Cabana Kitchen and Bar — Restaurant in Waikato

We dined here after New Years with a group of 6 for a quick drink and a bowl of fries. We were served by Hugo who let us know that all of their tables were reserved in the next hour but he could find time for us. This was greatly appreciated and his hospitality was great. But an older lady working at the time was wildly rude to not only us, but actually stood at our table telling off Hugo for the way he was serving our table which is wildly unprofessional. I manage a fine dining restaurant in Queenstown and if I was the manager of this person, I would have some serious issues with her service in front of guests. She forced us to finish our drinks while quickly removing our cutlery dropping it on one of the girls on the table and talking about how Hugo should have better common sense.

I am completely aware of the stress of rush hour in the busy season which is why as soon as we sat, we had already ordered our drinks. But I have never left a restaurant gobsmacked at a servers terrible hospitality.

Thank you Hugo for making us...

The food here is pretty good, but the waitress/manager that served us unnecessarily (in my opinion) embarrassed us and our friend over needing a mask. He had come to join us and had innocently forgotten his mask in his rush to arrive as he was late. It was absolutely reasonable to ask him to leave and return with one but the way he was spoken to left us all feeling rather awkward and very uncomfortable. We also told her at the conclusion of our meal while paying that our friend had won the event on that morning as she was asking about it but we got no response and a snappy reply, again about masks (we were all wearing one). We all agree that mask wearing is necessary to keep everyone safe but the way we were spoken to completely ruined our celebration and left a bad taste in our mouths. Times are tough- a little bit of kindness would have gone a long way. I don't think we'd go back. 4 stars for the food, and in an attempt to be kind in the hopes that manager sees this and takes it constructively and...

Pauanui is a beautiful place and only having 2 restaurant's to choose from given this one and the new Local that we wanted to try but due to being fully booked ( now we understand why ) we decided to book at the Cabana. We booked the place early in the afternoon for a 7:30pm table and were told the table would be reserved for us, Upon arrival at 7:25pm some other customers were already sitting at our table ( that the manager at the time said was ours and is reserved, clearly NOT! ) The manager then tells us to sit on a smaller table which we could not fit at, As it was a table suitable for children at very best. Very disappointed and will not be visiting this restaurant ever again when in Pauanui. Reserved means reserved not first in first served, Think twice about booking this place as clearly doesn't guarantee...