Trinity Wharf Tauranga — Restaurant in North Island

Attended "High Tea" recently with a large group and was less than impressed. (Long post) On a good note the staff were friendly and approachable. Sadly that is about where it ended. High Tea is between 2pm and 4pm. We arrived promptly and, rather than being greeted with a glass of bubbles while we waited for other guests to arrive, we waited 45 minutes for a glass of wine. A number of other guests in the group also commented on the delay. We were then asked which style of tea we would like and advised that this would be delivered immediately. Again a wait, and the observation that a table who arrived after our group was served before us, and then our food portion being placed on the tables and the tea following. Sadly a number of people in the group were delivered the "wrong" tea and we proceeded to play " which one do you have and could that one be mine?" Perhaps a fun "party game" but not one we expected or necessarily enjoyed. The food was average and the mini mince pies(?) were cold in the centre and barely warm on the outside. I was advised by some that the scones were like rock cakes and inedible. When asked by staff if everything was OK one guest advised that they were still waiting on their tea (this when nearly everyone else had finished), and when two additional glasses of bubbly were requested only one arrived. I personally approached a staff member and requested additional drinks and, although there seemed to be more than sufficient staff numbers, there was another wait - this time 15 minutes, for 3 glasses of wine from a bar about 20 feet away. We were now rapidly approaching the 4pm deadline and some were still to "finish". While the group mingled and chatted a staff member requested our attention and informed us that we would have to leave as they now needed to set up for dinner. It was around 4:10, and, having been "cheated" of the first 45 minutes of the full experience some were a little vocal in their reaction. We were invited to move to the bar should we wish to stay but by this time we felt that we were not exactly "valued" customers and left. Sadly I will remain a non-starter for any future events at this venue. I have no idea how long they have been doing High Teas but they certainly need to up their game if they wish to remain...

We had a HORRIBLE experience.

My wife and I traveled to New Zealand on our dream trip for our wedding anniversary. The entire experience was one of a kind and extraordinary...until our stay at Trinity Wharf. The location is good (walking distance to lots of decent dining/activities), the room was a bit underwhelming, but fine. Housekeeping was sporadic and somewhat unpredictable as to whether or not they would show on any given day. There was no way to screencast streaming services to the tv...none of these things were anything more than a minor inconvenience and not a problem for us.

Our entire problem with this experience lied specifically with the staff. Our first night at dinner, I was given an incorrectly made cocktail (dirty martini accidentally made with fruity, sweet gin🤮). I said it was fine, that I would finish and pay for it, but to just make the next one with Bombay. The server insisted I would not be charged for the mistake. Dinner came and went, our second round was never delivered and we went to the front to close out our check. The restaurant manager said our second round was ready (martini was again made with the wrong gin) and we needed to pay for it and take the drinks back to the room to finish them. We politely declined and said they were ordered to have paired with mains and we'd just rather not have them. He was very perturbed by this and insisted I also pay for the first incorrect cocktail "because I finished it". I said it was offered to be taken off, but ok I'll pay it's fine. We ended up not paying for the drinks.

After this interaction, for the remainder of our stay, the bar manager and other members of the hotel staff were blatantly rude, purposefully unaccomodating and condescending to both me and my wife. It was so noticeable that it made us feel uncomfortable and unwelcome to the point of ruining our entire stay. Not the experience you'd hope for when travelling halfway around the world to celebrate a special occasion.

My wife and I were both in the service industry for many years in our early days and always make it a point to be low maintenance and as agreeable as possible. We both agreed that this was the most unpleasant experience either one of us had ever had with the...

The service we experienced was HORRIBLE in fact it was non-existent.

My friend and I had booked for their high tea service in advance and paid for it. I had actually emailed a couple of weeks in advance to check if they could accommodate our dietary request to which they responded that they could and we should book via the website and note our needs in the comment section. We did this however to our absolute disappointment we find out upon arrival that they could not cater to us. We were also really hungry.

I am visiting from the UK and my friend is from Auckland and we had chosen to come down just for this experience. We were offered a free drink each and a carrot salad instead. Pathetic really.

We thought their service and views would be better that’s why we chose to book with them rather than other providers that could also cater for us.

We said we wanted a refund and were told it can take up to 10 business days. It’s really unreasonable provided you are so quick to take money off us online and require us to book in advance that too for a service that you could not provide. How do I know my refund will actually get processed?

The waiter was full of different excuses and blaming management and other members of the team and apparently the chef was unaware of our needs until 20mins before us arriving. Why weren’t we told over the phone? Why was our reservation (made in advance) not checked prior and let us know so we wouldn’t have come down just for this? It was a waste of time and money for us.

I even thought I would give the place the benefit of a doubt and asked the waiter if with enough notice through the right channels could our needs be met? My husband is visiting from London next month. She did multiple back and forth through our time there with different excuses yet could not even answer this courtesy question of mine.

I don’t think this begins to describe the dissatisfaction and disappointment we felt. We were really looking forward to...