I have thought about this for a few weeks and now know that I need to write a review of the service we received as a group at the Pig and Whistle in Rotorua.
We are reasonably regular customers at the Pig, often having a get together with our kids before they go back to University. On this occasion, however, we found ourself attending on a busy Friday night and not the usual quiet Sunday night. We waited to secure a large table in the outside part of the Restaurant. Once we got a table for our group we found it a bit cold as the Punga fence didn’t meet with the canvas roof of the Gazebo. Fortunately we all had warm coats and sweatshirts so we braved it out. We ordered our meals to find we had a very long wait of over an hour and a half. Meantime we huddled up under the ceiling heater to keep warm. Finally we got our meals but only to find people in our group who ordered first had to wait another 20 Minutes for their meals. Not very fair really, but we considered that they were busy and decided at the time to overlook this. Lucky for us the food was worth the wait. Then to our surprise , one of our group a 48 year old , was asked by a bouncer to “take off his hooded sweatshirt or leave”!! This surprised us all as the man in question had been at the Pig for over three hours and had been up to the bar on two occasions to order food and drinks and was not told of the rules of “no hoodies”. There were no written signs to patrons warning them of a dress code change after ten o clock.This was very dissapointing and we all decided to leave at the same time. On our way out the door another bouncer asked our friend (the man in question), what his problem was and when told, the bouncer’s reply was “though you can go home and cry about it there”! Very professional behaviour!!! Not – what we would expect to endure on a family night out. Since then the management have stated on their face book page “this are our rules if you don’t like them you can go to the Lava bar.!!
Well we probably won’t go to the Lava Bar, but fortunately Rotorua has plenty of other great restaurants and we will enjoy exploring all of them – but one thing is for sure – we give the Pig and Whistle a big Miss, because simply they don’t respect their customers – who by the way spent a large amount of money on meals and drinks.

I really don’t like to do this but it’s warranted. If you want a good service and be valued as a good customer – this is not the place for you.

On arrival the Restaurant was already well booked and all sorts of different people were in the restaurant. People in T shirts, leather jackets and also hoodies etc were already in the restaurant. After a while we finally managed to get a big table out in the gazebo part of the restaurant for our big group of oldies lol. Unfortunately it was very cold in the gazebo and the wind blew through the punga fence on the side. We ordered our meals and had to wait for more than a hour and a half in the freezing cold garden restaurant. Finally some of us got our meals while the rest of the group had to wait another 20 minutes! After everyone of us had finished our meals we thought about ordering desserts – but it didn’t get to this because one of our friends got told by a grumpy and very impolite Bouncer to leave the restaurant because he was wearing a fashionable Hallensteins jumper with a hood!

So after been there for three and a half hours, spending over $380.00 and no sign of any dress codes in the whole restaurant we got this! Come on Pig and Whistle get a life and employ some decent polite staff, then this is certainly no how a customer should be treated!

We certainly won’t recommend the Pig and Whistle and one is for sure – WE WONT BE BACK – which is a shame because the food was actually really good!

I love this place. Reasonably priced food that is very nice. Husband had the Ribs (huge!) and pigtail fries. I had small nachos(still huge!) So if you enjoy monster meals and great service and atmosphere the Pig is a must go.

Looking for somewhere to eat out that was nice but not too expensive. The Pig & Whistle meet both requirements. Must admit we did eat before it got too busy, but that suited us. My partner had the Bangers & Mash and I had the Lamb dish (forgotten its name), both good sized meals, even if a bit slow coming, no complaints about quality or service, would go back in a heartbeat.

BEST PUB EVER!!!

Went in on a rainy summer evening and the bar was humming…. Decided to stay and I’m glad I did. Becks on tap and best burger I’ve had in a long time.
I went back 3 more times while on holiday in Rotorua and was never disappointed.

Well worth the visit.

Was very DISAPPOINTED with the nacho’s from here. The mince was OVER seasoned, dry and cold. It was clearly frozen, re-seasoned then heated, I notified the waitress ASA I received the dish and she took the dish back and said she will bring another plate out. TWENTYFIVE minutes later! I had freshly cooked mince that was hot and tasted remarkably better.
In spite of my experience I credit the P&W for re-cooking the entire meal, but that’s how food should be made. Fresh!

After a hankering for a Chicken Caesar salad which no fine restaurants seemed to be offering it was a no briner to head to this historic pub. The service was fast and friendly, the willingness to amend the ingredients for my salad was most appreciated.

My partner’s lamb burger pattie was divine, the beetroot relish spicy and sweet, although the bun was over mayo’d. The heath conscious option for salad instead of fries was also welcomed.

The wine list was varied enough for a pub, but a fine wine selection is not the point here. It’s about good honest food and drink, and that’s exactly what we got.