Search Your Coopers Beach Hotels

My partner and I came in for dinner on Easter Sunday - we were staying at the Doubtless Bay Villas for the Easter weekend. I ordered Lamb Kofta as a starter and Ribs with Asian slaw as a main course. The waitress brought my lamb to the table and it didn't take long for me to realise that it wasn't cooked properly. It was pink on the inside and in fact there was a small piece of completely raw lamb on the end of one of the skewers. I did eat a little bit of it and was showing it to my partner. I also told him that the Tzatziki wasn't very good either, however that may also just be personal preference. Next thing, the waitress brought out my main course. There had been no questions about how the meal was in between so I had no opportunity to explain my thoughts. In addition to that, I still had the entree in front of me. I said to the waitress that I still had my entree and she made a comment along the lines of ”oh yes” and then put the main course down on the table anyway. I pushed the entree to one side as I wasn't really eating it anyway. The Ribs were quite good - the flavour was lacking in my opinion but that was just personal preference - they were cooked well. The Asian slaw was incredibly poor. It was a pile of shredded green and purple cabbage with a blob of mayo on the top. It was even a properly dressed coleslaw and certainly not Asian style that would have been dressed with lime, sesame oil, fish sauce etc. It was just a big pile of raw cabbage and no other vegetables. I also had an extremely disappointing Pina Colada but again, I can put that down to personal preference but the green dyed dessicated coconut that was sprinkled on the top was really unpleasant. My partner said his dinner of Cauli Manchurian followed by the Lamb Shank was very underseasoned and not enjoyable, however this is not something we would complain about but we think you should know that the quality wasn't there. When we left, I went to the bar as I wanted to give the waitress a tip but that didn't happen as she said they can't take a tip by EFTPOS payment and my partner had already paid for the dinner. I wanted to give her a tip because she was kind and pleasant. I told her my thoughts on my dinner and she apologised. She was a very nice young woman and unfortunately I didn't get her name. But it was clear that the three very young women serving in the bar and restaurant that night were very undertrained. She had no idea what to do when she brought my main course out and the entree was still in front of me - mostly uneaten. I also felt that the waitstaff were underdressed for their role - black tights/yoga pants and tshirts are very unprofessional looking for dinner service at a restaurant where we spent almost $200.

Our family thoroughly enjoyed our stay. Camp ground was clean, tidy with good facilities. The tent site was big, the kids could safely navigate their way around, the beach was nice short walk away!

We spent a blissful few days enjoying the stellar private view from the Pohutukawa cabin (see photo), which had everything we needed for a very comfortable stay. Bonus: we enjoyed watching the neighbour's cows cruise by for a visit while the sun set on the spa pool! The shower was excellent, too. Maitai Bay, only a short drive away, was our favorite beach during our entire 3 weeks in NZ. In the other direction, the shops in nearby Mangonui had yummy fish and chips and ice cream - though we didn't need to leave the Karikari Lodge to be well fed. Katalina was so generous feeding us local seafood feasts. On our final day, even with Cyclone Gabrielle looming in the forecast, Paul and Katalina toured us down the length of Tokerau Beach -- including digging for tuatua! Quite fun once we got the hang of it. I hope we can return on our next trip to NZ. Big thanks to Paul and Katalina for welcoming us so kindly!

My wife and I are elderly, still work, and like to treat ourselves with a bit of luxury occasionally. We love classy hotels. We are not golfers but Carrington Estate is a lovely place. We had the best room in the Lodge. Great views over the golf course to the ocean beyond. Had a game of pool in the Library. All good so far. The restaurant.... The food was probably excellent, but some of the staff are exceptionally rude, arrogant, and argumentative. This is what happened. We ordered a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc off the restaurant wine list. Our young waitress came back and apologised that they had sold out of their own Sauvignon. (Carrington have their own vineyard). Their's was the only Sauvignon Blanc on the wine list which struck me as a little unusual for a restaurant of this standard? We don't drink other styles of wine. I asked our waitress if I could retrieve a bottle of our own Sauvy from our room fridge. That was fine she said, and when I returned she had brought two wine glasses to the table. After our food arrived another waitress/duty manager, Emma C stopped at our table and told us that we couldn't drink our own wine. I explained the whole story but she just got angry, stood there with her hands on her hips and ”told us off” loudly. She threatened to confiscate our bottle and then called for back-up from a male colleque, Giovanni. They both stood over us, arguing loudly. I invited Giovanni to sit at our the table so we could discuss this without causing us embarrasment in front of the other guests. Nope. Our food was now going cold so I asked them both to leave us alone and explained that my wife and I both work in tourism/sales and customers/guests should never be treated like this. We hurredly finished our meals, paid and left. But this wasn't good enough for them. They apologised to all the other guests in the restaurant but blamed us for bringing in our own wine. Of course they didn't mention we had permission, and there was no Sauvy available for purchase. No, they were the heros and we were the bad guys. We were humiliated. Couldn't use the restaurant in the morning of course because all the other guests would have recognised us. We didn't due anything wrong. Thanks Emma C and and Giovanni for wreaking our day off. Your behaviour was disgraceful. You don't deserve to be in our wonderful Country. Go home soon please before you destroy other business's and reputations.