The Stables Restaurant, Matakana

We absolutely loved our wedding at The Stables in February 2024. Our day was a dream come true, it was amazing to see everything come to life, it was perfect from start to finish with not a single hiccup. We cannot thank The Stables enough for their hospitality, and the way everything was so well organised and co-ordinated, we didn't have to think about a single thing when the big day arrived. The design team understood our vision and created it even better than we had imagined. The venue is stunning, inside and outside. the staff are wonderful, there's so many options to choose from and all our guests have raved about the food!! Alexandra Tofield, the events & wedding co-ordinator, was very accomodating to our emails and various requests. She's so lovely and made us feel so welcome at our food tasting, our rehearsal and the big day. She's so experienced and made sure everything went so smoothly. Thank you The Stables, for the most incredible day, and making our dream come to life! Shinnae & Ritchie

We had our wedding at The Stables. Nic is their events coordinator, she is very organised and thought of everything we needed. She asked relevant questions to ensure every last detail was how we wanted it for our special day. They were able to order in our favourite drinks for our wedding. The venue is beautiful and they have recently renovated their garden too! The food was yummy and the staff were awesome. The outdoor area looks awesome at night time too. Highly recommend.

It’s been a while since we have been equally impressed across our main 3 areas of rating a restaurant. In order of the experiences- Customer service is 5 star, as a team they are in unison with each other, my husband commented saying he likes the fact that you can’t tell who owns the restaurant because each of the staff display a passionate sense of ownership for the restaurant. Very proud, friendly staff who are not obnoxious, and we really value that. A sense that a place is more than just employment, a togetherness on the floor that is true kiwiana manaakitanga and it is shared throughout. Family friendliness is a 5 star, we like to dine with our young family of 3 children often, and The Stables team are at the front of making the experience a pleasant one. The contemporary country setting is beautiful, horses going by and accessible playground equipment outside on far side of the park. Great for the children to run off steam with relaxing scenery as the backdrop. Yes, they have colouring ins, as entry to a competition to get a half price meal for the next visit. A thoughtful and effective way to have children waiting patiently for their meals is always a tick. That brings me to the 5 Star kai food. Perfectly prompt, signs of a well organised kitchen and it definitely shows! Quality fresh local produce with presentation seen in a la carte dining. I thoroughly enjoyed my fresh line caught Leigh snapper. My husband enjoyed the crispy duck breast dish and my eldest had the chicken supreme, 10/10 all three cooked perfectly tender. We were so impressed by the dedicated chefs, and The Stables not missing a beat. Also, the garlic bread with olives is a must! Now for the childrens menu, simple quality indgredients which for our youngest fussy eaters was perfect, especially because our children have ASD tastebuds, so we usually find that even the herb sprinkles over pizza, chips or pasta is enough to turn our children away. I asked kindly that if they do usually serve with herbs, if they could leave them off and it was honored with no problem. Not once did we feel our requests were an inconvenience, which these days is hard to find. The Stables child friendliness was apparent and well received and anyone who dines with a young family will know how important this is. Drinks- gin lovers must try the Rhubard Tonic. We enjoyed all our drinks especially the TED Otago Pinot Noir. Deserts- don’t give it a miss! We value experience over pricing so like anyone else like to feel that we got what we paid for and we absolutely feel we did and very happy to tip this place. Just entirely worth it and highly recommend. Thank you for contributing to a wonderful Mother’s day, it was the first without my husband’s mother who recently passed away and we couldn’t have asked for a more memorable way to have commemorated the day. We will definitely be back to try your steak and rib Fridays!

Literally the most amazing and most accommodating venue ever! I never in my wildest dreams thought that planning a wedding would be so stress free but Nic and her team made it such a breeze…infact I actually enjoyed planning it! We got married at the start of May which was always risky but as they have an indoor/outdoor option which both look amazing it didn’t really matter what the weather was doing! The staff were AMAZING and so so lovely and the food was DELICIOUS I will be stopping in at smiths in hopes to get a taste of their amazing food again. We can’t thank the team enough for making our special day so perfect

We recently had our wedding at Stables and it was the most magical day of our lives. Alex, Zoey and the team were so accommodating and made us feel so relaxed and comfortable. No request was too big or complex and all of our guests talked about how amazing the venue and staff were. Babies and breastfeeding mothers were accommodated and everyone was looked after so well. The food was one of the highlights of the day - consistently high quality across all 80 guests and even the baby loved her special meal and was spoilt with extra ice cream. The price of the venue, food and alcohol and the service were amazing value and we would recommend Stables to anyone planning an event/wedding.

We had so many venues listed to checkout for our special day and visited the Stables first. WE NEVER LOOKED BACK!! We fell in love with the place immediately! We were very well looked after from quote, to planning to tasting and to the day itself. The team was consistent, friendly and just AMAZING! We are so lucky to have celebrated our special day here! The food was DELCIOUS and our guests enjoyed their time! To top if all off, even though we had a rain on our special day, there was so many "photo location" options available for us! Thank you for looking after us, for hosting us and for making our sepcial day the most perfect day.

This place is great and there's a lot to see. Very well set up country barn and ranch atmosphere. Including horses, carts and, of course, barns. There is a cafe, restaurant and bar to choose from for food. There is also a souvenir shop and a huge, wonderful playground. There was a lot we didn't have time to see here. We had the sunday roast pork and snapper. They were both beautifully presented and absolutely delicious. We could not fault our meals, or the restaurant at all. The atmosphere, service and setting were great too. Even if you just want to stop for a break and food while driving north this place is definitely worth it.

Was at this venue for a wedding. Ceremony and reception were beautiful. Great indoor space with stunning woodwork and lights. The outdoor area was nice, lots of grass and games on the lawn. Staff were very friendly and welcoming. The menu was amazing, beautiful food. Would recommend hiring

Excellent experience at Stables for our staff Christmas party, the table was spectacular, fire on, staff on hand and a wonderful night. Everyone loved the room, we had it all to ourselves and it was perfect. We all agreed we would be back soon for another event.

I have been to matakana many times but i have never been here before until recently. Lovely restaurant with an amazing scenery while dining out. I highly recommend the roast dinner if your there on sunday. We really liked the menu and good prices too. Great service and the staff made us feel very welcome and we'll be back again. We also enjoyed a walk around the grounds.