Reviews of Hippo Bar & Restaurant. (Restaurant) in Wellington (Wellington).

Hippo Bar & Restaurant

473 Reviews

9 Comments

Restaurant

Restaurant

Bar

90 Cable Street, Te Aro, Wellington 6011, New Zealand

Description

Information of Hippo Bar & Restaurant, Restaurant in Wellington (Wellington)

Here you can see the location, open hours, popular times, contact, photos and real reviews done by the users.

This place has good reviews, this means that they treat their customers well and you’ll feel great with their services, recommended 100%!

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Open hours of Hippo Bar & Restaurant

Reviews of Hippo Bar & Restaurant

J. N.

Wow wow wow... stunning views great wine selection. The meal was just spectacular great flavor Staff on point kind helpful and great manner.... Highly recommend AAAAAA++++++

T. K.

Service was impeccable, the ambient was classy and well designed, but half of the meals were disappointing and below par . We were greeted and walked to our table, offered great drinks, asked about dietary requirements, and waiters were attuned to our very wish. We felt truly appreciated and valued as guests. Big thanks to the service. The menu was looking posh, long meal names with lots of French words. At that point, I thought this would be an amazing dining experience. My husband and I ordered Atlantic scallops as an entre but didn’t see the word tartare, and that was not a good beginning as we don’t like anything tartare, while this chef likes lots of tartare. I wish waiters pointed out that the meal was tartare, but I don’t blame them. It was our fault we missed that word. All meals looked visually amazing, and whoever was presenting them, is an artist. Our tartare scallops arrived cut into little cubes in a bland tomato soup with two pieces of green salad on top. Taste: bland. Salad had more taste than the tomato soup, and scallops tasted of nothing. We were both disappointed, but it was our fault for not seeing the word “tartare”. We ordered beef meal and roasted duck meals for the mains. My husband’s beef was succulent and soft, he really enjoyed it. Duck was chewy and undercooked. Embarrassingly, I had to spit out 3 chews as couldn’t chew it into anything they could be swallowed. I coude see my daughter’s knuckles were white with how hard she was pressing knife and fork into duck meat to cut it. I eventually returned my meal. Duck is supposed to be fatty, soft, juicy, and this one was the opposite. They offered a replacement and I took ravioli. When they arrived, meat filling was simply amazing, bursting with taste, but pasta was undercooked, not al denté, but “too dente”. I asked my husband to take a bite to see whether it’s just me and he said it tasted like cardboard. I agreed. For dessert we ordered deer milk, which was truly new experience and very nice. My husband’s chocolate piece was, according to his words, well presented and tasty but nothing to rave about. We also ordered pancakes that were, surprisingly, made in front of us by a waiter, not a chef. I was afraid that oil or sauce would spray at me, there was a feeling of street food being made in front of us. Crepes were also slightly undercooked. I make heaps of crepes and love them and ate them all over the world, including France, and these were not good. The sauce was ok, but crepes were not. Overall, 3 stars as it was not consistent in quality . I won’t be going back as the number one criteria for me is food tasting good. All that fluff around it is nice, but if food doesn’t taste good, I’m not interested.

F. C. C.

Went there last night for an Anniversary Dinner with my Partner and was definetly a great experience! Probably the best fine dining that you can find in Wellington. We had the degustation with matching wine, gourmet food served by a really competent and qualified staff, Sommelier wine matching with the dishes was next Level. A great experience, definetly recommended!

T. M.

Definitely recommend the buffet breakfast here. Lovely spot with views of the water, staff were super friendly and the food and coffee was beautiful! Thoroughly enjoyed our dining experience but ate way too much and had to waddle back to our hotel.

D. K.

A great high tea we had here. The food was extraordinary. But the tea offering coming with it was not good. We took the option to taste all teas and let one go back as it was not nice. The others where ok-ish but not good quality as well. For that no 5 ⭐.

S. A.

What a treat to be able to challenge your taste sensibilities with such an amount of different flavours and textures. Attentive staff always on hand to clear the clutter and fill the glasses and provide a help on what you are ordering. This was the one place we expected good food, but the experience was more around how the different ingredients can provide a contrasting taste based on what you decide to use in that mouthful. You could get three different taste experiences from the one plate. Not the choice for cheap and cheerful, but for spoiling and feeling special with the associated price. We had the Scallops and Venison starters followed by the Chicken and Salmon mains. Oh and a few cocktails.

I. P.

I have lived in Wellington for the past 10 years and this have been the best food experience I had in this town. I only believe that it will be topped by another visit to it. The hosts made us felt like we were at home and provided us with great service and food, no requests was too much we had everything we asked for and more! The food was sensational, a treat to to the palate and is always fresh, the menu is seasonal so my pictures may not represent the current menu but it rather representes the experience and quality of it self. Thanks to the Hippopotamus staff fir helping me arranging my wife’s birthday surprise you guys are awesome.

J. S.

One of Wellington's finest dining experiences. The chateaubriand, just melted in your mouth, amazing. A must for any special occasions.

T. W.

From flying in at the airport, we were delayed in arriving and our reservation at Hippopotamus was delayed due to our lateness. The restaurant was very empathetic and understanding so we were able to still have our reservation during this busy night. When we arrived, the restaurant was beautiful and exotic with accents of wildlife amidst opulent embellishments of crystal chandeliers and a stunning seascape harbour view. Immediately, we were warmly greeted and our luggage was stored at the main desk as we were seated. The service was simply spectacular and consummately professional. We ordered glasses of Hawkes Bay Syrah and a North Canterbury Pinot Noir and we decided on the 6 course degustation menu. I was very impressed by the sommelier service as his knowledge and engagement was fascinating and enriching. Our menu started with an amuse bouche of pineapple mango tea with salmon sashimi and picked vegetable. This complementary dish was confusing and only the salmon was enjoyable. Fortunately this was followed by warm baguette and apricot bread within seaweed butter which was amazing. We were then served the first of two entrees being a pamu deer milk panna cotta with freeze dried Manuka honey, kawakawa oil, turmeric caviar on white chocolate saffron paint. The smooth texture of the panna cotta was wonderful. Following on we had the grilled brown mushroom with porcini and shallot escabeche, cream of charred cauliflower and wilted kale and truffle tapenade. This dish was delicious and complex in flavours. Our first main was chicken roulade with pear Stilton cheese filling on quince paste with pecans and walnuts finished with chestnut butter and confit garlic cream. This dish was simply heavenly and aromatic. The second main was fish of the day pan fried on a lobster bisque with couchettes, aubergine and confit garlic with roast capsicum. This dish was divine with beautiful textures and layers of flavour. A palate cleanser of kawakawa, lemon and Italian parsley sorbet was served and this was wonderful before a cheese plate of goats cheese with baguette, spinach, apricot, walnut and plum chutney. This was a lovely prelude to the closing dish and dessert 5 textures of chocolate including mousse, bavois, truffle, sorbet and soil. The dessert dishes were the perfect crescendo to the meal. Overall our dining experience was superb, the service was excellent, attentive and faultless, wine list was impressive and cuisine was mostly memorable for positive reasons. I’d love to experience more of their menu. Highly recommended with consummate distinction!

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