All i can say is that what amazing hospitality i had while eating there, they had just had a table of 20 walk in just before us but that didnt stop them from putting all the attention on the large table rather then the little ones. The waiters did a amazing job considering how busy they were. I loved the calamari( have to get if you go there) its a really whitiangain decent size for its price and dont get me started on their burgers they are well worth their price, trust me you wont we dissapointed because they are HUGE!! Thank you dave your restaurant its awesome, one of my tops in whiti.

We were in Whitianga for my brothers stag do just before the new year. And wow what an experience we had at Tuatua, the service was great, fun friendly staff that made us feel really welcome, we had a ball and were looked after in first class style. It is a real kiwi style place laid back but being professional at the same time. Now the food, what a pizza you guys make haven’t had pizza that good since I lived in Europe.
Keep up the good work, a must if your in Whitanga.

Wow I have never been so extremely unimpressed with the service at a cafe or restaurant!
The place was completely disorganised and it seemed like everyone was doing a bit of everything.
Once we ordered after about 20 minutes of waiting, we went to the courtyard and sat on some old ripped seats. We asked one of the waitresses for water and she told us no because she was too busy. We received the coffee we ordered which was burnt, I took it back and 20 Min’s later we still had no replacement. We had to go and remind them again we were STILL waiting on a replacement coffee.
One meal came out after about 30 Min’s, 3 more about 15 Min’s later, the breakfast meals said they had a sausage which happened to be half a sausage, my eggs in my eggs benedict were hard and when I asked for them to be re done the girl who served me with an extremely bad attitude took the plate back to the kitchen and proceeded to b*tch to the chef that we were complaining again, we were all sitting there watching her do this but she didn’t seem to care.
We got a piece of cake plonked on the table as a weak attempt at an apology and she proceeded to tell us, it’s new years day we should all be happy and they are busy.
Four of us had finished our meals, we were still waiting on 2 more meals, by this time it had been an hour, we decided we should ask about the last 2 meals as they had started closing up the kitchen, surprise surprise they had lost the order. Finally after we had received the last 2 orders, we ate and got out of there as fast as we could completely unimpressed. As we left at about 1230 we heard they had run out of food. Well done guys, a new low. I would NEVER go back there again. A couple of those girls (one in particular) needs and attitude adjustment. The food was ok.

Ordered breakfast, waited 50 minutes, they brought out the wrong order – tried twice to get it right and was then told that they would give me a refund as they were too busy to fix the order so left hungry. Very poor service – will never go back.

We stopped for lunch at the Tuatua Restaurant and walked away extremely unimpressed and annoyed.
On arrival we browsed the menu and both ordered the chicken burger, which the menu said came with fries and a salad. The meal was $17.50 PER burger, so we were obviously expecting a lavish gourmet burger, with a salad and good fries.
We sat in the outdoor courtyard, and even though we asked for glasses of water before we sat down, they did not come until we got up and asked again ten minutes later.
Although there was only 2 other tables occupied, we sat waiting for our meals for about 25 minutes.
When the meals finally arrived, we were disgusted by the quality of what the Tuatua Restaurant perceives to be a $17.50 burger!! There was a small, dry chicken fillet inside that looked like it came out of a frozen box. Dry pre-grated carrot and cheese, and a handful of deep-fried chips – NO salad. I didn’t touch my burger as I had already decided I wanted to ask for my money back as this meal was a disgrace.
Then, as we are looking at the burgers and at each other in shock… my husband discovers a short, curly black hair, sticking out of his burger, attached to the cheese. Needless to say we were straight back inside showing them the hair and demanding full refund for both meals (neither had been touched obviously) they did give us our money back after a few minutes of looking at each other and going into the kitchen to “show the chef the black hair” the owner/manager happened to breeze into the bar area just as we were leaving and his apology was weak at best. He clearly doesn’t care about his customers or the quality of his grossly overpriced food. We did not bother to raise the issue of the overpricing and bad quality, we were too disgusted by the hair and frankly we had to get out of there. This place needs an overhaul in customer service, pricing of their meals, and QUALITY of the food – maybe a new chef. NEVER ever going back. Terrible.

firstly i think that Rebbecca just had a bad experience. tuatua is by far the most wonderful restaurant i have eaten at and i love the place. i recommend everybody to try the food. the new wall display is very smart in the courtyard and gives the atmosphere a very tranquil feeling about it. i love tuatua. if i still lived in new Zealand i would continue to eat there all the time. love it! my favorite cocktail is the moulin rouge. its delicious!

We have been living in Whitianga for almost 2 years, and after trying every restaurant in town we always come back to Tuatua, in all our experiences the food has always been freshly prepared and excellent value for money, we dine there regularly, as a couple on date night, or with our young family and have always been very impressed with the quality and amazing food, including our favourite the Calamare,which beats Prego in Auckland by a country (coromandel) mile.


I can’t speak highly enough of Tuatua and it will continue to be our favourite restaurant in town.

5 of us tried to eat here on Sat 3/4/10. We were in a celebratory mood so ordered cocktails. The waitress seemed quite shocked by this and had to have each order repeated to her, it took a lot of effort to make sure she had the order correctly. The cocktails then arrived one at a time, very very slowly, each was worse than the last. Some tasted disgusting, some were totally different to what was on the menu and all were clearly made with cheap ingredients. When we complained (very good naturedly and politely) the waitress said she would speak to the bar, ten minutes later another waitress arrived and demanded to know what was wrong. She was confrontational and eventually admitted that they were very busy (only 2 other tables were being used) and didn’t have the right ingredients to make the cocktails on the list. She suggested that she squeeze more lime into one of the drinks. We asked her to take them away and said that we would order wine. She disappeared with the drinks and appeared extremely pissed off. By now more than half an hour has gone past and we have no drinks and have not been asked if we want to order food. I go up to the bar to order wine and ask to give our food order. Giving the food order to the waitress takes ages, she seems really new and inexperienced and very anxious about serving customers. One persons meal then arrives, there is a 20 minute wait for the rest. When it does arrive it is the rest of the food is distinctly average, the chicken tastes and looks like it has been heated from frozen in the microwave, the pizza is half cold and the spare ribs are just ok. We don’t have enough cutlery on the table, there is no salt and pepper and no-one asks if our food is ok. We all get the feeling that we are not welcome because we have complained about the cocktails.
When we go up to pay I notice that one of our cocktails is still on the bill, I query this but the waitress says that we never complained about that one and the charge still stands. The undrinkable cocktail remains on the table. We pay the $160 bill (3 starters, 5 mains, 1 bottle of wine and 1 cocktail made with the wrong ingredients) for an average meal, with hostile and poor service and leave vowing never to return and feeling we have been had. Sometimes it is hard when you are a group to complain effectively, I wish we had all stood up for ourselves at the time and insisted on a discount at least.
I would never usually write a review like this as I prefer to discuss any issues directly with the establishment as I know every place can have an off night. However, the rude, unprofessional and confrontational waiting staff made the whole evening a disaster.

Delicious wood-fired pizza, great wine and lovely atmosphere. Shame the service is slow, but wouldn’t put me off visiting again.

AWESOME MEALS! Great Atmosphere! I really love your Tapas. Its always hard to beat the Seafood Dishes but!.. my favorite is the Delicious Angus beef steak cooked to perfection every time!
John