Te Moana — Restaurant in Easter Island

During our stay in Rapa Nui, when looking where to eat online, we saw in Google “Te Moana” and we liked the look of it, and agreed to go as our last meal on the island.

The day arrived, we parked nearby, and we walked in, to notice that they had a dinner/show with typical Rapa Nui dancers. We approached the reception, and asked if there were any tables available. The receptionist said no, but after checking with a second staff member, she mentioned that they had a couple of seats “on a non-show table” which was fine by us.

The night went downhill from here. A second lady that seems to be the manager, made our experience at “Te Moana” the worst customer service nightmare I had experience in the island and beyond.

While I had the fork in my hand and I ate my last bite, this lady, took away my plate. At this point we had been in the restaurant 30-40 minutes max. She said that as we didn’t book the table there were other people waiting to be seated… I couldn’t understand what was happening as this was not explained beforehand (otherwise we would have gone somewhere else). I asked if we could order desserts, to what she said “we do have them on the menu but as other people are waiting to be seated they needed our seats”. At this point I was so angry and uncomfortable that we paid our bill and left.

We paid around $70 for 2 dishes and 2 pisco sours and 2 diet cokes… for a 35 minutes meal and an awful experience.

I wished they told us no at the beginning, or warned us beforehand how long we had the seats for. We would have understood it, we didn’t have a booking. However, the minute you accept a customer you treat it like any other. And this unprofessional lady treated us like a piece of garbage.

EVERYWHERE else we went in Rapa Nui we had great food and a good time. I can’t say the same for this place and...

We got a recommendation for this restaurant so we went there for our last night on the island. The atmosphere was really relaxed and you could feel the hospitality of the restaurant and its people. We didn't speak any Spanish but the service helped were they could and explained everything we were wondering about concerning our food. The menu was in English though too so we weren't at a total loss. The food was simply amazing. The tuna steak was on point and the sauces and vegetables delicious. I had two cocktails; the Moai Spritz and the Anakena Beach both of which are made with Pisco. Both of them I found are made with local fruit and are not too sweet. All in all, it's a lovely restaurant with really good local food and drinks (also draft beer) and nice and helpful service. Would recommend...

I did not have a positive experience with the hostess. It was a long day of tours, and I was struggling with my Spanish as an American tourist, but I always try and practice communicating in Spanish. The hostess clearly did not have patience for me. She allowed other Spanish speaking individuals to cut in line in front of me. She would stop trying to help me mid-sentence and moved on to help other customers. While I cannot speak freely, I can understand, and she made last minute reservations for the people in front of me who did not have one. For me, she told me I needed to have reservations. I did not feel welcome and so I left. It all worked out though. I went to a restaurant around the corner (Neptune) who had no problem with me practicing my Spanish and provided much...