The Matakana Village Pub
What makes your venue the Best Gastropub in New Zealand?
Our award-winning, historic 120-year-old Kauri wooden pub and restaurant is set in the heart of Matakana Village, open to everyone and oozing charm with traditional wooden floors, outdoor fireplace, cosy nooks, sun-filled spaces and a social stone beer garden.
We offer everything from great local beer, inspiring meals, hearty fish & chips and outdoor smoked meats to live music gigs filling the pub to over 450 people.
We are conveniently situated near the Tāwharanui Peninsula, many popular beaches and rural surroundings. However, we are just an hour's drive from Aucklands CBD. We are very much a locals’ pub, welcoming familiar faces into our village watering hole to sit, chat, eat and drink in these beautiful surroundings. Equally, we love to see new faces who might be visiting this beautiful part of the world – looking for their own ‘escape to the country’. The Matakana Village Pub is an ideal stop-off on the way up to the Bay of Islands and the rest of Northland.
Describe the experience your customers have at your establishment – what is your food and beverage offering and why do people come back for more?
Dining is offered in the relaxed bar area, sun-filled covered space or more formal restaurant, with high ceilings, historic features with historic local photos on the wall.
We are fortunate to be in a part of an area which is rich in ingredients - vineyards (OBV & Takatu only 4kms away), and Daily Organics (Next door), our head chef works with his team to create dishes that reflect the current pickings of the season. The menu is a versatile combination of gastro dishes and good pub classics, which change regularly. For example, the dish we are most known for being a beach village is our fish and chips - with the Snapper from Leigh, beer batter made with McLeods larger (Waipu). We are proud of our consistently good reviews for the quality of our food. Just read our Google reviews.
The main aim of the pub is to provide a great experience for our diverse range of customers from our local tradies & farmers to visiting Aucklanders to overseas visitors. Also, catering large events such as weddings, funerals, work events and gigs. We achieve this excellent experience for everyone through our menu, not serving your 'normal pub grub' - offering high-standard meals with your classics done well with seasonal offerings and representing local ingredients. Our chefs are well travelled and come with many years of experience and skills. That's how we can offer consistent high-quality meals, able to adapt and offer a range of meals - from the classic 'Beef Burger' to 'Prawn and Scallop linguine' to a Vegan Quinoa & Buckwheat Salad'. We love getting feedback from customers who say ' I am surprised our meals were fantastic for a PUB! - we will be back!" Which is the epitome of a Gastro Pub!
We are proud to represent Matakana our customer service and venue is why people love us - but what keeps people coming back is without a doubt our food and beverages we offer.
Tell us how you showcase NZ produce / offerings? Does your menu change with the season and how is it locally influenced. How do you accommodate allergy and dietary requirements?
The menu is a versatile combination of gastro dishes and good pub classics, which change seasonally, selecting dishes that combine local fresh ingredients with a varied choice. With Small and Large Plate choices along with our chef specials on a Friday and weekly Pie specials on a Wednesday, we have something to offer for everyone. We are very lucky to have a fantastic kitchen team that takes allergy and dietary requirements seriously - we are more than happy to alter a dish to ensure no matter your requirements you leave our pub happy and full.
For example, all of our chips are gluten-free, and we offer a wider range of non-alcoholic beverages and low-carb options. We are always willing to go the extra mile to ensure everyone who comes in is looked after. We have a chart that all staff can see and understand each meal so can point out dietary requirements and this can be noted so the kitchen is aware if necessary. We believe we do an excellent job of this and this is why people return again and again.
A recent review on Google - ‘So welcoming, great atmosphere in a historic building. Good vibes from the whole crew. We can be a tough bunch with allergies and accommodations and they knocked it out of the park! The highs were the chicken parmigiana and the salmon for us.’
What are your key points of difference and how have you managed to deliver them?
Our key points of difference that make us New Zealand's Gastro Pub of the year is local food & beverage offerings, unique historic pub and our staff.
Historic Kauri Wooden Pub - Our pub is 120 years old, making it the oldest in the area. Matakana has gone through a huge amount of change in those years. We have kept majority of the period features and on the walls you will see historic photos, representing the local areas history. Which both locals and visitors love. Being a historic building creates a warm, familiar, unique atmosphere. With our different spaces to suit everyone - Restaurant Dining area, bar leaners by the fire, Oyster lounge for private space, stone beer garden, sun-filled dining area.
Local Food & Beverage offerings - we are lucky to be surrounded in Matakana that has so many high quality food and beverage producers. For example, 80% of the wine we serve is from NZ and 25% of them are from Matakana - less than 4km away. Also, we have 13 taps and only Guinness is only non-NZ beer.
Staff - our staff are the heart of the pub. We are proud to have such happy, efficient and well-versed staff. We have a strong culture of believing ' Happy Staff = Happy Customers'.
Other important points of difference are ample parking - making more accessible (especially important in Matakana), Outdoor Smoker - ability to smoke are own meat. (On Tuesdays we do "Argentinean BBQ" that is smoked from 6am by our resident Argentinean/Mexican chef for a truly unique and authentic dining experience.) We also love Live Music - having local talent every Friday Night and gigs up to 450 people in the summer!
Best Known for:
Historic 120 year old pub
Outdoor smoked meats
Live music
Please describe your commitment to sustainability.
We are serious about our commitment to sustainability, the key things we do:
No Plastic Straws - we tried to be ‘No Straw’ however feedback from customers drinking cocktails & children's drinks wanted a straw. So now with those drinks and on request we provide ‘Sugar Cane Straws’ from a sustainable NZ Brand.
We don’t throw away our ‘J-Cloths’ after one use/shift. We wash them, line dry them and re-use them. (We do this with our polishing and other cleaning cloths too. We do all our washing on-site.
Candles - we use glass balls with lighter fluid, we found this was less wasteful than tea lights or other candles and could be re-used 100s of times.
We do not sell anything in a plastic bottle including soft drinks - only glass and cans. We recycle all of these.
Sourcing local ingredients for a smaller carbon footprint. Several benefits is sourcing local for us - it allows us to get fresh produce, support the local community and reduce the 'food miles'. We are very lucky to be surrounded by fantastic food producers, vineyards and breweries (being based in Matakana)- and our aim is to represent the best of our region.
Some of our suppliers include Daily Organics - next door. | Matakana Coffee Roasters - over the road. | Matakana Butchers - 300 meters. | Leigh Fisheries - 12km | Omaha Bay Vineyard - 4km | Takatu Vineyard - 3.5km | Charlies Gelato - 3km | Whangaripo Eggs - 17km | McLeods Brewery - 68km | Sawmill Brewery - 3.5km | 8 Wired Brewery - 240 meters.
Have you won any awards in the recent past? Tell us about them.
Tripadvisor - Certificate of Excellence 2016 | For the consistent achievement of high ratings from travellers.
The Voice of Hospitality - Awards for Excellence 2013 | Winner of best new/redeveloped bar/restaurant.
Please describe how you create ambience.
We create an ambience depending on what time of day, year, season and event. We are open all year round and have the ability to fit according to what suits us. Being a historic building with several different spaces we can cater to any group depending on what they are looking for. For example, we have our restaurant dining area which is kept lovely and warm in the winter for someone looking for a smarter dining experience. Or we have the wooden bar area with an open outdoor fire, with live sports if someone is looking for a cosy pub environment. We are able to adapt our spaces depending on the event.
