The Marine Bistro

Indecisive on what to order so we went with the pork belly and fish as the reviews were good, plus a side of peri peri fries.

The pork belly flavours were yum, and the carrots and kumara mash were a highlight.

Biggest let down though ... and usually the highlight of any roast pork... was the crispy skin.

Unfortunately ours was so burnt/black that it was inedible. The chef must have known as it was heavily covered in dried herbs, which felt like an attempt to disguise it.
(Photos attached)

Not one pork belly dish in previous reviews looked anywhere near as black as ours tonight.

The fish was the same the skin was black and overdone.

We mentioned it to the waiter, who passed the feedback on to the chef, only to be told that’s how it’s supposed to be “to get it crispy.”

Interesting, because none of the other photos online look close to this, and I’ve never had crispy pork belly or fish served black before.

So I guess we just suck it up lol.

Other than that, our waiter was friendly and the service was good.

What was somewhat lacking in atmosphere was made up for by the delicious food. We ate here on holiday, the Sirloin steak was very well cooked, a side of fries might go well with them. The Crispy Pork Belly lived up to its name, so CRISPY, and the Miso Caramel sauce and veges were delicious. We would eat here again.

This place is definitely a "don't judge a book by its cover"
Service was awesome and the food was definitely a 10 out of 10.
Everything we ate was beautiful!!
The prawns were perfect
The chicken was perfect
The pork crackle was to die for
The steak was cooked perfectly
Even the vegetables and salad were yum
And the portions were good decent size 👌🏼

I’m so glad we gave this place a chance, we seen the restaurant on first table and then seen the great reviews of the food. The small but mighty menu had us hooked. We enjoyed all our food from the pork belly and steak down to the side salad and curly fries. The customer service was great. We didn’t get a photo of the prawns and chicken but can confirm the flavour was delicious and cooked perfectly. Definitely recommend giving the food here a go.

Decided to go based on previous reviews and it really was a lovely small bistro with superbly cooked and presented food. A hidden gem on the coast. The photos I attach don’t really do the food justice, the presentation, quantity and flavour were amazing. We had Crudo and halloumi for starters, followed by the fish in lime sauce and the belly pork. Superb flavours again good portions. A side salad to finish,