Review The Cook - Hamilton

We had a fun evening celebrating with work friends here. We were up in the balcony- a little squishy with 5 little kids but we made it work. I really loved their kids bento boxes (just cut up the grapes). The pizza and fish & chips & drinks were yummy 🙂 I'd go back!

Really friendly staff and made us feel welcome. Food was easy to order over tablet device, and arrived within a short time. Lovely setting to have a meal, drink, catch-up with friends

Very slow delivery of food. When food did arrive it was worth the wait. Waited at less an hour from first lot of meals that were served until last meal arrived. We had booked in so they knew that a large group would be in for breakfast. We were the only ones in at the time we ordered.

Tablet use for big groups not helpful. Perhaps waiter could assist more to enable smoother flow. Nice food though. Staff iare very friendly.

A good place for a solidly decent meal, and family friendly. The kids menu is always good for my fussy child. They do a taco platter which is good for groups. They have a range of Good George beers and ciders on tap. Upstairs they have a decent space for a party which can be booked. We’ve used it for a few birthdays. The toilets are down some stairs and are tucked away.

Went with a group of work colleagues. Took advantage of the 2for1 pizza deal. The four different pizzas covered the tastes of all in the group. There was general agreement that we should do it again.

Four of us attended a business lunch here. Overall, it's pretty good, a really friendly, engaging, and obliging staff member. One issue, not a complaint. One of our party is on a crash diet and asked about salad options with his meal. It's not available as an option, but staff managed to put something together. Big ups team, you did well. We'll be back.

Awesome service, good food...good following of COVID protocols. Not wheelchair accessible unless you ask at the moment due to only one entrance being open to follow COVID restrictions...but just ask in advance and the awesome staff will sort it for you😉Everything is clean and inviting. Totally recommend, especially two for one pizza nights on a Tuesday!😊 Great environment guys! Well done💜

Had a great time this evening. Nice cosy atmosphere, friendly bar staff (Campbell, Sean, Jenny) who were happy to help us out with taste tests for some of the local beers, delicious chips and desserts, and overall just a great vibe. Came here a week or so back for a quiz night and it was also a good vibe.

A good bar in Hamilton east for drinks and food. The service and the quiz night they run is amazing. Staff members are also polite and respectful, Mani looked after us very well last night. Thanks team

Been there today with a friend. First impression was fine, ample place, lots of seats and friendly atmosphere. Waiters were fast to attend customers and serving food. We had two different beers made in house, IPA and another one that I forgot. We had as jugs, a large and a regular one. Tasted very good, worth every drop. Fettuccine with mushrooms were delicious and enough for a hunger. Toilets were clean. It has an small outdoor area, wish it was larger because of the great weather. There is a small game lounge for the addictive players. Good for couples and groups as well. Worth coming and will be back again soon.

We wanted something quick after a meeting and stumbled across it. Food, staff and atmosphere was great

We were a large gathering of people at The Cook for a birthday lunch. The food was cooked well but the menu was very basic. The customer service behind the bar was great.

Kids friendly environment. Good George beers on tap. Great friendly staff with table service. Plenty of street parking in easy walking distance to the bar. Plenty of seating inside with inside being bright and open. Good selection of drinks from behind the bar. Clean and tidy pub.

The burger, pork belly, chicken wings was very nice. But the nachos was not so good. Overall service was good. Very vriendly staff and atmosphere

Service 4/5<br/>Ambience 3.5/5<br/>Food 4/5<br/><br/>Good place to hang out after a long day at work. They had a good and wide selection of craft beer. We had the squid salad with kimchee salad and mushroom pizza with dressing of kimchee as well I think. The squid was perfectly cooked soft melts in your mouth with a light coating. It was paired with a crisp salad which was accentuated by a kimchee dressing. Great for a light meal. The pizza had tasty toppings and the crust was thin and crunchy just the way I like it. Just note that the upper section of the restaurant, where most of our friends were at the time, is not ideal for having a meal as it was slightly a bit dark but good if you are only drinking.

Have been here twice. For the first time we came in between their lunch and dinner hours so weren’t able to order a main meal. Only ordered some beer and left. Came back again at the right time and was glad for it. Ordered buffalo wings, the beef burger & the chicken burger as well. I’m not usually a beef burger kind of person but I sure enjoyed it. Was so good! The chicken burger wasn’t too bad either. Overall, service and ambience is good. Although, if you order wings (please don’t expect little nibbles) because they are full wings lol.

Bloody yummy burger with the apple slaw! And their pork belly corn dogs are out of this world- but the mac and cheese balls were dry in the middle- we got delivery via deliver easy so can't say about the hospitality there

Not the Cook Bar but now part of the Good George franchise.  Beer is great but seriously need to work on your food.  Or drop the prices.  Fish and chips at $22.  Great chips.  Fish 2 average pieces but sealord battered hoki maybe?  Waitress (when we got one) said fresh tarakihi but I don't think so.  And a really colorful but not crunchy coleslaw with NO dressing.  Sirloin was nice but sauce was non existent and battered triangles of stodgy macaroni cheese, cute but at $34 rather pricey. .  Gastro pub prices but lacking finesse and execution.  Floor staff also lacked enthusiasm and the best laugh of the night was when we ordered just one "cornbread with butter" at $8 for a starter.  4 at the table.  Its $8 worth of flour, cornmeal and baking powder in a pub, must be a decent hunk of bread surely, 3 can share?  Waitress didn't say anything then delivers a saucer with 2 fingers of cake like "bread" with a pat of rock hard butter.  Portions are not generous at this place.   Wont be racing back sorry nor rushing to any other Good George venues in a hurry

The worst restaurant I had ever been. Ribs with no meat on them , cold an frozen fries and smelly salads. My husband and kids after waiting over 1 hour for meals left this place hungry and really disappointed. Should read a review first , that the lesson for a future before waste a time on Sunday evening.

We came because of a grabone voucher the meal was reasonably priced even without the voucher I had a kiwi beef burger it was juicy an full of flavours and not too big that you couldn't eat it easily .. The chips had a yum coating on them and crispy outside and soft inside<br/><br/><br/><br/>Went in today and saw the soup special was tomato and was what I wanted they served me a pumpkin soup and just walked off I don't like complaining to people they didn't ask if I wanted pumpkin instead or anything ..... I work in hospo so know it's not that hard to say something<br/>The soup was over thick and was lumpy and not nice at all I prob won't come back

Unsure why reviews are so negative? My experience here was reasonable. Nice enough staff and food arrived promptly. Burger was good. Looks like this place has abit of a following as they have seating for 'regulars'.

Friendly waiters and a warm atmosphere... the grab one deal defiantly added value to our experience. If you are looking for a quick, affordable and inviting place for a night out during the week i would recommend the cook.

I've been in here twice in the last month, it's pretty much pub grub and fairly obviously under management as the whole place feels like it needs the sort of pride and passion an owner/ operator can usually only insert. They do make a passable flat white and have some decent snacks but it is a rowdy place with its open ceiling etc made even worse when the staff decide to start moving around all the furniture especially up on the mezzanine floor. Well due for a face lift. Great cosmopolitan client range representing the diversity of the local community.

The Cook is in Hamilton, New Zealand. The portions are big over there, in fact I had the biggest chicken breast I've ever seen in my life. So how did this eclectic restaurant/bar shape up in the foodie stakes?

I decided to use a grabone voucher and go for lunch. It was a wet and cold day. I had burger and chips with a nice glass of cider. Overall what you would expect for pub food but it was well done.

Came here for breakfast twice in a month and it was abysmal. First customers there, still took 30 mins to receive our breakfast and our coffees at the same time. Food didn't taste much better than when my first flatmate attempted his first ever hungover breakfast feast. I realize they're transitioning to new ownership but if you can't make even half decent breakfast just open at lunchtime

Came here on a Wednesday night and it was pretty busy! Luckily, we had a reservation. This place is well presented with its wooden chairs and tables, high ceilings and trendy looking bar. Service was a little slow to take our order but the food and drinks arrived in good time. My 1st guest and I had both chosen the stuffed chicken breast (an oldie but a goodie) and it was huge! I tried not to think about how the chicken had been able to have such large breasts as I ate it. Whilst the chicken was delicious the accompanying potatoes were not. Undercooked and flavourless, disappointing to be honest but the chicken was so big we couldn't, either of us, finish our meals anyway. My 2nd guest had the chicken salad and it went down very well and looked great. Again, another generous portion.The food was overall pretty good and the value for money was excellent. Nice atmosphere, would definitely come back for some good, honest grub!

I don't get how this place has such a loyal following. The beer selection doesn't reflect the architecture and the food just makes you full without any form of satisfaction. One day I hope that whoever is running this place sees the gem that it is and treats this historical centrepiece the respect that it deserves with quality service booze and food.

Had a lovely champagne and nibble for breakfast here. It has had several uses over the years. I love the way it feels open and airy, a few seats outside as well.<br/><br/>I hope to go back another time to try more items on their menu.

Background information for our Reviews: My husband and I (late 30s with 3 young kids) are fortunate enough to have 2 sets of grandparents in town. We both love eating out, so therefore we try to ditch the kids and get out whenever possible. The reviews we write are our (subjective) opinion based on that day’s experience, so obviously can vary greatly depending on staffing/food etc on the particular day. We love a bargain, so use our entertainment book or deal vouchers where possible :) <br/><br/>Had 45 minutes before we had to collect kids and a grab one voucher to use.  I looked up the menu online, decided what we wanted and then phoned the cafe to see if I could place our order (due to short time frame) and be there in 10 minutes.  They were more than happy with this.  When we arrived, our meals arrived shortly after.  We both ordered the Mixed Grill, and being a voucher for 2 meals which cost us $15 including drinks, we expected the meals to be perhaps smaller than usual.  They were massive!  I feel like we ripped the Cook off - despite ordering extras.  However, we frequent here often and will be sure to return.  As usual, good service.

Arrived at 7pm after making a telephone reservation two days prior to find there was no table booked. Awesome start. Eventually seated at a leaner not ideal. Managed to get a table a few minutes later. Time came to place our order but at 7pm on a Friday night there was no more fish and no more stuffed chicken breast left! Really? Ordered a couple of burgers, the chicken burger looked OK, but had Camembert cheese which was not mentioned in the menu and my beef burger was destroyed. The beef patty was totally burned, not even sure if it was actually still meat. The staff in general wander around and not very attentive, never asking if you would like another drink etc. Poor service and a lost opportunity to increase sales. The only bright spot was the girl who took our orders was lovely but she was let down by the rest of her team and the kitchen. Not going back or recommending to anyone I like.

Overall a so-so experience for a Saturday dinner. The meals were nice, good size servings without being over huge. The service is what let it down, even though there seemed to be plenty of staff on and they weren't overly busy. <br/>We had reserved a table so wandered in and loitered in the entrance reading the historical stuff on display, no one came to see us so we just found the table with our name on and sat down. Eventually the wait staff brought us some menus and took drinks orders, came back a bit later and took meal orders and all was good.<br/>However after the meals were delivered ...nothing. No follow up for feedback or more drinks, they eventually came to take the plates away and again.....nothing. We eventually asked for dessert menus, and then eventually asked for someone to take our dessert orders.<br/>In hindsight perhaps we should have been ordering at the bar?This was not made clear to us, one would assume that the man bringing the menus would have explained that.<br/><br/>The other downfall (not at all unique to The Cook) is the limited kids menu, why oh why do they always insist in stodgy deep fried nuggets, mini hotdogs and chips? - the only other option was lasagne. <br/>On the up side - the kids menu also has a mini mixed grill which we ordered but unfortunately we failed to read the fine print and this was only available until 3pm (totally our bad), the kitchen was able to accommodate us anyway which was fantastic.<br/><br/>On the whole not sure if we will return, the atmosphere was nice, the band was good, the food was what you expect for pub food, just a little more attention to service is required in our opinion.

Was not very impressed with The Cook. Staff weren't very friendly or attentive when we arrived. Ordered garlic bread and curly fries for lunch. Garlic bread was burnt to a crisp. I was hoping for nice, soft bread but instead got black, crunchy bread - couldn't even taste the burnt on butter. Curly fries were average, barely warm, however the amount was good for the price. Waiter who brought out our food was friendly but most likely won't return.

Love coming to this place with friends &amp; family to have a few drinks &amp; some hearty food. If your expecting culinary food with service to match in a "BAR slash CAFE"??? then you obviously don't know the difference between a unicorn &amp; a donkey. If your with the right people at the right time this place can be awesome!<br/><br/>#OVERWHELMINGLY REAL

Ciabatti bun, beer battered fish, tartare sauce, yeah right. Standard supermarket sesame bun, piece of fish covered in some yellow substance available in any local lunch bar. Worst fishburger in Hamilton. I told the barman when I paid, he said ``No,it`s not very good is it``. Doesn`t really rate one star.

Not impressed. Not impressed at all. 3 of us arrived for lunch yesterday (Sunday 20/1/13) about 12:45, The Cook was not especially busy. We stood at the bar waiting for service behind 3 young men ordering drinks for their table. This took at least 15 minutes, no exaggeration-in fact that is being kind. We and others behind us waited patiently as we could see there was only one staff member at the bar taking orders while another young lady delivered meals. So we had plenty of time to decide what we each wanted to order for lunch - my daughter &amp; I would share a salt &amp; pepper squid, followed by the Thai Beef salad for her and her dad, and a delicious sounding scotch fillet meal for me. As the young men finally finished ordering, the 2nd staff member opened the other till and apologised to us for the wait. All good. We ordered the squid first - sorry no squid; something about they'd been closed for a week and hadn't got the squid in yet? Oh. Ok so we will just have 2 Thai Beef Salads - sorry no Thai Beef salad; something about they hadn't been able to cut up the beef yet? Well can I at least get the scotch fillet? Sorry, no Scotch fillet!!!!!!!! What the....??!! Perhaps we should not have been as sharp to her as we were in announcing we would go elsewhere, and leaving. After all, they were clearly under-staffed and the two of them no doubt were having to bear the fallout from incompetent management that day. This is the one and only time I have felt indignant enough to write a criticism of any dining experience, and I have to say I hope this is some sort of aberration as we have lunched here once before and it was very nice. In fact we had been recommending The Cook to all and sundry! The very least they could have done was have some sort of signage up on the counter listing what was or was not available from their menu. I am reluctant to give even a 1-star rating after such a poor show.

Sad to say this place is over priced. We ordered their wedges to share between a few of us and asked for no bacon and were charged extra. I didn't know it costed more to remove an item. Not impressed.

There were 3 of us for lunch and only 1 acceptable meal. The steak sammie was more of a salad sammie as the steak was very small and the price wasn't. Pretty much the same for the chicken sandwich. I had a steak sammie at a different restaurant a couple of days later for $1 more that actually had a steak on it. Service wasn't the greatest either. Won't be going back.<br/><br/>We did go back after Chris gave us a voucher to return and try it again. We had breakfast and it was good, pretty hard to mess that up. Service was better. Will probably go back and try, but the place still needs a great deal of improvement.

What has happened to this place???? I am aware it has now changed ownership and since this has happened the great customer service seems to have disappeared... Not once did the waiter's or waitresses even smile when taking our order or even giving us our meal. Almost seemed like a hassle to serve us. Also the whole atmosphere of the place has changed, the music is very low key and wasn't even playing on all speakers. Was there for Dinner Saturday and breakfast Sunday, food was pretty nice especially the creamy mushrooms for breakfast..

I like what Colin said ".the cook is a nice place more a bar trying to be a cafe then a cafe.". So if you are happy with that you'll be happy. <br/><br/>This place is my partner's favourite for the mixed grill. There are two vegetraian options, I've had the vegeburger which varies from average to good, pretty generous servings. The staff are competent if a little indifferent, but we kinda like that kinda thing ( not too much attention). <br/><br/>It's a nice lowkey relaxed place for a lowkey relaxed meal

This is a cafe &amp; bar, not a 5-star restaurant.<br/><br/>I have dined here several times and never been disappointed. Large, tasty meals; very friendly and efficient staff; great atmosphere.<br/><br/>Definitely value for money.

The only decent thing was the Speights. Oh, and the garlic bread.<br/><br/>Chicken burger was on what tasted like a stale &amp; cheap bun, chicken was dry, salad was wilted.<br/><br/>Service was poor, when we asked for water the waitress reluctantly bought us a jug of water, but no glasses. <br/><br/>Horrible, especially considering the price. Not expensive, but more than I'd ever pay for pub food.<br/><br/>Will never be going back

It's a pub. So that's what one should expect.<br/><br/>Don't go there if you want state of the art cookery. <br/><br/>Do go there if you want pint's of beer, a burger and fries, and to watch the game.<br/><br/>The staff are friendly, atmosphere is good and they have great live music as well as comedy night.

Have had a few meals here and have been satisfied every time. Meals are a good price big and most delicious. Tha asmosphere is good to local friendly and very accomodating as far as booking parties.

have never had spicy wedges before without sour cream, when we asked for some the waiter told us it was an extra $1.50 very average wedges cost $10 with sour cream... we decided not to stay for a main. Bar girl was pleasant hence i gave two stars<br/><br/>Update, went back for lunch had the big breakfast which actually was great, so was the service this time, gave them an extra star, might have normally given it a 4 star but went midway between our experiences

had lunch here today and was a little dissappointing. ordered soup of the day that was spose to pea and ham, not what i was expecting with shaved ham as the meat. garlic bread was average. very cold even though we were sat right next to the fire. hot choc was average also . no hurry to go back, especially not in the winter.

the cook is a nice place more a bar trying to be a cafe then a cafe.