we booked. The kitchen was visible from my seat, and I could see the staff chatting and laughing while we were waiting.

When the dessert finally came, the waitress immediately poured the sauce over the sphere for us, claiming that the container was too hot for us to touch. This ruined half of the fun for us, since we thought we would get to dismantle it ourselves.

We found the quality of the dessert to be very poor for $29. There was no variation in the chocolate – milk chocolate mousse encased in milk chocolate, with milk chocolate sauce = total overkill. In fact, the sauce tasted suspiciously like what they sell at the Sweetest Little Chocolate Shop on Queen St. The meagre teaspoonful of mascarpone with half a strawberry on top in the middle added to our sense of being extremely ripped off.

The unacceptably long wait of 1.5 hours in total, coupled with the cheerful shouts and laughter from the Kabuki customers who were actually having a good meal, killed any chances of us coming back.

If you’re looking for hotel dining nearby, go to Kitchen at Hotel de Brett instead.

by Chelly
20th February 2012

My husband and I have been to Knights on Albert Restaurant twice now. Once was for a Bubbly High Tea, and again yesterday for Chef Mo’s lunch.

The food has been excellent on both occasions.

The High Tea is very popular and for good reason! The pastries and sandwiches were fresh and delicious. They were served beautifully on tiered plates and there was enough provided to ensure that you didn’t leave feeling hungry.

For Chef Mo’s lunch we found the food to be well portioned and presented. The Fish of the Day (Snapper) was perfectly cooked and the Raw Fish accompaniment was very fresh. The salad was also very complementary to the fish. The Lamb Shoulder was very tender and well seasoned. We also had the Lemon Cheesecake and the Chocolate cake for dessert. Both were lovely, especially the Lemon Cheesecake because it wasn’t heavy and rich like most cheesecakes.

The service was also excellent both times. We were seated promptly and water was served immediately. The timing from seating to ordering to delivery of food was also very good. We didn’t feel like we were kept waiting nor did we feel rushed. The people were attentive and knew when it was appropriate to come and speak to us.

The restaurant is actually very nice despite being part of the hotel lobby. It still looks and feels like a classy restaurant and the piano music adds to the ambiance when dining.

We would not hesitate to return to Knights on Albert Restaurant based on our previous experiences.

by theTaster
8th January 2012

Had a really good meal (salmon) prepared perfectly and service was outstanding.
Well done chefs and front staff

by Richard
24th May 2011

We recently stayed 2 nights at the Stamford Plaza and took advantage of their amazing packages. Our 1st night included the buffet breakfast – which had an amazing selection of everything you could imagine for breakfast. Hot food was cooked to perfection and everything was fresh and plentiful.
Our second night included a 3 course meal – we ate every last bit, exceptional! There was nothing we could fault, the service was amazing – with our glasses never being empty.
We highly recommend dinning here and the overnight packages are fantastic also.

by Traveller
22nd January 2011

Had to send the main back. Not only had the special of the day which we ordered run out, and waiting 45 min for food to arrive, the 1st plate (salmon) was dry on the outside, and raw in the middle. The 2nd attempt was all dirty brown on the bottom. They did offer free dessert but we were done. At least the wait staff were terrific, pity about the food.

Comment from Christian P. of Knights On Albert Restaurant 21/02/2012    Hide »

Hi Traveller, We regret to hear that you had a disappointing…    More »

Hi Traveller,

We regret to hear that you had a disappointing experience with the quality of our food at Knights on Albert Restaurant.

Please be assured that this is definitely not the usual high standards that we offer in our dining, as you will be able to read from the other guest comments on this website.

We would like to welcome you back to dine with us at Knights on Albert sometime soon so that we are able to assure you that the quality of our food is normally exceptional.

Thank you for sharing your experience with us and we hope to host you again soon.

Best regards,
Cheryln Goh
Guest Relations Manager
Stamford Plaza Auckland

by Tobias J.
18th June 2010

The only thing I can complain about is the house itself. The area is big and with a lot of volume comes a lot of sound.

The service from all the three involved waitresses was great and the attitude friendly. The food was great, both various bread for entrées and chicken/lamb for mains.

Do not miss the desserts, the buffet tasted very well and was also nice to look at. A great evening, to put it short, and there were no complaints even though we arrived 90 minutes before closing time.

Comment from Christian P. of Knights On Albert Restaurant 21/02/2012    Hide »

Hi Tobias J, We’re very pleased to hear that you enjoyed your…    More »

Hi Tobias J,

We’re very pleased to hear that you enjoyed your evening with us dining at our Knights on Albert restaurant.

We understand that because our restaurant is placed in the middle of the Lobby, it can be noisy when the Lobby is crowded. However, we do offer live music in house on Thursday nights and this does wonders for the ambience of both the Knights on Albert Restaurant and Knights Bar.

Please feel free to come through and experience Thursday nights with us!

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience with us Tobias J and we hope you will come back and dine with us again soon.

Best regards,
Cheryln Goh
Guest Relations Manager
Stamford Plaza Auckland

by Ian
22nd June 2009

I don’t say this much but I would stay away from Knights on Albert, you would think a restaurant associated with the Stamford Plaza would be exceptional… The food is badly prepared and don’t start me on the deserts that look like they have been left out for a week. Service is very average.

Comment from Christian P. of Knights On Albert Restaurant 7/05/2010    Hide »

We apologise for this drop to our usually high standards on this…    More »

We apologise for this drop to our usually high standards on this day.
We do have extensive staff training and service systems which a constantly under review.
I can assure you that our desserts are fresh daily.
Food & Beverage Manager
Stamford Plaza Auckland

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