Review Espeto - Browns Bay

Great ribs and pichana. Awesome polenta! Good setting too if you get a table at the beach end. Kids can run around at the playground while you wait for your meal

Update 28 Feb: tried to book a table. Their website has been down for several days now with URL saying "suspended page". Called their number (found via Google). Picked option 1 for bookings. Rang for a while then hung up. Checked the place. Seems as if they closed down for now. Chairs are up and the doors are locked. Not clear if it's temporary or permanent. Original review: Great new place. I had the char grilled chicken salad: very delicious. Dishes with meat will not allow anyone go hungry. It's always plenty and it tastes excellent. For instance try the lamb leg. For parties of 12 or more people you get different types of meat. It then works like in the Wildfire restaurant downtown Auckland. Eat until you had enough. Staff is very nice, and you also get a deal view from about half the tables. Lunch should not require a booking. To be on the safe side, use their online booking system. Espeto is definitely a good alternative to Deep Creek brewery and surely a great addition to the hospitality offerings in Browns Bay. Fifth star is missing because the waiting time at lunch was a bit too long for my taste.

Have been wanting to try this place for a while and wow, all I can say is I wish I hadn't left it so long to get here. The food was amazing, the staff very friendly and helpful. Will definitely be coming back. Browns Bay is becoming well known for all its great restaurants these days and this one would be one of the best.

Great food , we have been there about 5 times now for breakfast,lunch and dinner . Been spot on each time and surprised its not packed out each time we go , the service is great ,views of the sea and beach , great atmosphere and definitely value for money as not as expensive as it looks .I Had the porchetto tonight and it was melt in the mouth with crunchy crackling ,best ever! Thanks guys and well done !!

Superb Food... Fantastic views.... Premium cured meats.... the exclusive variety of Beers, Wines and Spirits.... waffles....Love it...!!!

We had the all you can eat.... omggg this food is awesome the service is great ... highly recommended.

Meal was great, service was the same till recently where I felt I was being served by someone in a corner shop.

Awsome service,food was 5star ambiance was spot on and value for of the money! Highly recommed to all!

Good for the Thursday night Meat Special if you love meat 👍

Yum great place to eat

Beautiful food

Had ribs and leg of lamb at this place and as a chef all I can say is it was the one the best match spices and flavours. Great service ambiance is formal yet very cozy close to browns bay beach so it a good idea to go for dip before you dig in to food heaven.! <br/>This one the few Portuguese/Brazilian restaurant left in auckland with traditional flavour profile!

3 at best here. Service is terrible! Wait staff are badly trained. Forget items you've ordered and had to come back come back a few times to double check. Squid for starter good but lacking dipping sauce. Scotch fillet fatty Chewy and sickly. My husbands meat had badly rendered fat. Both meals came with a really nice spicy sauce though. Root vegetables side was good but veges a bit average. I also noted the floor in this place is disgustingly greasy you feel like your going to slip. Not a great atmosphere...probably wont return...

Despite some really great service from a lovely waitress, Espeto was a bit of a let down. We went on a Thursday as they were having their ‘All you can eat meat’ special. Let me run you through the night. <br/><br/>We arrived on time however part of our group was late so I’ll take that into account when rating. Our waitress sat us down and explained the menus to us. One of us even ordered early and got his meal on time and it looked and tasted great. Drinks were served quickly and I would definitely recommend their mocktails. However when our group had arrived, we were told that everyone in the group had to order either: the all you can eat meat special, or off the regular menu. The meant that if you were there for the special, everyone else had to eat the special as well. We had this problem resolved after speaking to the manager. <br/><br/>Let’s talk about the ‘all you can eat meat’ special. In my opinion, it’s not worth the $30 and you’re better off ordering off their set menu. The chicken is dry and tasteless, the sirloin was often raw (not rare; actually blue) which not everyone fancied. The pork was also quite bland and the sausages required quite a bit of sauce to maintain flavour. In addition to this, they bring out one plate for you to share with each other and at the time we had 6 people sharing 2 plates. This was a bit inconvenient as after we had finished the first plate, we had to ask for another and wait another 20 minutes for them to make a new one. By that time we had lost our appetite and didn’t finish the second plate. Definitely didn’t eat $30 worth of meat. <br/><br/>All up, the service was good, drinks were good, location was great but Espeto is lacking in some areas and their ‘all you can eat meat’ special is lacking a bit, probably wouldn’t recommend it.

We had a table of three, two of our 3 meals were brought out to us and after several minutes of waiting the waitress finally came over to say tbat there will be a wait for the machine to heat up, so they only started heating it up after they had made 2 of the 3 meals, anyway we begin to eat, 40 minutes into our meal i go to ask the waitress where our 3rd meal is and the response is "well im not tbe one cooking it so i dont know" and then we get told by someone higher up that they dont have the ingredients to make this!! 40 minutes after serving 2 of the 3 meals... food was great and the manager sincerely apologised after all this and we got that meal for free in the end but i just hope for the future they will please take on board how important it is to have good customer service as even when they apologised it really felt they were not sincere whatsoever

Food & service are a big let down. The muscles tasted like they were cooked in a tin of tomato soup, we had completely overly salted food, soggy & undercooked falafels, we actually questioned whether the chef was in.  <br/><br/>The service was very casual, more like Denny’s and the bathroom was disgracefully dirty. <br/><br/>We did advise the waitress when we paid but only received a mumbled reply. All very disappointing.

This is a lovely spot across the road from the beach. Friendly service but food took a little bit long to arrive, my second cup of tea was cold by the time it did. I however enjoyed my meal with perfectly poached eggs.

The WORST SETVICE EVER!!! 20 minutes for drink and it was the wrong drink. Had to wait for water. Smelly oysters. Chicken salad should not have skin and bone and just bad attitude from staff. No one was there as manager and when asked who owns the establishment no one knew. What a joke. Went there once. Was horrible, went there twice. Was worse! Almost didn’t pay. Also doesn’t take an extra 15 mins to pore a vino. Just saying! <br/>Oh and apparently 4-5 people part own it, no wonder it’s a mess.

Colleagues chose here for Christmas do. Absolutely fantastic for 30 people. Cool breeze flowing in from the back door. We had the $29.99 all you can eat platters. Meat was cooked to perfection, this was after we had breads & dips to tide us over. Meat served with roast potatoes & salads. Our vegetarian eaters were able to eat off the alacarte menu or choose wood fired veges with spuds & salads. The chicken was my fav, others the lamb & hubby enjoyed the rare steak. Highly recommend for a big group. Also able to pay per person as we left.

Service staff are pretty good and try hard. But you can pretty much guarantee something will be wrong with the order. Food is good enough but it does take a while. I wouldn't recommend coming here if you are in a hurry.

Really enjoyed our meal, service was warm and friendly. Beef Rib wasnt great, but everything else was excellent. Due to some of the reviews we almost didnt go, really glad we did. Go along and make your own mind up!! We'll go back :)

Went for lunch and it took over an hour. All we got in this hour is a glass coke as they couldn't work out how to bring a tomato juice or a smoothie for my family . We got fed up with waiting and went next to deep creek,Would recommend them for excellent service and food. Maybe they could pop next door and learn a thing or two

Brunch menu, 6 different meals in our party. Service excellent, food excellent, coffee excellent. Couldn’t fault it. Recommended, will try dinner soon.

Excellent service from Lisa and Colin serving us this Monday evening.<br/>We choose lighter dishes to share, crispy squid, cheesy bread rolls, courgette falafel, mushroom risotto, polenta chips. Everything was yummy. Service was friendly and attentive. Will be in to try brunch .<br/>Keep up the good work.

Love the food here its so amazing . Cooked perfect and presentations great. Staff are lovely and they even do pints now ! Great add to Browns Bay just what it needed.

The espeto breakfast and hash benedic was nice and large. The acai bowl wasn't very nice. The berry flavour was rather strange. Coffee was nice

We have had two experiences at Espeto, the first was soon after opening and whilst the service needed some work the food was good and we enjoyed our meal.  However, the second visit was not so good.  We invited a friend to dinner and ordered the same meals as our first dining experience (being the Angus steak and the pork spare ribs) our friend had the lamb, all of these meals are presented on the sizzling hot plates. the first time we dined there we ordered the Angus steak medium, and because the plate was so hot it was well done by the time we had finished it; so this time ordered it medium rare.  In due course the pork and lamb arrived (on sizzling cast iron plates) then the Angus arrived, on a non-sizzling (supposed to be sizzling) plate.  We called the manager over and explained the situation.  he assured us that it was freshly cooked (although he picked up the handle of the cast iron with his hand, and there was no way he could have picked up the others as they were VERY HOT!) he then came back to the table with a menu and stated that the chef's had said it would be exactly the same next time, so we needed to order something else.  We were a bit surprised but ordered the Hen and Bacon, after 30 mins (and being told twice that it was 8 minutes away) we left the restaurant, the major kicker was that they tried to charge us for the Hen and Bacon meal that we had not received.  Needless to say, we won't be back.  I suggest that anyone considering Espeto goes next door to Deep Creek, the food is always consistently good and the service rocks!

Save yourself the time and money. <br/>Feels cold and like a mall foodcourt. Like its being run as a pure businesses without any focus on service, quality or attention to detail.<br/> <br/>Food was below average and the service was slow and just plain rubbish.

was going to go here a few weekends ago but a couple of reviews put us off, yesterday we thought we would see for ourselves though, pleased we did, quick service and the food was delish, we had the meat platter and the chunky fries, at first we thought might not be enough but we ended up with a doggy bag, will certainly be going back. i did think the decor needs some fairy lights up in the rafters or similar to add a little bit more

Visited for an evening meal in late May.  Very warm welcome with attentive service.  Loved the fact that the entrees were small (and inexpensive) which meant that our appetites weren't reduced when the mains came out.  The mains were delicious, and we liked the fact that you ordered sides separately.  The total cost of the meal for two people including drinks was around $100, which was well priced.  Only gripe is that the decor is a little stark.  Would be amazing on a nice summers night to sit outside, I would imagine.  Will definitely visit again.

What an awful dining experience. <br/>We walked in and no one greeted us or showed us to a table. <br/>The serving staff were rude and unfriendly.<br/>The food was awful! Eggs watery and unseasoned.<br/>Bacon over seasoned and raw and salmon ice cold. <br/>We will never ever go back there again!!!

Espeto could be a great place, however inside it feels more like a large empty dining hall for a high school...that's empty.<br/><br/>The fire inside is a nice touch but honestly the hall that is supposed to be a dining area is ghostly in the evening. I have also visited the restaurant on a sunny day and we got a table on the artificial grass out front which felt tacky at best.<br/><br/>The food was dry and bland, and unfortunately the fries we were served were dry, too chunky and some undercooked, one was even green all through. The burgers were okay, but the buns are just plainly awful - they crumble and fall apart in your hands as you try to contain the burger, the patties are completely dry. The sodas tasted off as well.<br/><br/>We left the place and couldn't wait to get home to eat an actual dinner as we were starving.<br/><br/>Stay away until they figure out how to run this place properly as this is a new place just opened in 2017.

A new addition to Browns Bay, Espeto could be really good, we tried a Rib Eye steak (excellent) lamb cutlets (overcooked but ok) hot chips(fantastic hand cut!) calamari (fabulous but very tiny portion for $15, 6 pieces) creme brulee (awful not much on the dessert front come for the meat!). A great place for meat lovers but sadly the atmosphere is awful. They need to warm the decor up a bit, the concrete floors and constant table chair scraping noise drove me crazy. I really hope they change the decor and layout a bit because I'm sure with thought and by time the staff have settled in it could be very pleasant, especially when the outside is useable(heaters please!)

The food was really good but sadly the service was a let down. We constantly had to ask for more water to be brought to the table, took a while to get our order taken also the lack of deserts was a major disappointment, we had ordered 2 of the chocolate bombs and one cheesecake and the waitress was very unsteady carrying 3 plates and dropped one of them at the table which turned out to be the last one.<br/><br/>Overall I'd go back again the food was delicious just the service needs some improvement

Hello! My friends and I wanted to have breakfast here. We were very disappointed. Poor service, very bad stuff. 40 minutes past and we did not get our order. The manager was uninterested in customers and the stuff was untrained to be prepared for breakfast. It was our first visit to this place. Could not recommend to go there.