Save your time and money and go to Jellyfish Cafe and Bar instead. It is located on the wharf as well, and has excellent food and service.
The Apple Shed was a massive disappointment, especially since it was rated number one in town on TripAdvisor. The disappointment began from the moment we walked in the door as we were ignored for several minutes. Service did not improve when we got to our table. Our waitress was very nice, but it was clear the restaurant is understaffed. By quick estimation, the restaurant has 15-20 tables, but only had 3 waiters total. As a result, everything moved at a snail's pace.
Food took far too long to be delivered to our table. I ordered the Venison, it was dry and tasteless. The noodles that came with the Venison were quite good but not enough to make up for the terrible Venison. I also noted that the lady at the table next to us also did not like her dish at all. Almost the entire meal was left on her plate when she left the restaurant.
My wife ordered the eye Fillet. She stated the meat itself was above average, however the meal had bacon in it. As we do not eat bacon for religious reasons, we avoided the lamb dish from the menu (which had bacon in it). We re-read the menu after finding the bacon twice and no mention of bacon was made. Why would you put something on a dish that isn't on the menu?
We finally wanted to order dessert but again service was terrible. We sat with our dessert menus for almost 10 minutes without any attention from the waitstaff, before finally getting up in frustration to pay.
All in all, this was the worst dining experience we had in New Zealand. Next time we are in the area, we will go to Jellyfish. But we won't be coming back here again. read more