XO Takapuna

"Service slow initially but soon improved to the good usual standard. Food very tasty and a good variety. Cost at upper level and can end quite expensive due to small dishes. Nevertheless, it is a nice option for a special evening meal."

"I hate to do this, because I've thoroughly enjoyed my previous dining experiences at XO, but tonight's experience was disgraceful. I won't bother writing a full breakdown of the events, rather I'll just outline the problems. We ordered a dozen oysters (9 fresh and 3 grilled). When the fresh oysters arrived about 30 minutes after we ordered them, they were accompanied by a soy sauce rather than the vinaigrette and shallots as specified in the menu. I thought that it might have just been a dark vinaigrette so I poured some into an oyster and gobbled it down. It was pretty foul tasting with soy sauce so I asked the waitress if she could exchange the soy sauce for vinaigrette. She was very apologetic and took away the soy sauce. She came back a few minutes later with soy sauce again. We again sent it back and again it came back with soy sauce with a little bit of vinegar added topped with spring onions. We didnt want to send it back again so we asked the waitress if we could take the oysters home so we could make our own vinaigrette. She understandably said they have a policy of not letting people take oysters home in fear they won't eat them the same day and potentially get sick. So we requested that they be removed from our bill. She said of course and we left our table to go and pay. When we got to the front of house to pay, the lady serving us had the nerve to say "I was willing to not charge for the oysters, but I talked to our chef and he said that this is our style of vinaigrette". This is shocking for 2 reasons : 1. We've been to this restaurant a handful of times and have had their oysters multiple times 2. The sauce was purely soy sauce and anyone with taste buds would be able to tell that! She then went on to say that nobody else had complained about it and again repeated that's just their style of vinaigrette. I demanded that she remove the charge from our bill and thankfully she did. She then told us that we shouldn't order their oysters from them again if we didn't like them to which we replied that we won't be back again."

"Food was bland, took way too long to arrive. The camera makes it look better than it is. Dont bother with the lamb shank curry its less than mediocre. Reheated to luke warm soup. The donuts were store bought and nuked in the microwave. Our friend who had the fried rice said that was good. Also one of the orders from the table was not available and so they had to order a different dish. But do not worry! They still charged us. The service was poor, looked like they are depressed and did not want to be there. The only good thing was the drinks."

"This place is phenomenal!!! Had the chef's sashimi special, which is served over 3 plates, each one packed with just the most amazing food. Plus some yakitory skewers, cooked to perfection. Oysters tasted super fresh and the tempura eggplant was proof that whoever is running this place knows what they're doing. It was superb. I wish I'd taken more photos :( only remembered to photograph the roti dessert which again, tasted like something in a dream. Beautiful service, hope they get more wait staff soon to ease the load. Look forward to eating here again!"

"Been twice- once for dinner and Once for lunch. Both times were great. Service was green but friendly and enthusiastic. Food was amazing each time. Cocktails superb. Wish them all the best. We will be back."