The ferry from Auckland takes about 35 minutes, and from Matiatia it's a two-minute drive or a 15 to 20 minute walk along the coastal track to a hilltop, where the restaurant's floor-to-ceiling windows look out over the Hauraki Gulf and the Auckland skyline across the water. Book a table rather than turning up, especially on a sunny weekend, because the room, the verandah and the tables by the glass fill quickly.
Wine is the whole reason the place exists, and the cellar door pours from 11 to 5 daily, with wines from two regions: Waiheke fruit in the Chardonnay, Syrah, Pinot Gris and Five Hills merlot malbec, and Awatere Valley in Marlborough for the Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir and rosé. Everything is hand-harvested and Sustainable Winegrowing accredited, and the tastings are guided, so you get the story behind each pour and a decent run at the olive oil too.
Then there's the Verandah, open through lunch and into the evening on Friday and Saturday and for shorter hours the rest of the week, where you can get wood-fired pizza, oysters, lamb and fish of the day to eat with that view. Behind it there's the bistro and a set of private rooms for weddings and corporate dos, plus a villa and a guest house if you'd rather stay the night than catch the last ferry.
Written from 1,214 Google reviews, every one we could get, on 12 November 2026. Rated 4.0 from 1,183 Google reviews.
The view is the reason most people come, with the gulf and the Auckland skyline filling those windows, but the kitchen and the cellar door have earned a following of their own. Oysters, lamb and wood-fired pizza are worth the ferry ride, and the guided tastings give the day a shape.
Start with the oysters, fresh and silky with lemon, then share a Margherita or a Funghi from the wood-fired oven, which is what you'll see on most tables. The lamb is the main to get, tender enough to pull apart, and the fish of the day, tuna crudo, truffle fries and a crème brûlée fill out the rest.
The team knows these wines inside out and takes real pleasure in walking you through them, matching the pours to your food and treating a first-timer as well as a collector. Blankets on a cold afternoon and a baby handed grated apple show the care in the details, though it thins out when the room fills.
The room is glass, concrete and light, built so nearly every table looks across the gulf to Auckland, and a clear evening turns the whole bay orange. Tastings happen in the cellar door rather than at your table, and the lawn out front is fenced off, so the view comes from your seat.
A full lunch with wine costs what you'd expect for a special occasion, and the bill is where opinions split, though pizza and shared plates keep it sensible and the guided tastings are modestly priced against the wineries down the road.
It's built for the occasions you want to remember, with anniversaries, milestone birthdays and hens parties getting the full view-and-tasting treatment, and weddings taking over the bistro, the private rooms and the lawn. Families are looked after too, kids eating pizza while a baby gets grated apple.
The floor can struggle when tour buses and big groups arrive together, and you can wait a long time for drinks while mains arrive at different times, so leave a buffer before your ferry. Tastings happen in the cellar room and can feel rushed when it's busy, and dishes do sell out.
Every fact on this page was checked on 8 November 2026 against Google, Cable Bay Vineyards's own website and 1,214 of its Google reviews. The photo is from the eatout library, not taken here, and no venue pays to be listed or ranked. Something out of date? Tell us
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