The Heke Kitchen, Brewery & Distillery — Restaurant in Waiheke

I was not going to comment but it was requested by mates who were going to visit. Me & my husband always check out if there's a new brewery in Auckland. We were so excited to visit the Heke for lunch few weeks ago. When we arrived at the restaurant, it was already quiet full and the front lady ( im guessing the owner) was friendly to set us up for the table. Definitely this place is kids friendly environment, they were having fun at the trampoline, sandpit kitchen areas etc.. The restaurant had a peaceful mountain view however the overall feeling was dining at Chipmunks with all those kids yelling & crying around. I understand it though because we got a toddler too. The real disappointment starts when you order... well basically after you seat no one serves and won't tell you.. I knew some breweries take QR code Orders, so it was easy for me to order but some customers next to us seemed quiet lost. Basically its like.. if you don't have a credit card and don't know how to use the phone, you can't order through this system. I was okay until i met the page where the $5 Tip was added automatically. We have agreed to pay 15% surcharge but i didnt know where this was added from. Spent another 5mins to remove this. I mean the Tip is supposed to be added when you get a proper service on the table. There are lack of staffs in hospitality in NZ, probably thats why the Heke is using this system. The Tip should not be added in that case, it just creates unwanted customer experience. For a brewery they did not have options for their own beers. tried the only Heke Larger, hmmm.. no character, i can not even think how it tasted like. For lunch, my husband ordered Ortiz anchovies and the Heke burger for myself. Heke burger was just an ordinary burger came with generous amount of fries. The photo was my husband's lunch and he lost words that this was $20 + surcharge. Probably he did not read the menu well.. we never saw any restaurant where they serve the package it self hahaha.. the only exception would be the caviar. we had to open the tin our selves and yup! it just taste just like the anchovies we use for cooking, plus 3 pcs of breads. My European husband was culturally shocked with this menu. If you want to fool a hungry person please order this! I am sorry this whole experience was below expectation. I don't think we will come back here again until they come up with better...

We had a disappointing experience at Heke, but from the other positive reviews, I can appreciate they might have been having an off day.

TL;DR: Getting seated was an extremely frustrating experience, and we found the food to be underwhelming by Waiheke standards. The drinks menu has a couple of house made options - the rest are all imports.

We came over on Easter Sunday and came specifically to visit Heke. On their website they stated they had a fair number of tables for walk ins, and when we called, they confirmed this and said we didn't need to make a booking.

We turned up at 1pm and after waiting a few minutes to be greeted, we were told they were fully booked, even though there were plenty of tables free. They told us we could put our name down for 2pm, and they would call us if a table came up earlier.

We went for a small lunch at Wild on Waiheke while we waited, but never received a call back. We made our way back to Heke at 3pm, and even more tables appeared to be free. We were met by the same host, who told us they were fully booked for the rest of the day. The host claimed the free tables were all double booked and people were about to show up.

While waiting, we came across a couple of other groups and locals in the same position, frustrated by the communication and confusion around bookings.

Throughout the ordeal, we stayed very friendly and tried to be understanding, but the host was very dismissive. She told us she was following the owners direction to not seat any more people, but I got the impression she may have misinterpreted the owners. In the end, we ended up finding another host, who more than happily worked to find us a table and get us seated.

In fairness, this problem could easily be solved through some staff enablement, or maybe the issue was isolated to an employee having a bad day.

As far as the food and drinks go, we were underwhelmed - everything was just okay. There wasn't anything that stood out to us unique, and the drinks menu served more as a marketplace for other companies products. I think Heke has one house made lager, but everything else is imported from elsewhere. The two cocktails we ordered were also subpar.

I personally won't be going back to Heke again. Competition is hot on Waiheke, and Heke just didn't...

So disappointed with this place. As a local, I was so excited to see a new place open that wasn't trying to be fancy and had a more relaxed feel, we were itching to try it out. Unfortunately, from the moment we arrived we were let down. Our vaccine passes weren't checked at all on arrival - we offered them to the staff (there were 4 of us) but were told that they weren't needed - shocking considering the amount of people that were there! We were sat under a speaker, and we all love a boogie and some good music, but the music was so loud that we had to shout across the table to one another - even the waiter couldn't hear us and had to lean in seriously close to hear us (not great in a Covid environment). We arrived at 5:30pm to be told that bar snacks were the only food available... this was considered dinner time for us, we were so disappointed not to be able to try the menu that we'd heard good things about. We figured that lunch is the only main meal here... bit confusing when you're open through dinner time. Nonetheless, we were all quite hungry so we thought we'd give the bar snacks a go... the chicken was great... but that's where it ended. We ordered breads with dips, both servings came with 3 very thin pieces of bread, total rip off. We ordered a green salad, I'm not kidding when I say that this was just lettuce - I wish I'd taken a photo, we all had to contain our disbelief when this came out. The lettuce wasn't fresh and had black lines through it and the dressing was super sour. The thing that really will ensure that we never return was the dirty glassware - there is NO excuse for this in my books. Our water glasses were filthy, with fingerprints, smudges and sand on them - we asked for replacements.. they came back the same. My wine glass was just as bad, and in this Covid climate, we were totally at a loss to how this place has got it so wrong. If you've had a few wines before arriving, you might not notice anything is amiss, but as a group who aren't usually sweating the small stuff, and are just there for a good time, we were extremely let down. We've all worked in hospo and know how hard it is, especially when you've just opened, but some things are just non-negotiable when it comes to...