Tieke Bistro & Bar — Restaurant in Waikato

We were really looking forward to dining at Tīeke and had made a booking well in advance, also emailing ahead to let the team know we had some fairly specific dietary requirements and may need a bit of flexibility with the menu.

Unfortunately, our experience left us pretty disappointed.

We arrived at 12pm, and one of our guests - who has dietary restrictions - requested the omelette from the brunch menu (which had just finished at 11:30am). It’s a pretty simple dish of three eggs, and one of the only things on the menu they could actually eat. We were told this wasn’t possible, despite explaining there were no other suitable options beyond plain rice and vegetables.

Instead, we were offered a Thai chicken bowl with mushroom substituted in - but when the dish arrived, there was no mushroom, just a plate of rice and cold vegetables. It felt like no effort was made to accommodate the request.

Later, another guest tried to order the fritters, only to be told they were out of stock and to “just order a salad” instead. Not particularly helpful or thoughtful.

When someone else in our group, who is coeliac, went to order the fish and chips (which was listed with a GF option on the menu), they were told it wasn’t actually available gluten-free.

We also ordered a tea with soy milk that had clearly split. While the waitress was kind and offered a replacement, a waiter then came over and tried to guilt trip the guest for sending it back because “they had just opened the milk.”

On top of all that, we waited over 40 minutes for our meals in a not-particularly-busy restaurant - and ended up with a fairly sizeable bill for a meal that felt unaccommodating and far below expectations.

Overall, we left feeling really let down by the experience. We won’t be...

I went twice recently. I have never been to Tieke, having driven past a hundred times for years! The driveway is lovely with well kept native bush, and lots of parking opening up on the glorious green of the golf course. I had the Margherita Pizza, we were greeted with a smile and shown to a table. The ambience was lovely, it was a hot summers day, and inside was cool and refreshing. I had a refreshing iced drink. The pizza arrived within minutes of orders, was hot, and delicious. Service was quick efficient and completed with a smile. Plate was licked clean, well almost, as that would not be seen as good manners! Our second visit was a quick drop in, and Kersti made the most amazing smoothies, again, another hot day, so a cold mixed smoothie was just the ticket. Would definitely visit again, maybe for lunch or breakfast. Highly recommend for an out of the way meal, but also 20 minutes from Hamilton CBD, and literally down the road from the airport. Thanks Tieke,...

First time here and will be our last. We came as a group of morning after wedding guests. The place looks nice but that’s where the good times ended. I don’t think I saw a smile on any of the staff the entire time we were there and they literally had no idea who they were delivering food too. We had to return the hot chocolate as undrinkable and the coffee was watery. Don’t bother ordering the Tieke breakfast. The eggs were good, the bacon forgot to show up, the bread was stale and I wasn’t fond of the highly processed sausage. The biggest thing on the plate was the artistic swirl of something saucy. At $29 I’ve had much much better breakfasts at lots of...