Church Road Winery — Restaurant in Napier

My family and I had a terrible experience at Church Road winery recently. The portions were small for the price point and food was served cold. We were not checked on at any point to ask how our meal was, during or at the time of payment.

When we tried to settle there was immense confusion among staff as to whether the bill had already been paid. This was due to them having a new till system that they weren't familiar with, and this blame was passed on to paying customers. Being with a group, my father was trying to pay the bill discretely. The situation turned into a bit of a shambles when the owner of the restaurant became abrupt and aggressive with us as he clearly hadn't received the full story from his staff.

We ended up paying for the entire meal regardless and although had been told a discount was applied, upon checking at our end we were fully charged and we weren't actually ever given a bill or list of items to check, so may have been completely incorrectly charged.

I reached out to the owner for an apology and even spent time writing out an account over email to try and resolve this amicably but he has refused, which really shows his stubbornness and attitude towards me still. I imagine a long-winded response will follow this review but I highly doubt it'll be true based on what we have encountered.

I highly recommend anyone reviewing this looks at another popular winery in the area such as The Mission or Black Estate, both of which are lovely and I desperately wish I chose otherwise as this lunch trip left us all rattled and really put a damper on our trip to Hawke's Bay.

Yes we must support the NZ hospitality industry during Covid times, but this cannot be used by owners as an excuse for poor behaviour and mistreatment. I do not support men in business who act aggressively towards young females such as myself, nor do I believe they should reap the rewards of a business being run in this way. I believe we should have been treated with more...

Least hospitable experience at any winery we have ever visited, and we have been to hundreds. Popped in with my wife for a tasting midafternoon - to be told sorry we can’t serve you. Can’t have a tasting without a booking/ can’t have a tasting without food and we don’t have staff to help you today. No problem can we buy a glass or bottle of wine and sit on the verandah? “Nope you have to have food and we are fully booked, our licence doesn’t allow it!” Not friendly - not helpful - and certainly not good business. Very poor service ethic and not well delivered!

REGARDING RESPONSE BELOW Completely inaccurate. We arrived at 3:20pm and your published closing time was 4:30pm. I can show a time /date stamp from Google maps as proof if you like, but your attempt at deflection proves it’s not worthwhile. I’ve never witnessed any small group at a winery turned away in that fashion, even your staff member commented the rules of your restrictive licensing were poor. We were told you didn’t not have enough staff to assist no comment whatsoever about closing time, as it simply was NOT a factor as we arrived 70 mins before closing. We would have been happy to buy a platter or similar and a glass or bottle of wine and did not require any meaningful service, just a token effort and would have been quite happy to be self sufficient. We went to a neighboring winery and arrived there at circa 3:40 and were served and had a tasting without food. You can confirm the booking we made there upon leaving your establishment which was set for 4pm at last minute notice without an issue. No food required and an over a pleasant hour spent there, and they closed at 5! They advised we were not the first to have a poor experience at your facility. Please don’t blame us for your poor ability to take care of customers and attempt to mislead other patrons due to your restrictive licence choice, it’s clearly not an NZ issue as your neighbouring winery...

AVOID THIS WINERY IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SOCIALLY PROFILED. Drove all the way from Wellington as we heard good things about this winery. Booked at 11:00am for wine tasting with my partner and small puppy. We called the day before to confirm if a small dog was allowed and we were told we could have our wine tasting outside on the balcony. Also, the girl on the phone who confirmed this also checked with her manager. When we arrived, the staff were absolutely horrific and rude (specifically the old lady with black hair and old man with white hair). No empathy and general customer service at all and we got turned away and told we could ONLY order food and drinks outside, and we could not do a wine tasting. The old man and woman asked another staff member if a dog was allowed and my partner and I overheard another staff member say “it’s up to you, they can have the wine tasting inside and take it out or you can do the tasting outside”. But the old man turned around to us and said “no we can’t do the wine tasting outside. When the whole winery was completely empty. When I said “can we please cancel our 11am booking” the lady with black hair just laughed and said “yeah okay bye”. I am 99% sure if my partner and I had dressed up (we were in casual attire due to the long drive) and looked like we were going to spend a lot of money, we would not have been turned away or would have been given an apology for the mistake made by the staff who stated a dog was allowed. There are many other wineries in this area so I recommend going elsewhere. We ended up down the road at Mission Estate where we received great...