Aryeh — Restaurant in Waitākere Ranges

I’m evaluating this restaurant on my personal “fine dining” scale. I would have given them a 5, but for a restaurant of this quality, they slipped up on service. We were a party of 3 for lunch. Be advised that the à la carte menu is extremely limited. One of us ordered a steak (300 g), while the others ordered the “Chef’s Surprise” 3-course meal. The server who took our order asked us to wait while she check with the chef if that was okay, because “normally” the entire table had to order the 3-course menu together—but we were granted permission to proceed. This is a totally unnecessary intrusion into the dining experience: this should be determined by the staff in advance amongst themselves, and the guests not bothered. If this is the rule (which I do not recommend), the table should be informed up front. The second, and more egregious, service problem arose when our main courses were delivered. The person who ordered the 300 g steak was served a 150 g steak, so we asked for what was ordered. The server removed that steak and left that person sitting with only her side order of fries, while the rest of us still had our mains. The correct procedure in this instance would have been to at least offer to take all the food back to be kept warm while the missing steak was prepared, given us an intermezzo for service recovery, and then brought everyone’s (correct) mains back together. The meal was unpleasantly disrupted. I have two minor quibbles with the food (5 stars): firstly, it’s no “Chef’s Surprise” if all three items are directly from the à la carte menu; secondly, all three courses had a crunchy component, which made that element seem a...

This place is really special. Beautiful location with a gorgeous view, but even more importantly, they don't rely on the fact that they are one of the few restaurants in the area. We called on a Thursday afternoon and spoke with their very friendly front of house staff, and they were able to get us in for dinner that night. Despite being an elevated menu and level of service, the vibe is casual enough we could come in and feel comfortable even after spending all day at the beach. The menu is world class. We chose to do the three course tasting menu and highly recommend. Even though the portions started small (it was an amuse-bouche so its supposed to be small), and the food is locally and sustainably sourced, all three courses were sizable and we left feeling full and very satisfied. The service was excellent and the epitome of the word "hospitality". They were very accommodating to food intolerances and allergies. We also chose to do the wine pairings for each course and highly recommend this as well! The wine was thoughtfully paired with each course and I'm still thinking about watching the stars come out with a lovely glass in hand. We highly recommend spending a day at Piha Beach and...

Exceptional fine dining experience. My husband and I were extremely lucky to get into the restaurant without a reservation and boy was it a treat! The play of different notes with each course left us desiring more and excited for what the next dish would bring. The service was unparalleled with an intimate vibe. We got to learn about how a few of the dishes were inspired from Head Chef Rohan—including the intentional experiments with different sugars for their whipped creme caramel and how they discovered the 5 hour cauli gravy. We would fly back to New Zealand just for their Strawberries & Cream 2025, which words cannot even begin to describe; the closest would be floating through strawberry fields.

Thank you to everyone at this amazing restaurant! Hopefully when we come back to visit, we will be able to get in at all!...