Review The Establishment - Wellington

Great environment. I had a fantastic time with my friends and met many new people. The queues were always long and I couldn't get a cashout in the establishment so when I had to get cashout to go upstairs(which required a payment due to an ongoing private event) I had to go to the closest ATM and queue up again... Which was not the worst but still a long wait.

Such a lovely staff!!!. The new menu Is really good. Good food and good presentation. Lot of beers on tab and Guinness is cheap! $5selected drinks every day! Live music, bingo, quiz night, karaoke!!!..something new every day!

This place is awesome for if you are looking for the best value meal in town. Don't expect fancy food but good food at a good price. It's well located if you need a meal before a night out or just a beer with friends.

Life is pretty good with a $9.00 jug of beer and a sunny balcony seat overlooking Courtenay Place

Nice open bar with plenty of seating and big dance floor. Music level was perfect - loud enough to talk to your table comfortably but also get up and dance. Played all the classic hits which made for a fun night of dancing/singing along and also chatting/chilling.

One of the best places in Wellington to dance, but you need to be careful with the bottles in the floor. The music is usually good and is very friendly. The drinks aren't so expensive. It's a great place for ending your night with your friends.

Came for the quiz night there was a group of us we had a great time, brilliant atmosphere and good selection of beers. Will definitely be back to do it all again 👍

Would recommend this Club. Other clubs staff could learn heaps from your bar staff well run, hard working, delightful service just an excellent pleasure to drink and party there. Cheers from the Timaru Lads, Eric, Buster, Shaun, Braden and Gorden

Lovely service, I had no way of getting home as my phone died.. Chole was a life saver so bright and happy aswell. She took my phone and charged it for me when the other guy said no... bless your soul chole! Look forwarder to seeing you again soon, and thank you !!♡

Great bar. Went there at peak hours. Floors weren't very tidy but it was a banging atmosphere. Bartender was friendly and super efficient. Will go back for sure.

Best bar restaurant in New Zealand capital city of Wellington! $15 dinners like pork chop salad and chips. Cocktails start from $10. My go to from now on every night!

Fantastic everything. Definitely a high class establishment. But .... if you want quality sometimes you've got to pay a little more.... highly recommended service . Food . And Ohhhh the cocktails....

This pl needs some serious TLC and a bloody good clean. Sticky floor sticky table, no lock on toilet door, no hand soap in bathroom. If you can get past all that then this is Great for a cheap meal and drink. Menu prices range from $10 -$15 which is super cheap. Food was nicer than thought it would be. Drink specials are crazy. Give it a try.

Literally the worst club in Wellington. If you are looking to not get let into a club, completely sober, this is the club for you. The bouncers are complete wankers and won’t let you in (unless you are a female). On the rear occasion I get let in, it’s a great time but so far the track record of being let in 2 times out of 6 is below par. Overall would definitely not recommend!

The establishment smells like cat biscuits but the burgers and beers are cheap. If you're over 40 or under 19 it's the place for you. Seriously though, for the price the portions were large, but they could do with some more cleaning.

Very good place, liked the drinks and food. It is also cheap. Ordered a burger, it was massive and came with fries. Excellent!! Would recommend people to try, totally worth it.

Okay. So I've had a lot of experience with Estab, and It's been decisively turbulent to say the least. There have been nights of pure and crazy simple fun with hundreds of people, and there have been nights of shear boredom because their Playlist is exactly the same week over week. I'm not saying Estab is bad because it's not. The bartenders are all really polite, the atmosphere is very premium with the exterior finishings seemingly constantly under going changes. But it's the people who the bar attracts that seems to ruin it for everyone else. Those balcony dwellers who seem to want to smoke something funky at every opportunity or cause drama between your friends and themselves. The bouncer can be quite aggressive too in an unnecessary fashion. I have personally been yelled at for standing near the window trying to let people past, and I've seen the bouncer physically remove people from the premises with excessive force. So it really puts a dampener on the already bland music festival crazy night club. But I give it credit for maintaining its consistency against popular belief.

I love the Establishment! This place has a great after work drinks vibe, it's a great place to watch the rugby with friends and when the music gets started they play a lot of anthem music that everyone can sing and dance along too. The clientele are more reserved and older earlier in the night and becomes a young person's bar later on its a great mix with a great atmosphere with great happy hour prices and good selection of craft beer. 5/5

Visitors to Wellington. Went to the Establishment on Saturday night and after looking at the menu we were pleasantly surprised how cheap the meals were ... $10 burger meal with fries?? Unheard of in Auckland! Unfortunately our meals too almost an hour to arrive ... We had already finished our drinks and started asking the waiters how long our meals would be as we had somewhere to be later that night!<br/>Service - slow - 1 hour+ to be served is a bit excessive<br/>Food - good ... Very pleased with our meals for the price!<br/>Drinks - expensive ... A bit guttered to learn our drinks weren't covered by happy hour ... The signage should be more clear which drinks are covered?? I loved my Pilsner beer though despite the $8.50 price tag for a smallish glass ...<br/><br/>I'd go back for the food definitely but might skip on the drinks because I'm a Scrooge :)

Have not had the chance to eat here but been for several drinks and it doesn't seem to be able to make up its mind as to what sort of place it wants to be.. Day bar, nightclub.. It seems to alternate between both which is kind of cool but it doesn't necessarily attract the sort of experience that appeals to me. <br/><br/>The hustle and bustle of Courtney place can be experienced in the outdoor smoking area with some drinks but that's about all I have found that this place has to offer

This place is.. confusing. During the day you'd find old crowd and at night people look rarely more than 18 years old. Anyway location is nice, the bar itself has nothing fancy but it does the job. Staff is quite friendly but the food.. they had those cheap deals on but it takes ages to be served especially to have 10 fries in your plate. Food is not disgusting but not exceptional. Food lovers do not go there.

I have literally just left The Establishment.<br/>After hearing horror story after horror story re: Food & Service, I thought - "you know what, I'm going to give this place a try and see for myself". Which I did with a friend.<br/>I am glad I did as it was very educational.<br/>I walked in and the first thing the girl behind the bar tells me is " take your hat off please". It's Wellington, it's wet and it is rainy. Sure, I go to take my hat off and I see two other people wearing hats. Alas, I respectfully take it off.<br/>We then order our food - x1 Lasagne x1 Beef pie.<br/>Twenty minutes go by and still neither of us have our food ( At this time the bar was quiet! There is no excuse for a twenty minute delay without any communication from staff).A further five minutes passes and finally I get my Lasagne. Now, to be fair the food was not terrible, I ate half of it at least. The side salad was it's saving grace.<br/>At this point I am eating while my friend waits another 5 minutes for her pie. She asks in a very nice way how far away it is. And!!!! a few more minutes later only then does it arrive.My point is this:<br/>I have been managing bars/cafes/restaurants for the past 15 years to present. I know what it is like firsthand to serve and to maintain customer satisfaction/return. What happened here today is not acceptable by any stretch of the word.First of all, the bar staff should in fact greet their customers in a friendly manner. It's not hard to do. Most of the FOH staff were females with long hair down..... handling food and plates. Common rule of thumb in hospitality: If you have long hair.... tie it back.When handling glasses, don't touch the rim and then give it to the customer.<br/>If you don't have enough staff to accommodate the amount of foot traffic wanting to dine.... restructure the roster. It's that simple.<br/>Having your customers wait 30+ minutes for service is downright ridiculous. And without any form of communication is not acceptable. <br/>Management: Be fair on your staff and train them properly. They look like idiots when they only have idiots teaching them the ways of hospitality.

There is not much to say about this bar other than the fact that you get to enjoy the sun and traffic movement while seated outside enjoying your chilled beer .The staff is very polite and friendly. I didn't have any food from here . But will definitely come back again.

We visited The Establishment on a Saturday about 8 and used a deal voucher for a meal. We have been in the past and had mixed impressions but the voucher was a good deal. We had the option of a main an extra side and a drink for the both of us. We talked a lot with the service staff (there were 2 for the upstairs area) to make sure we were within what our voucher will allow. We ordered two steaks, one sirloin, one rib eye with bacon - both came with sides so we didn't order the extra sides. The steaks were delicious as were the accompaniments of mash and salad. We ended up ordering a few extra drinks, and they offered us a desert to share because we didn't use our sides - that was fantastic.<br/>The two service guys we had were fantastic - overall I rate the whole experience very well - just as any dining experience should be.<br/><br/>One extra point - we have been in the past and they used to have a poncy menu .. out of the league of what they are (a good pub grub specialist) ... the current menu is varied, and priced very well for the audience. I would happily go back again, and even in groups of 5-10 it would be good.<br/>No hesitation about a 4 start mark .. and considered 5!

I couldn't believe the rudeness and arrogance of the door staff last night. When I challenged him about his behaviour and attitude to me, he refused to look me in the eye, refused to give me his name, refused to tell me who he worked for and was pretty much a smartass the whole way. He had no intention of letting me in, and I wasn't inebriated. He just took issue with me for smoking near him. He asked me to move, I couldnt see why, its legal to smoke outside and he can't tell me where to stand on a public sidewalk. You are standing outside, that's where people smoke. The fella relented in the end and told me his name was Steve. I doubt it somehow after all the rigamarole. Screw that place until they fire that loser. My experiences inside have been fine, except sometimes staff need to be watching the inside crowd behaviour. I saw a girl badly injured in there once due to unsafe dancing. She basically got upended and pile driven headfirst in the the concrete floor. Security staff should have seen it coming, onlookers knew it was going to end in an injury. End of the day, they need better management and better trained door staff, thats my take on it.

I'll start by saying that once they figured themselves out, the food was impressive and our waitress was really good. However, the service from the manager at the time was disgusting.<br/><br/>I had made a booking for dinner for 10 - 15 people, and the woman I spoke to on the phone was more than helpful, told us there would be no problem putting together a table of that size, assured us we would be taken care of.<br/><br/>However when we got there, no table was ready. I asked the current supervisor what the deal was and was told "You guys didnt say you were having a sit down meal". I told him that when someone books a table, that usually means they would like to eat food. He called me and my party "flaky" for not specifying exactly what we were going to eat when I made the booking (he was expecting just snacks and bar food, whereas I was expecting a meal.) He then told us that he could "probably figure something out if you tell us exactly what time you are eating". Half an hour later, our table was ready, although we were not informed of this. I had to go upstairs and check for myself because he refused to come talk to us.<br/><br/>I could not believe how rude this guy was! He made no apologies for the mix up, and made us feel like we were the ones that screwed up. I really hope in the future, he chooses a career that does not have anything to do with customer service, because he obviously does not have any skills in that department.<br/><br/>Like I said, the waitress we had was great, the food was delicious, and everything was reasonably priced. If you choose to go here, I just hope it is on that guys' day off.

The company I work for had a function at the establishment last Wednesday. Wow I couldn't believe the friendly service and great platters that they served us and well priced too! I look forward to booking my next function with you guys.

My partner and I were looking for a restaurant that served steak for her birthday dinner (as this was one of my partner’s birthday food requests) and ideally in the gold section of the Entertainment Book so we could make use of it.<br/>The night before, we narrowed it down to Four Kings or The Establishment based on the menu in the EB. So after work yesterday we headed down to Dixon St. to try Four Kings but ended up walking away to The Establishment hoping for a more welcoming atmosphere. We were wrong!<br/>When we walked into The Establishment which had about 8 people inside (all drinking not eating) we had to just make our way ourselves to a table. So we sat down and waited for someone to come over and give us a menu. After a couple of mins and seeing as the 1 person there was more interested wiping glasses than serving customers, I went up to him at the bar and asked if they still served dinner and he answered back nonchalantly as well as pointing at something "there's a menu there and go back here for your orders." I was gobsmacked! Surely a restaurant in the gold card Fine dining section of the EB would have better service than this!?! Even the local kebab place serves your food if you're dining in. Plus I was not paying for $25-30 mains and entrees without proper restaurant service. We obviously just left. I would have expected more of this restaurant but it aint no different from your local fast food place. Pity staff do not care.

This is an absolutely fabulous restaurant/bar!!! i have been here three times and have loved it!!! The desserts are fab i especially love the licorice panacota and Moro Bar cheesecake!! The platters are yummy too =) Keep up the good work

A limited menu, but the meals were generally tasty. Excellent service.

Very disappointed, the staff did not seem very co-ordinated and the service erratic. i.e. it took forever for the entree plates to be removed and then the mains were delivered before the table was reset. When we asked for cutlery the waitress redistributed unused cutlery from the entree to other people at our table. We had to go and ask them if we could have more drinks as no-one came to the table to see if we wanted anything. There was only one other booking so they were not busy and the three staff just stood behind the bar. The food was okay but we got the impression the staff did not care and just wanted us out.

Not a lot of personality to this bar but it does have a good outdoor seating area and a nice terrace. We dropped by for an after work drink and it was fine, decent service and we got a table on the terrace in the late afternoon sun which was really very pleasant. Probably best enjoyed with a group of friends as one stop amongst many on a night out ...

Most of the times I have been to Establishment was for a few drinks, but the one time we did order food I was pleasantly surprised. We chose a pizza and a platter, and both came out reasonably fast and looking fresh. The pizza had lots of toppings, and was super cheesy and melty (Not really a word - but you get the idea) and everything on the platter was really tasty too. It's always busy late at night, mostly with a younger crowd - so if that's not your thing, then check it out earlier in the day.