17.01.12.

Had a great meal here. Staff were very friendly and attentive, meals came out fast (bonus when you are with kids and it’s late after a day at Splash Planet). The food was well received, and eaten with gusto.

After 10 days of traveling around the unfriendly Coromandel, it was nice to finish our holiday off in Napier at a restaurant where the waitress smiled while talking to you.

We went Good Friday and there were two wait staff on that i could see. One male & one female. Both exceptional but i had more to do with female so I have to say fabulous smile, genuinely friendly. Pay this girl more!!!

I had my 21st and Engagement party at the Thirsty Whale, in the Harpoon Room. The service there was unbelievably great and the food was absolutely delicious. We had the Buffet Menu, which had a great variety of foods (seafoods, beef, ham, breads, salads) and it never ran out! The food was up to wedding standards. I would highly recommend to anyone who is looking for a place to hold their private function.

Fantastic restaurant, this is definitely well worth visiting. The staff are great and the food is excellent, I’d make the 2 hour trip to Napier just to go to the Thirsty Whale!

.I decided upon the Thirsty Whale on the basis of the reviews on this website, and I wasn’t disappointed. But one of the strangest dining experiences ever happened as well – and its not the fault of the Thirsty or it’s staff.

Like Shed 2 (and the Gin Trap next door) it has a lovely deck area for dining with great views. It too is a busy place, but has a lot more room to spread out in than some of the other restaurants, or at least appeared to.

The waitress was incredibly friendly, telling us we may have to wait a while – a whole 30 minutes! Which to us wasn’t much of a wait at all.

Everything was going along well, when we noticed people starting to jump startled at the restaurant next door (The Gin Trap). Then it was happening next to us. A few men even letting out some girly screams in the process. Turned out there were these bugs falling out of the sky, not just a few, there were literally hundreds of them – everywhere. Dropping onto tables, people, deck and possibly even food. It made for great entertainment!

Turns out it doesnt happen very often, but has happened before, with nobody really knowing why.

We moved inside anyway. Dinner was uneventful after that – but it was beautiful. Lamb rack cooked perfectly.

Thirsty Whale is a great restaurant, with good views. Its clean and spacious. Great service, staff being both attentive and friendly and we had the added bonus entertainment factor of hearing grown men scream!

We came in off the street, restaurant was packed, but a very friendly waitress promptly took us to a table. She was very patient with our two young children and very accommodating. Our meals and service received was top notch, we all walked away very happy and will return next time we are in Napier. Highly recommended!

I would really like to say that this was an amazing place to have lunch, my husband and I never seem to get out much with twin boys and another one on the way, life is very hectic.
When we dinned here for the first time on Tuesday we were absolutely thrilled with the excellent, quality service and beautiful tasty food. It is a date we will never forget and we are going to try and make a date happen here more often.

Thank you very much to the staff at Thirsty Whale for such a pleasurable experience!! We will be back!!