Cable Bay Vineyards — Restaurant in Waiheke

Cable Bay Stay - Luxury Guest House review

Booking was easy and Karen was very helpful, we even got access at 11 as the Villa was unoccupied.

We booked the weekend special package for two nights, only stayed one The issues: The instructions of where the place was, were so poor we were dropped at Lavender Hill accommodation and had to carry our luggage another kilometre where there was a small sign in the bushes to Cable Bay Luxury Accommodation. Three other taxi also failed to find it during our stay, despite trying to give them proper instructions. We would usually end up meeting them down on the main road. When we asked Karen about lack of signage she said they don't like tourists going there so they keep it private. It Works!

The little house next the the large villa - hated by the locals for the wild parties held there - looked a little unloved. The front step was broken and there were two wobbly builders planks over it.

The sun deck at the back of the house - want can I say - you had to move the furniture off the deck as you couldn't sit there with the table as no space - see photo. The view was just the bush a few metres away so not much point.

It all looked nice enough inside - could do with a reverse heat pump instead of the fan and floor heater. We wanted to watch the FI qualifying and race while there. I had asked about this when booking and was told there was internet to the TV but there was no internet connection so no Spark Sport, actually no TV at all as per photos below. The basic Channels 1,2 and 3 were not even programmed into the TV. A Sky subscription should sort that.

The kitchen tap was very loose, the coffee machine was great, the candles were a lovely touch, the fridge had all the Cable Bay wines at higher prices than their bottle shop and the Cable Bay Olive Oil was $10 more that in the shop. So much for the benefit of staying in the vineyard accommodation.

The linen was said to be fine Egyptian Linen. We both found it really scratchy. We had two hard pillows each, nice to get two but one soft one would have been appreciated.

The floor was all tiles and freezing. If you don't want to warm the floors or supply rugs, please supply guest slippers.

When I travel I do expect a disposable shower cap. You don't want to be putting a wet shower cap in your bag if you can help it and I would have appreciated finding one in the "luxury guesthouse" bathroom.

The shower floor was not designed to have an open side. The water ran out the opening, into the hallway, soaked the bathmat, and also ran the other way down behind the toilet. Mmm.

Thank goodness the large villa right next to the guest house was vacant - having that full of a noise group would have capped the weekend off.

As part of our package we had a wine tasting and platter at the Vineyard. Billy was a great host and we really enjoyed sampling the various wines. We found them to be rather light and expensive. Lunch was great, Chloe was our lovely server and the platter was delicious.

Instead of staying the second night, we walked back from the vineyard, packed up and called another taxi - who went to the wrong address due to lack of sign posts and we were happy to get the ferry back to our home comforts.

I did ask the management if they had stayed at the guesthouse and they said yes. I assumed from that they found it to be a "luxury guest house" so no point in discussing more...

TLDR - discriminatory, unprofessional, and bad cuisine. Fellow customers! Please read other customers reviews and avoid this place at all cost! You’d be so much better spending your money at some other winery! To see this amount of bubbles formed at the top surface for two still wine, a Chardonnay and a Merlot, was totally unusual. I don’t think the staff poured the wine right, whether it’s done intentionally or unintentionally, this lack of service is beneath a renowned winery like Cable Bay. They also tasted like cheap wine you could buy for 10 dollars at the supermarket, nothing special. The staff member who greeted us told us we cannot do wine tastings at the restaurant and we have to do it in the cellar. But we wished to enjoy the view in the restaurant so we just decided to go in and order two regular glasses. But while ordering and asking about the menu, the same staff member was visibly impatient and gave me faces which was a bit passive agressive. I lived in the US for ten years and speak perfect English but she made me feel like I don’t speak her language and that I wasted my six years of Ivy League education just because I looked Asian. Then 20 minutes after we sat down, another group of six or five white people came in and they asked the same question about wanting to do wine tasting in the restaurant to enjoy the sunset. And a different staff member literally told them yes, they can accommodate this need. I heard this conversation and thought it totally scandalous. To get differential treatment and to have the nerve to do this having the totally knowledge that I can hear them accepting this other group’s request was beyond imagination. The food at Cable Bay was also underwhelming, we had mussels and octopus and let me just say that to live on an island but to cook seafood like this is a crime. The octopus had a section that was so salty that you don’t taste anything else. Then the other section was just bland and tasted fishy. The sauerkraut (i think? It was a soury vegetable) on the mussels totally overwhelmed the natural flavor of the mussels. This is literally the worst seafood I’ve ever had. I didn’t wanna write a bad review just cause I didn’t bother but after sharing our experience with our taxi driver on our way back to our Airbnb, he suggested that we share our experience because it was totally not right to discriminate based on race especially in the service industry. I was a bit put off by the low rating of 3.7 on google map before coming here but still decided to give it a try given our good experience at Mudbrick just nearby. Now I see why this winery had such a low rating. You’d be so much better off spending your money somewhere else. I didn’t pay to be treated differently and to get disgusting faces while I order. The one good thing was the view and the younger female staff who was very friendly and helpful. The shorter and elder one standing at the reception and taking our order was nothing compared to this younger...

This was my 3rd visit to Cable Bay and definitely my last. I raved about it to friends visiting from Prague and WHAT A DISSAPOINTMENT!! The service was atrocious, pricing ridiculous and atmosphere sterile. We made a booking and got there early so got a drink at the bar while waiting. This is where the red flags started when the barman brought over our drinks and poured 2 beers directly from the bottle into the glass placed on the table. This resulted in a third glass of beer and 2 thirds foam. Any beer drinker will tell you this is simply not how it is done. At an establishment like Cable Bay this was a huge hole in basic training I'd say. We got moved to a table at our booking time (even thought there were around 4 other 4 seaters available when we arrived) Our waitress came over and took our food order without offering any further drinks. Given our drinks we brought over from the bar were all nearly done I would have expected her to note that and offer further drinks. That was the full extent of us dealing with our waitress. 40 minutes later we still had no food and not one single person came over to offer drinks. We had to stop a waitress who were rushing by to ask to check on our food and also to get more drinks. POOR service to say the least. We ordered some G&T's and a beer. The beer glass arrived dirty with some lip marks still clearly visible on it. YUCK!! We asked for a new glass and without any apology the waitress took the glass and came back with a glass that was marginally better. We commented that it wasn't much better and she simply said "It is because of the refrigeration" I get that the glass immediately fogs over when taken out of the fridge but the lip marks and dirt marks don't just appear out of thin air. The general feel of the restaurant was extremely noisy with no music or ambience.

Overall Cable Bay still has a fantastic view but even that is spoiled now that you cannot go onto the grass areas. It's all fenced off. Previous visits had beanbags and umbrellas scattered over the lawn which added a fantastic vibe and feel to the restaurant area but it is all gone. I cannot understand why. My only explanation would be something around their liquor license. By reducing the area where you are allowed to consume liquor there would have been a slight saving in application fee.

I would not recommend Cable Bay to anybody and have already shared my horrible experience this weekend with many people. It came across that nobody cared and they simply do not rely on repeat custom. It is very clear that they just rely on tourists that come over to Waiheke for the day. It's sad as for many of these tourists Cable Bay would be the reason why they have a negative experience and leave New Zealand with a less than appealing impression.

The food was good however and the only reason they scraped a 2 star review from me. Get your act...