The Packhouse is the home of Lumberjack Brewing and Te Puke's home of great food and drink — a pub and cafe that pours hand-crafted beer and house-roasted coffee alongside a kitchen making everything daily from fresh, local ingredients.
All of the tap beer is hand crafted in 600-litre batches at the Lumberjack brewery in Pukehina. An award-winning Lager and the house Te Puke Draught pour full time, with a range of bottled beer alongside, and an on and off licence means you can take your favourites home.
The cafe side is taken just as seriously: the house coffee is a blend of arabica beans from Brazil and Ethiopia, roasted weekly in-house and available to purchase for takeaway.
The team reckons they serve Te Puke's best burgers, pizzas, bar snacks and salads, partnering with other local businesses that share their focus on quality. Rotating weekly specials run through the week, so there is always something new to try.
Seating flexes between pub, restaurant and al fresco options — a garden bar or street dining — with free wifi, wheelchair access and 200+ free car parks. Reviews regularly praise the quick, friendly service, relaxing atmosphere and dog-friendly outdoor area. Open Wednesday to Sunday, 11am-9pm, with bookings, functions, catering and Uber Eats delivery available.
The Packhouse is the home of Lumberjack Brewing and, by most local accounts, Te Puke's home of great food and drink. Part brewery taproom, part neighbourhood cafe and part proper pub kitchen, it pours hand-crafted beer and house-roasted coffee alongside a kitchen that makes everything daily from fresh, local ingredients. Regulars reach for words like "amazing", "fantastic" and "beyond" — about the food, the coffee and the welcome alike.
The taps are the headline act. Every beer on tap is hand crafted in 600-litre batches at Lumberjack Brewing's own brewery in Pukehina, a short drive from Te Puke. Not everyone is a craft-beer convert, and The Packhouse caters for that too: an award-winning Lager and the house Te Puke Draught pour full time, with a range of bottled beer alongside. With an on and off licence, whatever you enjoy in the glass can come home with you in a bottle.
Half pub, half cafe — and the cafe side is taken seriously. The house coffee is a roasted-in-house blend of arabica beans from Brazil and Ethiopia, roasted weekly rather than left to sit. It has earned its own following among locals who come for a flat white rather than a pint, and the beans themselves are available to purchase for takeaway so you can keep the blend at home.
The kitchen's promise is simple: everything on the menu is made daily from fresh, local ingredients, and the business partners with other producers who share the same focus on quality. The result is a line-up the team serves up as Te Puke's best burgers, pizzas, bar snacks and salads.
The burgers arrive on a toasted potato bun with a side of fries — try the Cheeseburger with its wagyu beef patty, or go all in on the Relapse, a double wagyu stack with house-cured bacon and double cheese. The Lumberjack Burger stacks fried chicken tenders with the house secret sauce.
Pizza bases are made fresh daily, with gluten-free bases and vegan cheese available on request. The range runs from a classic Margherita to the Mushroom with truffle oil and creme fraiche, a Smoked Chicken pizza built on a kiwi onion dip base, and a Meat Lovers loaded with pepperoni, ham, pulled pork and house-cured bacon.
Bar snacks cover the classics — beer-battered onion rings, garlic and triple cheese pizza knots — plus heartier plates like crumbed pulled pork bites with Lumberjack BBQ sauce and a Mixed Nibbles board made for sharing. Salads from a Chicken Caesar to a fresh Garden Salad round things out, and desserts run to a hazelnut chocolate tart and sticky toffee pudding with vanilla bean ice cream.
Alongside the regular menu, a rotating line-up of weekly specials runs through the week. Reviewers make a point of following The Packhouse on Facebook to catch them — one calls them "sooo good" — so it pays to check before you visit.
Dining flexes to the occasion: pub or restaurant seating inside, or al fresco out in the garden bar or at street tables. Free wifi and wheelchair access are on the list, along with more than 200 free car parks — handy for a venue that also hosts functions and runs a catering service. Regulars describe quick, friendly staff, a quiet and relaxing room, and a dog-friendly outdoor area; one calls the place "one of Te Puke's best kept secrets".
Can't make it in? The menu is also available for delivery through Uber Eats.
The Packhouse is at 4 Palmer Place, Te Puke, open Wednesday to Sunday from 11am to 9pm and closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Bookings can be made online, and the full seasonal menu is available as a download on the website. Phone 021 0859 8263.