Review Tonic Restaurant - Whangarei

Absolutely stunning. My partner and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary at this very small but warm and very efficient restaurant. The service was top notch. The food was beautiful and hot and well presented. Lovely fine dining. We went on a Sunday and so had a set menu. Reasonably priced for beautiful well presented and delicious tasting food. I will definitely be back for more. Thank you!

Lovely 2 or 3 course dinner on Sun nights in a cute neighborhood restaurant Attentive service and great food. Thoroughly recommend for a treat dinner.

Beautifully presented and thoughtful dishes, perfectly cooked. Quiet and intimate atmosphere on a Wednesday evening. Perfect for a couples celebration. Attentive and friendly service. Highly recommended.

Apparently they are celebrating 25yrs in business. Congratulations! One of a few quality Whangarei restaurants providing 'scratch made' dishes, well cooked flavoursome offerings that are attractively presented . Good variety wine list. Top quality professional table service is the norm, and the compact environment is where you can chat easily to your table companions. Pricing is very fair, as is portion size. Well worth a visit. Parking outside the door. Reservations necessary.

Best restaurant in town hands down. We have been a few times now and can’t fault it. Everything is amazing from the service to the food. 10/10. We just had the 5 course degustation and it was amazing, we both walked away full.

We are here for dinner last night, party of 8. The restaurant is small and quaint, and does a good job of shielding the noise from the main road nearby. The staff were excellent, and very attentive. We did not have to wait long at all for drinks and food. The food I would say is very thoughtful, and delicious. For starter I had confit duck in broth with picked onions, radishes and a small salad. The duck was very delicate and the broth it was in was delicious and paired well with the dish overall. For main I had the eye fillet, which was served on top of a potato rosti with buttered spinach and a red wine and onion jus. The beef was cooked perfectly- medium rare and was extremely tender. Very appealing to look at and tasted even better. The jus really tied the whole dish together and I cleaned the plate. I finished my night off with a nice glass of cognac and the others had their desserts. All of which looked extremely appealing and delicious. I tried a few and was pleasantly surprised. One of the things I find nice at this restaurant is how the chef doesn't over season everything. In fact, I would say a little bit under but the wait staff will come and additionally season if you require. I felt that the dishes were about perfect in terms of seasoning and if it's not to your liking you can always add more, but you cannot take it away. My one criticism of the entire experience would be the plates, and it is a minor one at that. The plates are stone and as such can be a bit noisy when you are banging your cutlery on it, but it may just be due to how many of us were there and how excited we were to enjoy the food! I cannot recommend Tonic enough for a nice quaint atmosphere with delicious food and friendly staff.

The food was amazing. The avocado and hot salmon was divine, the avocado cake was just the best. My main, pork belly was so tender. Highly recommend

I attended a Five-Course Degustation Dinner for me and five of my friends, every dish was incredible and I would be tempted to say it's the best restaurant experience I have had in all of New Zealand (lived here 20 years). I was pleasantly surprised that a friend of mine who is famous for being such a picky eater that he only eats fettucine ate every single course brought to him. Everything from scallop chowder to pulled pork crochets. Staff were perfect and had a good sense of humour. Food was incredible. Atmosphere was delightful. Thank you

Amazing food. Consistently good. Very friendly staff.

Thankyou to the team for a wonderful meal and service. The whole experience was first class. No problems dealing with a larger group and no delays. Just fantastic.

We had a delicious meal at Tonic, food was very tasty. Definitely going back again. Nice size portions so we got to eat the whole three courses. Great service, nice and attentive without being over the top.

Food was excellent, a little bit pricey, but well worth it.

Excellent service great company and the food was Amazing!

Food was great, but it was too expensive for what you had on your plate

Tasty food in good quantities, a nice dinner. Particularly enjoyed the goats cheese & walnut entree.

A delightful evening, very friendly staff. Delicious food.

Loved the food here, small menu cooked to perfection. The steak was cooked exactly as I asked and my knife went through like butter. I have to give a special mention about the toffee brulee, probably one of the best I have had. Big thank you to the staff out front fantastic service. Definitely worth another visit

Delicious food, great service.

We enjoyed a beautiful 5 course degastation meal tonight. The food was faultless and the staff really did go above and beyond. Thank you so much for a beautiful child free evening

Stopped into Tonic as last minute for dinner, and no only did they cater for my food intolerances but was a divine meal. We choose not to have an entree and our meal was quite rewarding. My husband and I cant say enough how much we both enjoyed their meals. Would recommed to others. Had a good welcoming chat with the staff.

Bloody Lovely! Wonderful menu & a beautifully relaxed atmosphere. I highly recommend Tonic

Anniversary dinner. The staff were attentive and remembered us from our last visit in August, and even moved us to a quieter table when one came available. The food was perfect, service excellent.

Loved it. Hadn't been for some time, but nothing had changed - beautiful food, amazing service and very reasonable prices.

It's a lovely surprise finding a great restaurant where you least expect it. Everything we had was faultless. The waiting staff were friendly and attentive.

Yummy food.Good service.Nice place to eat.Yummy puddings! And yes the hot smoked salmon for starters was Amazing..

Great food, great service. Go every time they have their degustation menu.

We've been twice in two weeks and have been very impressed both times. The food is excellent and service is great with very friendly staff. Thanks guys �

Had a wonderful time at Tonic. We had the 5-course degustation, it was delicious!! The service was outstanding too.

Excellent service, incredible food. Don't let the location fool you, this place is well worth a visit!

Absolutely top star food!! Loved the hot smoked salmon entree.

Beautiful food. Lamb cutlet was delicious. As was the pork

The service was fantastic. The staff were very knowledgeable, friendly and attentive. The food was absolutely delicious! Couldn't fault the experience at all =)

Consistently high level of service and food, well worth the trip into the suburbs to experience this delight. The food is always incredible and it's a real treat to dine here, highly recommended! The salmon avocado starter is something I look forward to every time and the occasional Grabone special for the 5 course degustation menu is something we grab every time, leaving fat and happy. The menu choices are well spread with something tasty for everyone and the wine list holds a great selection.

Have never written a review for any restaurant before but came home determined to show public appreciation for what was a spectacular evening and meal. Perfect service that extended to bringing a drink at a specific point during the meal that it was requested for, topping up water and other drinks smoothly and unobtrusively, and then drawing us a map of places to visit when touring the region the next day (including other food establishments). The food was unquestionably perfect! We both ended up choosing the duck (I tried to talk my daughter into trying something else so that I could try two things from the menu!) - but we were both raving when we left. Thanks to the lady at the arts shop at the Marina who recommended it to us!!

I'm sad to only give three stars for our visit on this occasion. We went for a belated Valentines dinner on the 15th Feb which was a Friday, and we were not the only couple doing so by the way the place filled up with twosomes. If only it had stayed that way! But right behind us was a large table of people who arrived about half an hour after us - 8 possibly more. Our food was faultless, although it would be nice to see a few more new dishes being introduced to the menu, and the service as professional and pleasant as always but the evening was completely spoilt by the behaviour of the large group, who constantly shuffled (some barefoot) out for "fags" out front, unruly and boisterous noise levels and bad language - heard the F word AND the C word often used. They made no effort to consider the other diners who were probably seeking a bit of romance on a significant occasion, and seem to take pleasure in disrupting things. I overheard it said that their boss was paying for the dinner, so lets hope next time he sends them to Cobb & Co or the Coal Miners Daughter where everyone concerned would probably feel more comfortable. We left without desserts or coffee - in fact we couldn't wait to be gone! It has certainly left a bad memory of a normally special place.

Went on a Sunday and had the set type meal.....fabulous food.<br/><br/>Felt the cost of the side vegitable dishes a bit expensive althought tasted great.<br/><br/>Service was excellent <br/><br/>I would recommend this restaurant

Beautiful beautiful food, presented wonderfully on a plate, everything I mean everything is perfect right down to the side of broccoli.<br/>The dessert I picked was gorgeous!! Will definately head back here, for a special ocassion.<br/>Great staff, let you enjoy your meal but there when you need them.<br/>Thanks for the great meal and service.

We probably eat at this restaurant 8 - 10 times a year, often when we have visitors or guests from other towns or cities.<br/><br/>Consistently the quality of meals and staff service is great, and recently seems to be getting even better.<br/><br/>Having eaten at Tonic now over a 5 year period, the experience remains one of the most rewarding in the North.<br/><br/>Highly recommended, almost to 5 star level

You can't go wrong here if you are looking for a great meal, excellent portions, and great staff. Not the greatest place space wise, but you never leave here unhappy. Well we never have and we go at least 4-5 times a year!<br/>You will love it!

I was recently in town for work and was told about tonic. I went on a Tuesday night and there were only a few customers there.. The food was truly amazing. The staff were friendly and the service was top notch. <br/><br/>Would love to go back there again.. I went to Adeco the following night and can't decide which one is better. They both serv up world class meals in my opinion.