Excellent food, great wine, superb service. We had a beef filet and fish as mains. They were both terrific. The service was perfect and the wine was terrific.

The mains were very creative and perfectly cooked. We had two appetizers that were awesome also.

The pinot and chardonnays were both wonderful.

We had a great evening!
Delightful setting, fabulous food, lovely wines, served by people who “knew their stuff” when it came to food/wine matching, friendly & happy to engage without being intrusive.

We thought the menu was balanced and interesting. He went with the Lamb Rack, I went for the Pork Belly, and we were both delighted with our choices – cooked & served to perfection

We will be back!! – very keen to try the Brunch menu with friends in the not too distant future.

Jan K

Great food, service and atmospheric. Food is cooked to order but service is still quick. Great setting and for the quality of food not too pricey. Bonus is wine is only available here from the vineyard next door -you need to try it. My advice just go you will love it

This restaurant is a must.
It’s charming and elegant. The staff are friendly and professional.
The wine list is extensive, yet I chose to sample their wine from their vineyard and what a smart decision that was. Their wine is sensational!
Food is great and more importantly fresh – it’s seasonal and reflects the local available produce.
Enjoy, I certainly did!

An unexpected surprise that made for a great end to the day of fishing. My friend and I were fishing on the Tongariro River for the day and staying at a local B&B. We asked for a recommendation and they pointed us to River Restaurant just outside Turangi which we were not aware of.
The menu was suitably broad and consisted of some imaginative flavour combinations. Being rather hungry we started with the home made mushroom soup which hit the spot! I then had the lamb shank and my mate had the home made pasta both of which we enjoyed and returned empty plates! We were making light work of their rather nice River Wine, we made light work of two bottles of Pinot Noir 2007. We did not have room for desert but others seemed to enjoy theirs. The decor is nice, the place clean. Staff were friendly, nice to see young people developing their own business.
Good luck!

In Wellington for a short break, we extended our stay and were delighted to find River Wines and Restaurant. We often feel spoiled for choice in AU, but the food, wine and service at River Wines exceeded our expectations! Great Food, Great Wine, Great Atmosphere!

My wife and I live in Adelaide, Australia and are spoilt by great food and world class wines. However i must say that during our recent holiday in New Zealand we were extremely impressed with both the food and wines at River Wines & Restaurant.

The atmosphere was fantastic. The restaurant was classy yet unpretentious whilst the food and wine really were first class and excellent value for money.

I strongly recommend anyone visiting this lovely area to at least try these great wines, but if like me you love great food reserve at table for dinner as this place is surely only going to get busier.

Andy Briggs (Adelaide)

My new wife Debbie and I were in New Zealand for four weeks over December and January on Honeymoon and getting away from the cold in Europe. We were traveling around NZ and had a stop over in Turangi on our way down to the South Island. To be honest we were not expecting much when it came to restaurant options but how wrong we were! Our B&B hosts suggested River Restaurant as a number of the guests had dined there before with positive feedback. We consider ourselves ‘foodies’ and like to dine out as much as possible. At this point of our stay we have to admit we were disappointed in the food and restaurants we had tried so far in NZ, this all changed at River Restaurant. Our meals were well cooked, tasty, imaginative, seasoned just great and Debbie was very happy with her ‘veggie’ option. For dessert we had poached pears…..these were to die for! With our meal we had 2006 River Wine Pinot Gri, golden in colour which we found a little strange at first however the taste was great and even nicer as we sat looking at the vines the grapes had come from.
The food was so good we had brunch the next day and also called in as well at the end of our holiday as we headed back to Auckland.
Our only negative comment would be that the staff serving seemed to be having a tough time dealing with the numbers of guests however we still had lots of smiles and nothing seemed to much trouble.
Portion size could have been a little bigger

Stunning setting with great cuisine.Hope they can keep this up.
Good for the Turangi restaurant scene

Awesome cuisine. atmosphere and hosts, a must to experience.