Wow, went last weekend on a magic day Went to the casual…read morerestaurant and had half the menu it was so good Service was great really good vibe Bread starter is a must Loved it

One of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever experienced was eating dinner at Mudbrick. The view is…read moredivine, and the garden feels so quaint and picturesque that I was completely wowed. It's nice coming here for the ambience alone! They have two or three course dining options and I went with the two course plus a bread order which ended up being the perfect amount of food. The dishes were surprisingly innovative for being a winery restaurant, and I really appreciated the pairings they suggested with each dish. I especially liked their Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot options. It's definitely pricey, but I am glad I got to try dinner here. Only catch is that it's quite difficult to get a car back home - we had dinner at 7:30 pm and it was a bit harrowing getting a taxi. The hotel will help call for you but our driver double booked himself for extra business so we stood outside almost half an hour in the dark. Regardless, the restaurant itself was great and worth the trip.

Wheels crunching up the gravel, the Tasting Shed looked sophisticated in black. Dining tables that…read morespilled out into the outdoor area are wrapped by the wind + rain proof outdoor gazebo. Everything about it oozed warm comfort and rustic charm. You wouldn't hear the quiet clinking of cutlery on plates and humble conversation here. It was a strict "no-tablecloths" restaurant. And these beautiful wooden tables probably take 5 times more work to maintain. My after-work brain probably took more time than necessary to figure out what the bobbles meant on the Savory to Sweet scale on the menu. With 25 items on the menu (including dessert), it was difficult to nail down what to order. We were advised to order 4 to 5 dishes because they were all entree sizes. Watermelon - smoked olive, goats cheese, baby ganoush This was one surprising combination. I've always been one to systematically eat my way through my plate because I didn't like mixing things together. Give me a fruit and cheese platter, I'd eat each individually. But this is something you'd want to pile a bit of each onto your fork. The watermelon and goats cheese blend beautifully into a creamy smoothie in your mouth. Rich and cooling at the same time - it's a weird sensation. Venison - carpaccio, mushrooms, beets, juniper, walnuts This is a great well-thought out dish with plenty to leave you taste testing, tilting your head and thinking. It was called the Venison dish, and with so much going on, the venison was the solid foundation to bring out the flavours of each ingredient. The sweet tang and slick texture of the mushrooms was paired with the crunch of the walnut and hokey-pokey chunks. We had fun melting the walnut powder on our tongues and poking at the different elements on the dish. The hokey pokey was not your average golden syrup variety but was made with beetroot juice - so even with this explosion of textures, everything blends together. After a mini degustation, one shared sweet dessert was enough! The rosewater was not an understatement - the scent was clear, and sweet, followed by an even sweeter strawberry parfait. It had a subtle summer breeze to this dish and the strawberry parfait an excellent substitute for your average ice cream. The saffron leaves a distinct after taste and cures the dish from being too sweet. With the popularity of restaurants that let you put elbows on tables, tablecloths are stripped away to make way for our laid-back Kiwi culture. If you're looking for a sweet candle-lit dinner, there's other fine-dining restaurants in Auckland CBD. But I'm loving this fusion of casual and fine at The Tasting Shed. The service doesn't make you feel like you're a VIP but more like your host that invited you to their house for dinner. So if you're looking for an excuse out of the city, make this your first stop!

Great tasting summer brunch/lunch place. Beautifully decorated with soft lighting and wooden…read morefurniture. Option to eat indoors or outdoors. Kitchen closed at 1500 to 1700 for dinner prep although small plates are served during that time. European cuisine with heavy Asian influence, think daikon, kimchi, even asam laksa (the Asian snob in me couldn't bring myself to order this). We had the market ceviche (good but we prefer this with a bit more punch), kimchi Mac & cheese (odd pairing which I enjoyed) and the Lamb Shoulder (fantastic!)

Fantastic little winery featuring feijoa liquor and many delicious liquors to choose from! The…read moreowner, Danny, is very knowledgeable and makes it worth visiting the winery even if you don't drink! He had us try a dozen different liquors and several wines while regaling us with the amusing history of the feijoa. My favorites were the limoncello and the ginger liquor. Highly recommend a stop here if you are visiting the Coromandel area.

Best tasting I've ever experienced! Danny let us try all the different fruit liquors from the farm…read moreand told us the history behind the region, all in a very funny and entertaining way. He even ran down the hill to grab us some feijoas to try. It's clear the proprietors care deeply about both their customers and their business. Plus the view was SPECTACULAR. We bought a bunch of bottles to take home and will definitely return next time we're in the area. HIGHLY recommend!

This vineyard was a great way to end your day in Waiheke Island. There were 4 vineyards in this…read morearea #7 on your hop on hop off tour. We chose this place even we walked for 15 minutes . The vineyard has a great view of the grapes, the rough road with lustrous trees to take pictures. At the end of the road this very quaint restaurant was so beautiful. Rustic feeling yet serene when you look around. The staff were very nice. The wine was excellent. Agnes was our attendant, she was nice but not too attentive. We have to looked for her to give our orders. Waited for so long. We tasted their Red snapper so divinely tasteful. The fish was cooked to perfection. The sauce was amazing . Mouthwatering. We got their freshly baked focaccia with olive oil roasted garlic and balsamic vinegar so good. The best Their house salad was excellent. I loved the way all the leafy vegetables weren't cut by a knife. It looked like peeled by hands. So fresh and crunchy when you bite. The wine was good. We got 3 different wine my choice the Shiraz. Even the wait was long I still give them 5 for the view and excellent cuisine. Kudos to the chef.

We visited this winery as part of a wine tour. The tasting was 4 wines, a white and 3 reds. My fav…read morewas the Te Monty Kokoro. Our guide was well versed in the history of the winery and the making of the wines. Husband isn't as much of a wine drinker so it was nice that our guide offered him some lighter, more mild wines to taste. The tasting room was smaller and very busy with a casual vibe. Great stop.

We came to waiheke island to check out the vineyards but couldn't make it to any more. Cable bay…read morevineyard was a beautiful experience. we did a wine tasting and after grabbed a bite from the restaurant as we soaked in the calm and relaxing scenery. our servers were great with recommendation . Definitely a must try amongst all of the vineyards.

Shutting your doors on a bad weather day without notifying bookings? Even though I was sent a…read morerequest to confirm yesterday and did? Even though I had to give you my credit card number to reserve. I braced the weather to honor my commitment, leaving the warm environment of Mudbrick vineyards... I have waited 15 years to visit this island. Beyond disappointed.

My group of 10 girlfriends and I went to John Hill Estate Vineyard restaurant on Sunday for lunch…read more The service was ok accept the waitresses knowledge of Gluten free and whether their food was was non existent. Shame because we had 3 GF's in our group. The John Hill Pinot Gris was light and tasty and a few of us purchased some. For my lunch I chose the warm lamb and Isralian Couscous salad which was light and nicely seasoned, the lamb cooked perfectly the way I like. Others had the Cumin and Cayenne Calamari with lime aioli which was said to be nice and the Crispy Beer Battered Fish and Chips a big portion but nice and not greasy. One of my friends had the Open Grilled Chicken Sandwich with red onion relish and sautéed spinach on toasted sourdough and it was tasty too. Thai Green Chicken Curry was also a selection. One of the ladies had the Creme Brulee and said it was nice but the topping although nice and crisp when she smacked it with her spoon but cooked a little darkly. It was a nice warm sunny day and the grounds outside would be lovely in Summer. We loved the Tiki sculpture made with 10 cent coins in the garden. I would revisit.

'The Cellar Door' is the place to go for a memorable wine-tasting experience!…read more Foxes Island offers a delicious selection of white and red wine including Pinot Noir (2008/09), Chardonnay (2009), Riesling (2009), Sauvignon Blanc (2011/12) and lastly, Lapine (2010) from the 'Icon' Series, equivalent to their hero wine. From walking in the 'Cellar Door' on Williamson Avenue, to greeting one of the team from Foxes Island, to tasting a drop of your choice, to taking in the ambience of artwork from Dick Frizzell is definitely a hedonistic experience, for any wine and/or art lover. They have monthly masterclasses to educate and showcase their wine, along with other speakers and artists intermittently. Open 6 days a week as well! Yelp out.

We're so lucky to have such a wonderful cellar door right on our doorstop! Foxes Island, of course…read moresells Foxes Island wine but they also have a lot more going on in their beautiful space. They sell the amazing Zalto glassware, which is beautiful and dishwasher friendly plus they host a ton of events be it exhibitions, meet the maker nights to new vintages of their wines. Owners, Kelly and John are lovely and well-respected in the wine industry. Highly recommend popping and picking up a bottle (or case) of their beautiful wine!

The day started with a planned hike in the Riverhead Forest, only to discover a total clearcut…read more Plan B worked out quite nicely at the West Brook Winery. On a quiet midweek day we were welcomed on arrival and options discussed. We ordered 2 flights of wine, 3 whites and 3 reds, a very nice cheese board and cracker assortment, and sat on the patio enjoying the pastoral view of vineyards, a lake complete with a few ducks, and farmland in the distance. .

Beautiful setting and grounds. I've visited close to 100 wineries all over the world and this was…read moreone of the prettiest. The wines were nice as well. I'm not a fan of reisling but I would happily drink theirs. There was a nice Chardonnay and a few others we enjoyed. Definitely worth the trip!

A throughly bad experience, the cleanliness of this cafe is horrendous, windows, filthy, dust and…read moregrime visible on walls and ceiling. My coffee wasn't great either, burnt I will not be returning, absolutely terrible.

This place is a complete GEM in a bit of a food desert. It happens to be located right by my…read moreoffice, and is worth forgetting my lunch for the chance to see what's on offer and bask in the loveliness of the place. It is like having lunch at your cool aunt's place. Homestyle fabulous! Compared to the other options nearby, this sunny little glass front cafe is a little piece of heaven. The ladies who own it are super friendly, and say hello by name whenever I stop by. They do fabulous catering, and their morning tea is to die for (warm just baked cheese scones.... savory tarts with cumin and kumera... excuse me, I'm drooling...) At lunch time they always have an assortment of interesting and healthy salads -- tons of vegetarian options, and you can mix and match as many as you want in a container. One of my favorite options of late is the spicy eggplant. It's half an eggplant that's been roasted, scooped out, mixed up with spices and whatnot, and put back in the skin. I LOVE eggplant, and this is as good as it gets!!! I always find it hard to resist their beautiful cakes. I tend to buy a slice with the idea of bringing it home to share with my husband for dinner, but sometime around my afternoon tea I end up starting to sample it. I've had the carrot cake, which was delicious, and another lemon cake thingy which was also to die for. Check out their Facebook page where they advertise their salads and other goodies for the day! Worth a trip out if you're trekking around Mangere domain, or on your way back from an airport pickup!