Waihi Beach Hotel — Restaurant in Bay of Plenty

After booking online for a birthday dinner for eight people (adult friends and teenagers), and specifying in the booking that we would be starting earlier in ‘The Lounge’ for cocktails before dinner (marketed on their website as an updated part of the pub, specialising in cocktails), we turned up at 6pm. The cocktail lounge was empty and a staff member was fiddling with the Eftpos machine. An unkempt older man (found out later he was the owner) was leaning on the bar and he informed us the staff member was trying to fix the Eftpos machine. I asked if we could look at a cocktail menu. The staff member looked around for a menu then asked the owner if the cocktail lounge was opening tonight. The owner kind of shrugged and so the staff member kept looking for the menu. The owner (at this stage we didn’t know he was the owner) raised his arms and said, oh at this time of year we don’t know where anything is. And mentioned the Eftpos machine again. Another staff member came to the bar and he was asked for a menu by the other staff member. He immediately said they weren’t opening the cocktail lounge that night. I said it would have been good if we had been contacted, seeing as I’d put in my booking notes that we were coming for cocktails and the staff member said they’d had some staffing problems. I said that it would still have been good to know ahead of time that the cocktail lounge wouldn’t be opening. The owner then started getting very agitated and told us to “just go”. When we looked at him quizzically, he shouted that he was the owner, he had plenty of business and he did not need us there. As we started walking out, he yelled out “just go, just f*off, get out of here”. (Seemed he was slightly/a lot under the influence but no excuse for this nastiness). We were offered a free round of drinks by the restaurant manager and a table straight away in the restaurant - we did sit down but honestly we were not comfortable and felt (obviously) very unwelcome and so we told the restaurant manager we were going and left. (Ended up at an amazing German/Turkish restaurant called ‘Down Thyme’ - see my review for this - where everyone gave their meals 10/10 and the proprietors were very welcoming). I can not recommend the Waihi Beach Hotel one bit, what an awful...

Im disgusted in the duty managers behaviour tonight. I got cussed out and made to leave before id taken a sip of my drink for "disrespecting" her. When I asked how I got no answer and screamed at to leave, I tried asking what id done wrong and communicate but she wanted to scream at my so I walked away to drink my drink and get out because I felt grossly uncomfortable. We spent less than 10 minutes in her altogether. Then the maori male at the bar began shouting slurs about me so my friend told him off and they lost it so myself, my five year old, my partner and bestfriend finished our drinks and tried to leave. When trying to leave we for followed out by ONE worker and three male PATRONS. they were yelling because partner had an open bottle, when we screamed back that he either was allowed to take eit or finish it there she and one of the men got up in our faces with threats.

He finished his drink and she called the police, so we parked on the road side to wait. Hilariously once they showed up they said that they had issued them with warnings and we shouldn't have been treated that way. It was horrible, unprofessional and immature. And to the table of men who sat and watched, you're pathetic for letting that happen to 22/24 year olds especially in front of my 5 year old at only 7 something at night when all we wanted was to play a game of pool before going...

From the outset, I must establish that we have only ever eaten in the restaurant so cannot comment on the accommodation side of things.||||We're local and have been here before (5 of us) and experienced mostly good all around amenities and service. Like there are gorgeous rugs for those chilly days. The decor is glorious and open.||The staff are fresh, happy and obliging.||The ice cream is the best this side of Italy!||||BUT there are two negatives:||There is no street front signage to indicate whether or not the place is open, or even if it is a functioning restaurant. The doors are all shut up. I went through closed blank doors into a bar to ask if the restaurant was open or not.||||But more importantly, when a customer specifically states that they have a serious medical allergy to a certain herb, and that product is then served to her in a salad, that is just wrong.||By the time that issue was sorted and another meal brought to her, the rest of us had finished eating.||I would have expected a partial refund or even a complimentary voucher for one, should we return another...