Aorangi Peak Restaurant & Events — Restaurant in North Island

We couldn’t believe how empty it was when we walked in, but by the time we walked out it was no surprise at all. It makes me so sad experiencing a place with such potential, but leaving so disappointed.. with every aspect of the cafe/restaurant within the owners control. We ordered 4 hot drinks and 2 slices from the cabinet. After 20 minutes of waiting we checked to see how it was going, and were told “uh yeah we’re starting it now”. Another several minutes went by before our VERY watered down coffee’s and hot chocolate arrived (couldn’t really tell the difference between the coffee and hot chocolate because it they were both so weak! I wish I was exaggerating). Soon after, our small slice of supermarket chocolate cake and muffin was served. The cake felt and tasted as though it had been left out for a week.. cardboardy and tasteless.. (the muffin was just a heated supermarket muffin too).

The venue is very unmaintained.. dirty, full of spider webs, damaged and run down, and a big shame to look at, as it seems like this place might once have been an incredible experience under previous (local) management.

The service was as unexciting as the food and unfortunately there isn’t anything nice our party was able to comment on aside from the view.

As someone who has only ever written one (positive) review online before, I’m saddened to be pushed to do so by such a disappointing experience.

I hope this review plays some small part in further change of ownership, so new owners who give half a damn can fulfil this venues...

Unfortunately we really did not enjoy our Christmas dinner at Aorangi Peak. We are partially to blame, as it was a set menu of mostly fish/seafood served cold and we don't really like that cuisine. There was also a carvery dinner, which we are accustomed to and usually like, however most of the meat was cold/luke warm and had been sitting out for quite a while. The desert, which we like, was also very poor quality.

We didn't eat any of the cold fish, and as I said, we're partially to blame for booking it, but the restaurant made no attempts to provide an alternative. We didn't make any fuss and were not rude about it, didn't make any demands.

The waitress saw that we didn't touch our first dish of cold fish and asked if we wanted the second to be served. We politely said no thank you. Again we weren't asked or offered alternatives - would have even taken a pot noodle. I felt embarrassed and felt like the waitress was taking it as a personal insult that we didn't like the food.

In the end having ate very little and having declined to be served one of the courses, we were charged full price. Again, we booked it, partially our fault, but a small gesture would have been nice.

I would not recommend the restaurant. We went to McDonalds on...

Wonderful experience. Nice foods, great service. Amazing view. We went there for Chinese New Year’s Eve with a group of 10 people. We ordered beef, lamb, venison and duck for main course. Every dish is great. The wine list includes a professional selection of NZ wines. The operator is a wine lover and recommended a very nice wine for our dinner. The price is pretty reasonable considering the quality of foods and services. If we dined at a restaurant with the same quality in a big city, we would have to pay three times of price. We stayed at the restaurant for about 3.5 hours. We enjoyed every minute of it. If we visit New Zealand again, we will definitely come to this...