Karikari Estate — Restaurant in Te Hiku Community

Today both my partner and I experienced the worst display of behaviour by hospitality staff that both of us had ever encountered. An immediate review of management must be the course of action.

When we arrived we were greeted by two young male staff who were arguing with each other on who the person is to serve us and seat us. One of them spoke loudly in front of us stating to us how disorganized this place is, whilst he was trying to find a number stand, looking at the other male like it was his fault

We finally got a number and seated, only for them to not have processed our order, and once we had reminded them it became apparent that they had forgotten about us.

While waiting, an argument between the same two people occurred in front of us, with one telling the other to "eff off man", and the other shouting back "well do your effing job".

We finished our flight and wanted to leave as soon as possible, my partner paid for the flight, and witnessed yet another altercation between the same two staff members. With one storming back in whilst my partner was paying saying "they're still waiting on a platter out there 'staff member name", to which the one serving my partner said "can you do it 'staff name', I'm just serving this man", which the other staff member replied "I don't know what is wrong with you today 'staff name', I don't know if your just stupid or a dimwit". The other staff member was clearly bothered but ignored it and was trying to be polite whist finishing serving my partner.

It was clear that these two staff don't get along, and if something needs to be addressed it should not be done in front of customers. We both walked away shocked, and felt that there was a lot of staff bullying from one member of staff to the other. We have the staff members names, but of respect and to not publicly embarrass either staff we...

We chose to come to the winery/cafe for lunch to celebrate our wedding anniversary. My wife is pregnant as well as being dairy/gluten intolerant, therefore we ordered 2x dairy/gluten free pizzas. About 10 minutes later her pizza came out, however it didn’t look like it was DF/GF. She then got up, took the pizza with her, and went to the waitress to clarify whether it was. Not only was she told that it was GF/DF, but the waitress showed her the actual DF packet of cheese. My wife then continued to eat the pizza, until my DF/GF pizza came out 30 minutes later which had a completely different base and cheese texture. I then went and asked to speak to the chef who said that only my pizza was GF/DF, and showed me the order docket which confirmed this. My wife had eaten over half the pizza, and is currently lying down feeling unwell as I write this review sitting next to her. Safe to say that we will never be coming back again. If you’re thinking of dining here, and are either pregnant, DF and/or GF, then I would avoid coming here, unless you quadruple check your order with the waitress and the chef. I hope my wife is ok, such a huge disappointment/concern, especially since it’s the start of our holiday. If you own/manage this restaurant, and are reading this then some serious discussions with your staff need to be had, as this could potentially be life threatening if it happened to someone who...

An unfortunate experience. I don’t like to leave reviews, but as someone in the hospitality industry I feel like it was necessary. It was obvious from the beginning that there was staff shortage and lack of responsibility on the floor - something that can be acknowledged post covid etc, however, the complete lack of professionalism is something else. We gave our menus to the waiter as no one had visited our table, waited an hour, asked again where our wine was, got the wine, and waited another hour or two for our food - which had been completely forgotten. Once part of our order arrived, we went back to check on the rest, to which they had also forgotten about. Absolute chaos. The most disappointing, was one of the waiters was heard by our table speaking about us with another over the mix up that the venue made with our booking, not our problem. - something that is not ok in any situation (keep it for the kitchen where no one else will hear!) This however could have been handled - with the manager coming over and being honest and up front about the situation.

I’m not sure where to go from here as I understand the struggles establishments are going through, but this was far beyond. Staff, please talk to your junior members about professionalism on the floor, double checking group orders and make more of an effort to be honest about food and drink timeframes if there is going...