zealong tea estate

the good: sparkling tea was nice and refreshing for the weather. thefoodwas also not bad - fried rice was surprisingly spicy

the bad: the service could have improved alot. we waited for a long time for our table despite having a booking and there being plenty of available tables. the waiter also didn’t bring us a menu for about 15 minutes and we had to ask for the menu. the high tea was a little expensive for $55 - there could have been a little more on the stack for that amount.

an amazing place to go to even on a hot summer day for some tea. got placed on the deck on front of the plantation with a wonderful view, the place is very nice, clean, tidy and visually placed well. this place is a highly recommended place for family outing or to go on a date on in the afternoon with some high tea. there was two options $49 pp for just high tea and $57 per person to open a bottle as well. as for thefoodserved for the high tea it was quite nice their dessert at the bottom was delicious! when selecting what tea you want highly recommend their award winning ones, it complements the course very well, my favorite was the green zealong. customer service from the waiters was also wonderful especially in explaining how to poor and drink the tea. 100% would go again whenever i can.

lovely place. you would come here for the experience, the views and for an education experience on tea.foodwise at the restaurant was in my opinion pricey for the standard offoodsuch as a chicken (morrocan/curry style) and rice dish was $32. linguine pasta with prawns $34. one cup of tea per person is $9. of course if you are looking for a day out and for something different or on a special occasion or just bringing someone along who appreciates tea i would then highly recommend.

we drove up from tongariro to auckland and stopped at zealong to meet friends for their high tea and so worth it!
great price at $45pp, incrediblefoodoptions with tea influences a d a very decent a la carte menu. great for friends and worth the drive from any direction.

highly recommended!

i visited the zealong tea estate years ago with family and the experience was wonderful. thought it would be the perfect to celebrate a 3rd anniversary with my partner.

the day was absolutely gorgeous and we were very fortunate to get an outdoor table, the view is beautiful - you are able to see rows and rows of tea plants.

i ordered the black iced tea with vanilla bean and it is very refreshing. it doesn’t have a strong, bitter taste but instead has a sweet and fresh flavour. i recommend the iced tea on a hot day, it was perfect after the long drive up.

i ordered the fish of the day for lunch and it was very juicy. the veges had a warm, comforting flavour and the fish was fresh and juicy - the two went great together.

overall had another wonderful experience at the zealong tea estate,foodis great, staff are very accommodating and the estate is gorgeous!

first high tea afternoon at zealong did not disappoint. my experience was amazing. ambiance and the tea plantation were topnotch.foodwere exquisite especially those included in the sweet plate platter. opted for the passion red drink to freshen the warm weather. service was ok. will be back soon.

zealong tea house offer extensive quality of high tea, and other lunch options, had a great
time time there this weekend, they have got just about everything right,foodquality, services, views, the team is well trained, they are absolutely on top of things, you can’t possibly pick anything on the restaurant part.

but the new retail shop is where i recommend you to avoid, nicely, newly fitted out out display-retail tea shop somehow had two arrogant, untrained young girls which knows nothing about customer services, your sudden appearance at the shop seemed to be disturbing to their “resting”, utterly rudeness and extremely inhospitable manner made you wander if you wrongly entered premises without invite, the asian girl was indescribably rude, it’s obvious that she hates her job for sure or the society... we were glad we went to the restaurant first, that turned out not a bad over after lunch.

thefoodis quite pricey, but the atmosphere and view is amazing. i got the mushroom pappardelle, which was average, but the otherfoodwas good. thefoodcame reasonably fast and was presented nicely :)

had high tea here today and it was excellent. it's not my first visit, and so it was good to see that the high standard of service andfoodwas maintained. the staff were friendly and attentive, without being pushy. the choice of teas is wide - making it difficult to choose. the only gripe i would have (and it's a tiny one) is that there's a $5 surcharge for vegetarian high tea (i would have thought that smoked salmon and duck confit were more expensive, not less, than eggplant or chickpeas). maybe it's because they have to prepare them specially?? whatever the reason, it didn't detract from the fabulous experience that their high tea is. i would rate this a much better experience and better value than the high tea i've had at the langham.

best high tea place i've been to! the place is just so beautiful and all the staff were very nice and friendly.foodwas good and the presentation was excellent! i highly recommend this place for high tea!

decided to make a day trip out here to experience the high tea here. i have mixed comments about this place.

for three of us we ordered a signature high tea $42, classic high tea $42 and a waikato eye fillet $38.
unfortunately i'm not impressed by thefoodhere, just a couple of the savouries in my signature high tea were really well done (the prawn cake and fish cake) but everything else was very basic in my honest opinion. for $42, i expected more . .
the steak had a strange flavour to it, it had a very strong liver taste.

i found i only really nibbled on the dessert except for the raspberry cake, that was delicious, beautiful light raspberry flavours in the cream icing! i found the scones rather doughy and macarons chewy. presentation offoodis well done but execution of flavour just wasn't there for me.

the choice of teas here where okay, choose from five i had the green tea along with black tea. unfortunately for me i'm did not enjoy my teas here, very aromatic but lacked body for me.

the staff were nice, a nice estate. i won't be back unfortunately.

this place is very interesting. love the a service andfoodoptions. beautiful high tea. pricey but worth the visit. go with the signature option. tea is beautiful. highly recommend place.

definitely a place for those who enjoy tea as they have different types of tea for drinking and many tea inspired food. we booked and pre ordered beforehand since we had a large group. after confirming the orders they gave us an introduction on their teas.

thefoodwas presented nicely and tasty. i had ordered the clam fettuccine. the fettuccine was nice but couldn't really taste the tea. the clams had grit in them so it was a bit unpleasant. it was a nice place for a leisurely lunch as you could re infuse the tea a few times. the high tea also looked amazing.

we were assigned a main server who wasn't present when the orders were brought down so we had to direct it (they were given a seating plan of where thefoodwould go beforehand).

we were seated outside overlooking the plantation, which was nice. there is also parking further down the driveway. it is a new experience which was refreshing.

we had to wait for more than 90 mins for ourfoodto arrive and it was a hot day but the they refuse to serve tea with ice... the high tea was average however the view was great.

a complete waste of time - will never be back.  yes we arrived early but the retsaurant was only half or so full - and the manager said this would be not problem (we asked if it was ok and could have come back).  i noticed coming in that the chef was sitting down eating with some people - not a problem at all until....

from the minute we sat down our waiter was apologising for not coming to our table, not taking our order etc.  he spent the first half of our visit apologising and the second half making excuses.  we managed to get an entree (fairly good) after about 45 minutes but it was then almost impossible to get our table cleared despite empty tables all around us being cleared but staff who didn't even glance our way.

after an excessive (45 mins or so - after the entrees were finally cleared after sitting unclear for 20 mins or so) wait for our mains the waiter noticed that we were still waiting.  he first said that ourfoodwas being plated and that they will be 5 mins, then when they didn't arrive that he had just called them away - and when i got up to go and see where the heck they were he said that they had been delayed because a film crew had been in.  perhaps focus on paying customers rather than 'fame'! 

clearly there is no floor captain - the manager seems to have no overview and no other wait staff seemed to be interested in our table.  there were at least 15 other people served their mains who had arrived after us, while we were waiting.  the waiter the took the blame by saying he hadn't called away the mains - but come on, the kitchen needs to take responsbility as well given that they hold the dockets.

no one here seems to know how to run the order logistics of a kitchen and the service delivery side of the restaurant - a pleasant and apologetic waiter is not enough.  we cancelled our mains and they gave us two plastic tea mugs and some teas as way of apology - but this was not proactively offered.  a good chef should be running his kitchen first and foremost before dealing with a film crew or sitting down having lunch in his uniform (clearly on duty) with others.  not a problem if the kitchen keeps going but in this case it failed badly.  we don't blame our waiter - the issue rests with the manager, the chef and the clear lack of a floor captain with an overview.  other wait staff could also have a look at what's going on other tables occasionally.  the focus of this place is not about being a restaurant, but rather a high turnover high tea destination.  on a positive note, wait staff helped out with our umbrella which kept moving and re-filled our tea pot.