The Bay Bar and Brasserie has been Acacia Bay's favourite meeting spot for over 30 years. Situated at the end of the Acacia Bay straight, just down the road from Taupo town centre, it offers the community a perfect destination to socialise, dine, relax and unwind. Under new ownership, the team is passionate about sourcing food from sustainable suppliers and growers, and almost everything on the menu is carefully hand-made in house — from the warm homemade bread to the homemade ice creams.
The kitchen runs a full restaurant menu alongside a bar menu, with a wood-fired pizza oven turning out pizzas and other wood-fired dishes for both diners and takeaway. Dinner is served six days a week and lunch from Friday to Sunday, with entrees like seared scallops and pork ribs, hearty mains such as 21 day aged Canterbury Angus eye fillet and braised lamb shank, and award-winning homemade ice cream and sorbets to finish.
Friendly, knowledgeable staff serve great quality honest food in a relaxed dining environment, making The Bay popular for after-work drinks and catching up with friends and family. Phone orders and takeaways are welcome, free WiFi is available for all diners and patrons, and bookings — especially at weekends — can be made online or by phone.
For more than 30 years, The Bay Bar and Brasserie has been the meeting spot at the heart of Acacia Bay. You'll find it at the end of the Acacia Bay straight, just down the road from Taupo town centre — close enough to be an easy drive, local enough to feel like a proper neighbourhood haunt. It's a place the community uses as it always has: to socialise, dine, relax and unwind, whether that means after-work drinks at the bar or a long dinner with friends and family.
Under new ownership, The Bay has refreshed what it offers without losing what it is. The new team is passionate about sourcing food from sustainable suppliers and growers, and almost everything on the menu is carefully hand-made in house. That philosophy runs from the first bite of warm homemade bread served with homemade dip to the last spoonful of homemade vanilla ice cream.
The kitchen serves both a bar menu and a full restaurant menu, and it rewards big appetites. Entrees include golden arancini with sundried tomato and mozzarella, pork ribs with slaw, sesame and spring onion, and seared scallops on pumpkin puree with cauliflower cous cous and a sesame wafer. The lamb salad — marinated lamb, mint chilli dressing, roasted kumara and toasted seeds — is a lighter way in.
Mains are where the brasserie heart beats loudest. The house steak is a 21 day aged Canterbury Angus eye fillet with peppercorn sauce, potato gratin, carrot puree and greens. Alongside it you'll find a braised lamb shank on parmesan polenta with tomato caper sauce, three cheese pansotti in pomodoro with baby spinach and Grana Padano, and a duck and mushroom gnocchi finished with creamy mushroom sauce, chimichurri and pangrattato. Market fish changes with the day, served with mediterranean ragu and spiced lemon relish.
One of The Bay's defining features is its wood-fired pizza oven, which turns out pizzas and other wood-fired dishes for both in-house diners and takeaway. Combined with the bar menu, it makes the room as well suited to a casual midweek pizza-and-drinks night as it is to a full three-course dinner.
Lunch runs Friday to Sunday and has a personality of its own: the B.L.A.T stacked on turkish bread, pancakes with maple syrup, bacon and banana, an open steak sandwich with leafy greens, caramelised onion and fries, and a crispy Thai noodle salad you can top with tofu or eye fillet. The fresh pasta of the week is chalked on the blackboard, as are the seasonal ice cream and sorbet flavours — so it always pays to ask what's on.
Dessert deserves planning too. Bread and butter pudding with vanilla custard, an affogato with liqueur, Whittaker's chocolate fondant and apple and seasonal fruit crumble all come with the house's homemade vanilla ice cream, while the award-winning ice cream and sorbet platter lets you choose your own lineup or leave it to the chef.
The Bay keeps things simple and welcoming: great quality, honest food served by friendly, knowledgeable staff in a relaxed dining environment. Free WiFi is available for all diners and patrons, phone orders and takeaways are welcome, and online ordering makes it easy to enjoy the menu at home. The team loves bookings — especially at weekends — and tables can be reserved online or by phone. Regular events add another reason to keep an eye on the venue's Events page, and its long-standing local reputation is reflected in its Trip Advisor reviews.
Six dinner services a week, weekend lunches, a wood-fired oven and three decades of local goodwill: The Bay Bar and Brasserie remains exactly what it set out to be — Acacia Bay's meeting spot.