Review Vine Eatery & Bar - Taupo

We were able to get a table for 3 on a Friday night without reservation. A nice stop on the way to Napier. Delicious onion soup. Shared plates are enough for 3. Good service and front of house is appreciated.

The menu is well put together. Obvious care has been taken with regard to flavours and presentation. All dietary restrictions are well labeled, and the waiting staff were happy to double check things. Staff were efficient, knowledgeable and friendly.

Beautiful setting lots to look at, food was expensive but tasty literally has hundreds of wines to choose from good place to go for drinks we had a set menu as we're with a big group was nice and fancy 🙂

Updated Review: we recently attended what has become an annual group meal at Vine Bar. Once again a great experience though we would have loved to have had the Vintage Room again! (Hopefully next time!). Lee remembered our group which made us feel very welcome, we were given amazing service and exceptional food. We always order a selection of small plates as tapas and all were incredible. Soft shell crab, scallop mornay, paella balls and and chicken parfait are favorites. Try the Plum Frappie cocktail 👌 Still highly recommend Vine Bar, thanks team! Original Review: What a great spot (I wish I'd discovered years ago) for a celebration. We booked here for a 40th birthday and had the private room upstairs with a dedicated server, who bless them, did soo many trips up the stairs with all our food and cocktails... with great humor I must add! Excellent service, exceptional food in the Tapas menu - extensive choices, delicious cocktails! A beautiful location with loads of ambience.

Amazing food & fast to come out. Our waiter was the most delightful South African gentleman called Perfect and he absolutely was! The cocktails were delicious. I recommend the espresso martini. Will be back. Only note is it was a tad loud. We did struggle to talk to the waiter and also each other. Otherwise Amazing

Wow. This was some of the best food I have ever tasted. The quality was absolutely top notch. Price was very reasonable for how amazing the food was. Huge compliments to the chefs. The service my wife and I received was fantastic as well. Super friendly and extremely professional. Full table service. Very grateful to how patient the waitress was with our indecision of food haha. When we were there we ordered the middle eastern falafel balls, vine fries, mushroom risotto, iced chocolate and sweetheart cocktail. All were absolutely delicious but the mushroom risotto was to die for. Seriously recommend that to everyone!

Always a pleasure to come here. Attentive friendly staff and we had a fab meal. Highly recommend the French onion soup and the scallop chorizo and spinach risotto. And I’ve discovered a great new NZ Chenin Blanc. Yes I’m taking about you Sea Level Nelson. For those of you who need photographic evidence. I promise never to do a photo and a review until I’ve licked the plate. Here you go

Amazing place!! They gave me a free entree for a mistake that wasn’t even their fault in the first place! Highly recommend. Really good staff and food is equally amazing!

Vine Eatery and Bar was surprisingly busy for a Sunday evening. But a table was found for us, and our lovely evening began. The atmosphere was elegant but relaxed, the wine by the glass choice was extensive, the staff friendly, efficient and knowledgable, helping us to match wine choices with food. Our meals arrived promptly, and were delicious. We chose the fillet steak, and the duck breast, with a side of broccoli to share. Smaller dishes are also available, as well as a great variety of cocktails from the very impressive bar. We look forward to a return visit.

This week a group of 12 of us booked the upstairs venue at Vine for an annual dinner celebration. The food was astonishing. The service exceptional. Atmosphere celebratory. I need an excuse to go back and share the experience with others.

We both really enjoyed what we ordered the scallop risotto and the salmon were excellent. I ordered the large size and it was enough but barely and I am not a big eater. Seems like a trendy place and I imagine that is part of the upvotes.

Great spot for dinner, service was friendly and very quick. The food was presented well and very delicious. Great menu with lots of choices. The atmosphere was good, everyone was having a good time and wasn’t too loud within the restaurant. Definitely recommend visiting.

I have eaten here twice and every time it has been great. Yesterday was amazing and our waiter Perfect was outstanding. The food was so delicious and the menu extensive.

Food was excellent, couldn't fault it one bit. Waiter service was very good. Glad we boked early however we really wanted to experience dessert but waited more than 30mins after finishing mains and then was told they didn't know how long dessert might take so we decided to finish there. Disappointed after the great food.

Recently visited for dinner and must say it amazing. I had the grilled prawn as entre and eye fillet bacon wrapped and both were perfect well cooked and very flavoursome. Staff were also great, we walked in with no booking on a Friday night. Only small detraction was my fondant didn't ooze chocolate like it should when broken open, bit dry. But still tasted nice and overall still worthy of 5 stars.

One of my absolute favourite restaurants ever- and I don’t even in Taupo. Best tapas I’ve come across but all their meals are fantastic. The ambience and interior is just delightful and the service is impeccable. As too are the wines and cocktails. Everything is done so well and this place is beyond worth the visit

Had a Cajun fried soft-shell crab and a seared scallop risotto. Both were great, especially the crab. Always great staff, who were running around like busy bees. Very busy night so was glad I booked a table the day before.

We had a delightful evening with our good friends from Taupo. They, like us, had never eaten dinner at The Vines, but once in Annette’s capable hands we had a fabulous evening of wining, dining and cocktails, followed by some equally especial desserts. What a fantastic night. We will definitely be back. Probably the most I have ever spent dining out, but considering the fantastic food, atmosphere and drink choices, it was a bargain at twice the price. The pressed copper sink in the ladies room is also spectacular.

Despite the super long wait (felt extra long cus I was so hungry), everything was pretty good. Not perfectly good, but decently good. I enjoyed my meal. And I actually really liked the presentation. The people are friendly but lol the waiter split some sauce on us while he was trying to set the plate down on the table. Hmm <br/>-> BE BACK OR BACK AWAY? Not always going to be in Taupo so if I go back I’d be keen to try other places. But if I’m craving steak and I’m in Taupo, I may possibly come back here.<br/>

The atmosphere here was amazing. We loved the art up on the walls made from old book pages! The food was amazing, some of the best we've had in a long time. The flavours went well together. You could tell the chef who put it all together had a good palate. The price range definitely reflects that, but it was well worth it. Beautifully put together too.

I thought the food and service here was magnificent. We had some jamon croquettes and paella balls which were great as was the lamb wings and potato’s bravos, so soft a flavoursome. Seafood stew had an abundance of great fresh seafood. Definitely a winner

Xmas Holidays in Taupo 2019.<br/>Had the shared Platter which had a nice variety but servings were small. For $49 we got 3 small slices of bread with the platter, not really enough for 2 people to share. We’re not big eaters but it was a little scant, more bread, which is cheap would have helped fill us and make us feel we had better value. <br/>The platter had <br/>2 calamari strips, a little rubbery and cold, <br/>2 small chicken winglets, (not the whole wing)<br/>6 slices of chorizo, <br/>Sautéed mushrooms with walnuts and sun dried tomato<br/>3 small pieces of steak <br/>3 half slices of bread. <br/>Would have picked something else if I’d known it was going to be so small. <br/>Tasty food though, would visit again.

Our first time in Taupo and we checked out Vine for dinner.<br/>Nothing to fault! Our waitress Emily was attentive & polite, friendly with her own style of service.<br/><br/>The food was delicious but the service really was the star! We’re from Auckland where great service is certainly hard to come by (maybe we’re just critical because we used to work in the industry), so we will definitely be back on our next visit to Taupo!<br/>

Amazing food and wine. Beat meal I've ever had!<br/>The lamb cutlets were to die for and the chocolate fondant dessert was next level... can't wait to come back and try more!!

Breath of fresh air. In a town that seemed to have a ribs and burger bar for almost every resident, this was a breath of fresh air - spacious and light fllled, the ever affable NZ service and simple, delicious food. A sensational olive oil and house baked bread were both complementary. Well worth a go.

In Taupo for a weekend,decided to try the vine eatery Friday night tried several of the tapas dishes .cannot fault any of it food excellent wine choice superb . It was so good we went back Saturday to try the rest of the tapas dishes we missed . First class , we will defiantly be back

We initially wanted to go to The Brantry but it was unfortunately closed on a Sunday, so the Vine was our second choice. Thankfully it turned out to be a relatively good decision. Service was awesome, food was outstanding (we had the lamb rack and beef w mushroom sauce). Their desserts were yummy too - a girlfriend of mine ordered the pav and I had one of their cabinet desserts (polenta cake served with yogurt). <br/><br/>Only thing I wished were bigger portion sizes as the prices were slightly on the higher side. E.g. if you can't serve bigger meat portions, maybe double up on the salads?

Service is very slow and inaccurate. Ordered a Mixed Platter and received a cooked platter. We were told by one waitress that what we didn't eat we could take home as a 'doggie bag'. When we finished we asked for the 'doggie bag' to be confronted with a waitress that didn't know what a 'doggie bag' was. She then asked the chef who said he doesn't do them !!! The food is over priced as it is, let alone not being able to take it home. Additionally we ordered two wines, then two more turned up without us asking for them - I think this is presumptuous and not responsible. I would not eat there again.

We ate here earlier tonight and I have to say it was fantastic, the staff were very helpful and the food was delicious! <br/>We had a party of 5 and didn't want to worry about having enough food or what to eat, so asked to have an assortment of plates from the menu. They sorted it all for us, there was plenty of food and it made the evening relaxing and enjoyable, thank you thank you! Guaranteed to be back and highly recommending Vine Eatery to others!<br/>Thanks again!

We had a great meal here a year ago but were very disappointed this time. The sautéed figs were hard and dry with some very hard bits that I had to spit out. The menu said the dish also had melted blue cheese but it was certainly not visible nor could you taste it so I dispute whether it even existed. $15 for some rocket leaves, walnuts, shrivelled figs and a screwed up ball of prosciutto was a bit much. The squid was overpowered by chili and the pork was dry, and $23 for a piece of bland pork with nothing else on the plate was a bit much. Service was average, we were left waiting quite a bit, and had to ask to see the menu again. The most disappointing thing was that when we told the owner we weren't happy she just seemed surprised but not very concerned. She said 'oh yes we get that comment a lot' about the invisible blue cheese. Well how about doing something about it? No discount, complementary coffee or other effort to make amends was offered. We won't be coming back.

We have been eating at the vine eatery Taupo twice now and the food was always excellent . Had a chance to meet Head Chef Reginaldo Gallina a very nice person who is a excellent cook.<br/><br/>We will definitely come back.<br/><br/>H.&amp;.J Gruber

There's not a whole lot to say - it's the best trip-advisor rated restaurant in Taupo for a reason.<br/><br/> - Excellent food. Like really really good. Well presented, and you're talking almost 5 star quality<br/><br/> - Really nice atmosphere. Usually a place like this would be a bit cold, a bit quiet and probably with uncomfortable furniture. Not here - it's beautiful and warm, nice decor, good background music and everything else to make it a perfect evening<br/><br/> - Amazing service. The chef made an effort to have a quick (unintrusive) word to all the guests and handed out his card.The waitresses were just the right level of helpful and friendly<br/><br/>And all this for a really good price - I think for 3 dishes and 3 drinks we spent $70! <br/><br/>Don't waste your time anywhere else.

This place is unique and an experience. Great from start to finish. They also have decent beers on tap but don't advertise this. The service is something you don't really see. I just wish we'd eaten there for dinner. We just went for snacks - you can choose your own platter from the cabinet at prices we thought were very reasonable.

Was a lovely experience - beautiful food and excellent choice if wine at great prices - if I had one negative it would be that we were recommended to order 2 dishes each which was far tooth for 2 woman to eat however it was delicious!

Probably one of my most memorable meals in NZ. First word of advice is to made reservations ahead of time. We came across this restaurants just by walking along the main road and luckly we were able to get a table at the bar. <br/><br/>I love the concept because you're in a wine shop and you have the entire selection as an option for your meal. If that task is too daunting, someone will be right there to help you decide.<br/><br/>The food is tapas style where you order a variety of small dishes to share. My fave was the aubergine, and 2nd would have to be chicken stuffed with mushroom.

All our food was absolutely delicious and the service was friendly and efficient. The Chef came and spoke to us, which was lovely as well. Our favourite was the fantastic Chocolate Torte - so rich! and the smoked eel - so smooth! It's also great that you can choose wine from their wine shop to go with your meal. The only reason we didn't give it a 5/5 rating was that, the next day, we went back to buy more Chocolate Torte and they charged us the full $14.50 per slice just to take away a piece in a cardboard box. Surely most of the price of a dessert in a restaurant is the venue lease, table use, linen, service, dish washing... $14.50 per slice was perfectly reasonable for a restaurant dessert but a horrible rip-off to take it away in a cardboard box. Everything else was really perfect though...

I had my birthday here and I would say that everything was absolutely perfect and well exceeded my expectations! Sarah's organisational skills in putting together a flawless occasion and Flo's wealth of knowledge in different wine and beer just added to the magic of the night. Service was top notch, the food was divine and the atmosphere was awesome. Compliments to the chef and all of the staff who made my birthday as memorable as it was. I will definitely be back &amp; I've heard that some friends have already been back to purchase some quality wine. Absolutely fantastic! :)

Went here for lunch on a Friday and had a really lovely BAP. Awesome atmosphere, nice and warm on a cold winters day. Good service, and plenty of seating. Really loved Vine, and will definitely go back next time I'm in town

Agree with Kate R, Paella was bland, no chicken in mine but i did get a chicken bone. The plate was left unfinished. My friend had the pork belly which was dry, way too much fat left on it and that too was left unfinished. Prices were over the top for what you received, come on Vine, no salad or potatoes or chips with your meals??? And $15 for a bowl of hot chips because as the waitress said, "Theyre deep fried in Duck fat" who gives if theyre deep fried in duck fat really..what a ridiculous price for hot chips. I wont recommend this place sorry...

Dinner for 2 to celebrate my husband's birthday, and we could not have chosen a better place to eat, since tapas is one of his favourite types of food. The staff were friendly, the food choices we made were excellent (particularly the pork belly, a special for the evening), and we enjoyed having a visit to the table by the charming chef, to check that everything was to our liking. We will be back, but next time with a group of perhaps 6, as each plate is big enough for a good taste for that number, and then we can try a wider selection of foods! The wine we chose was not expensive and the whole evening was very reasonably priced.

Scenic Cellars has been. Landmark in Taupo for years, they have recently moved and added an innovative restaurant "The Vine Eatery" to their service. We ate at the Vine twice in a recent stay in Taupo and it is now our favourite Taupo restaurant. The Vine is not a traditional restaurant as it serves Tapas rather than set courses. We found that ordering dishes one at a time as the previous one was served was the best way to do it as if you order them all at the start they can build up on the table. <br/><br/>The food is excellent and very moorish. For wine you choose a bottle from their shelves and pay the shelf price plus corkage. We found we got a superior wine at a very reasonable price that way, although they do not stock "cheap" wines.<br/><br/>The cost for three plates (which we found to be plenty) and a bottle of decent wine was around $90, a very reasonable price for a great dining experience. We appreciate that their style of restaurant may not suit everyone but if you are prepared to try a different style of restaurant try it!

While staying in Taupo over christmas we were lucky enough to dine at The Vine Eatery. Small plates are a great way to dine especially over a good glass of wine. The Vine Eatery have a very varied menu which seems to change often and the wine list is great with the added treat of being able to grab something off the shelves from their wine shop. We found the staff very friendly each of our 3 visits and have recommended this to many friends - all who have not been disappointed.

Agree with the first poster.Food flavors good but not heated properly.Had to ask for cutlery as were given none.Service less than acceptable.Prices for shared plates are not cheap for what you get.Would not return

Firstly, there is no view of the lake from this cafe. <br/><br/>We called in there during January 2012. The female behind the bar was offhand when we asked where we could sit.<br/>We ordered the paella, it being their Friday night special.<br/>What we got was a smallish bowl of stodgy rice with a hint of paprika, some rubbery squid and some chicken. Across the top the cook had draped a rather large prawn complete with its guts. There were no bowls of water at hand had we wanted to eat this creature with our hands.<br/> Lunch there last year was just as strange.