Brick Bay Wines & Sculpture Trail — Restaurant in Rodney

My partner and I spent an afternoon at Brick Bay and it was such a good decision to cap our 2023 there. Detailed thoughts below.

Venue: It's beautiful and so relaxing, as you're surrounded by greenery and can see a family of ducks swimming on a pond from a table in the Glass House. A few steps away, there's an outdoor seating and an area called The Row where wine tasting happens. There are various seat choices from regular tables and chairs to couches to outdoor high tables with stools to even the grass area (we saw a group happily seated - picnic style). In the Glass House, there's decent space so although you're still next to another table, there's a sense of privacy where you don't have to compete with your neighbour's conversations. It's a family and dog friendly place as well.

Staff: They were really lovely. We came in by motorcycle and they offered to store our helmets and motorcycle jackets. So we enjoyed our lunch and the trail even more, as we didn't have to lug so many things around. The wait staff were attentive and always checked on us, but never made us feel like we were being rushed through our lunch, even though we arrived late (we left a message prior) for our original reservation.

Menu: There's a variety of choices from starters to mains to desserts to drinks, and the menu slightly changes as well from breakfast to lunch to afternoon grazing to late afternoon grazing. I could totally imagine enjoying a ladies' afternoon out with shared platters and wines / cocktails. My partner and I try to be vegetarians when we eat out, are not big eaters and don't drink alcohol. So we unfortunately didn't get to try a lot of the items from the menu during our visit, but what we ordered was so scrumptious!

Food: We got the the Rockmelon and Avo Bruschetta, Baked Eggplant, Apple Gelato Sundae and Iced Latte. Every single dish was so delicious! I mean, who knew that avo and rockmelon would go so well together? The Baked Eggplant was interesting with the various textures and flavours in it, while the Apple Gelato Sundae was an enjoyable way to end lunch. We'd like to come back to try the other dishes as I'm sure they'd be bursting with flavour and are value for money.

Trail: After lunch, we went on the trail. Most of it is shaded and has boardwalks, so it was a manageable walk. There's a main trail then some optional ones which you can explore as well. We did the main trail and one or two optional ones, and it was a good experience. There were some sculptures and art pieces which we quite liked, whereas there were some which unfortunately went over our heads. That's not to criticise the artists but rather to say that we don't know how to appreciate art thoroughly. Overall, it's worth the entrance fee specially when you want to walk off a big meal and explore the surrounding area.

When we came back to the main area, we almost went for the afternoon grazing menu - if only we didn't have to head back to Auckland right after. Perhaps next time! Overall, you won't go wrong visiting Brick Bay and I'm confident that you'll think about coming back before you even...

My experience with Brickbay wines was probably one of the most enjoyable coffee dates I’ve had in as long as I can remember. I had to share my experience with the public. Our experience transpired as outlined below:

It was a beautiful, sunny Sunday morning and I had just returned from a beach walk with my partner and her parents. However, as you often find yourself after a long walk, we found ourselves thirsty and lacking in energy…how could we solve this pressing issue you might ask? Enter Brickbay…we drive down a beautiful and whimsical driveway overlooking some artful sculptures to the cafe/restaurant to quench our thirst. As we pull in to the large and spacious carpark we marvelled at the beautiful views surrounding us, a scenic vista you could say. We were pleasantly surprised to find a stunning outdoor seated area, with even more stunning views of the sculpture walk and bodies of water all around us.

Enter the main act: my coffee experience. As any young man would trying to impress his partners parents, I ordered a long black, and within minutes our drinks were brought out to our table by a lovely staff member! Now I do consider myself a bit of a coffee connoisseur, and am often sceptical of new places, but let me tell you, this brew was amazing. Beautiful subtle undertones in the beans, a pleasant aroma, and a lovely aftertaste. This coffee was the full package! Fair to say I disengaged from the conversations being carried out around the table as I just had to focus on this beautiful brew I had before me. 20/20 hindsight shows I should’ve ordered a second cup, but the best things in life always leave you wanting more. Alas, I will have to wait until our next trip up to visit the in-laws before I can taste of the delicacy that is the Brickbay coffee brew.

Thirst = quenched Energy = replenished Stars given = 5 Chance of...

We came in for lunch on Anzac Day. Our experience was..interesting.

First I called to book a table and was told there were only two slots available - 10am and 3pm. I then was able to book a table online at 1pm and there were tons of available slots at different times listed online. Why? This was bizarre. Edit to respond to the establishment’s comment on this: no, it is not the case that a single spot at 1pm just happened to open up when I was looking online. I opened the website immediately after hanging up the phone, and there were at least 7-8 other available time options that day. You guys need to check and synchronise your systems. What a mess!

Next, when we arrived, we were greeted by a hostess with no smile, no hospitality, and with this look on her face “ugh more people I hate it here”. Our server (when we finally were able to flag one down), was not much better, she was super grumpy and it seemed the whole time that we were interrupting her work by placing our orders. The bizarreness did not end there. We ordered a mezze platter, which in the menu was described as including shakshuka. When we got the platter, it turned out that for some unknown reason at that place they use the name “shakshuka” to refer to a tiny bowl of eggplant relish, and not to the traditional middle-Eastern egg dish. This was upsetting and also weird that they don’t warn you about it. The hostess tried to “explain” it by saying it is because the platter was supposed to be “more vegan”? Which again was super weird because half of that platter included dairy products. Such. A. Weird. Experience.

The trail around the area is lovely, but not sure if it’s worth $15 per person, I think it’s not. All in all, we won’t be back and won’t be recommending this...