This was the third time we had travelled over to Mills Reef for lunch in the past week. The first time, Anzac Day, they were closed for lunch. The second time, Friday, there was a conference being held in the restaurant and therefore they were not serving lunch to the public. They do have a website and surely this could have been mentioned on there.

In the past we have had some wonderful meals at Mills Reef with exceptional service but this definitely wasn’t the case today. Our fish was overcooked and the chips appeared to be mass produced. The only things worth mentioning were the coffee and hot chocolate which were great.

For a restaurant that I have always considered to be up there with the best in Tauranga, they have a long way to go in my opinion, to get back to where they were !!

Really disappointed.. the food for a place like this should be of a high standard.. some of our group ordered meals. the rest ordered platters to share.. The fresh oysters were dripping their juices all over the fresh bread and cured meat.. everything appear to come out of a jar and the Duck Liver Pate was rotten.. On complaining the service man argued with us… We did however leave buying a case of wine…..!!!!!!

We dined for a Sunday lunch to celebrate my mother in law’s 60th birthday.

We arrived and were seated promptly and were told she’d be right back with water. 20 mins later we were still sitting with our menus, no water, and no-one had been to take our drinks order. My husband had to approach the front desk to ask for an order to be taken.

Our order taker arrived and didn’t know what the fish of the day was. Needless to say we didn’t order it!

The food was slow to arrive – we wished we had ordered some breads as we were building quite an appetite. When the food did arrive it was absolutely delicious and well presented. My husbands duck fell off the bone and my vegetarian mother-in-law was impressed with her vegetarian main. The wine was well priced and good also.

We had planned to order desserts and another bottle of wine, however after sitting with our empty dirty plates and empty wine glasses for quite a while we decided we’d be better off going to a cafe in Tauranga where service would be prompt.

Hopefully we just hit a bad day. I have to say one of the waitresses attending nearby tables seemed to be constantly doing the rounds while ours was noticeably absent. We weren’t the only table in our area waiting.

The food is great, the outlook beautiful. Great service would have made this a 5 star experience.

Fantastic location! waitresses were very friendly and helpfull and ensured we were well looked after. food was delicious and very reasonably priced. great wine also, matched the menu well.

Absolutely fantastic lunch, service brilliant waitress very friendly nothing too much trouble – The wine paddle was a great idea and good value
the next visit will be for dinner and another wine tasting

Yesterday being Mothers day was huge for Mills Reef, we had a little mis understanding in ordering a small bottle of very expensive wine, no problem they fixed it.
The meals were superb and service great considering the number of customers, was a great mothers day lunch.