The Kentish Hotel

Check-in was all good, the lady was nice and friendly, as were all staff I met, bar staff, waitstaff and housekeeping. There is a $20 refundable deposit for the room key. Heading up the stairs to the room I’m greeted by a long hallway the well underway being renovated. Not sure I was aware this was happening, but by recent reviews it was well overdue. It will look incredble once done and will still be in keeping the historic charms that made me book in the first place. Carrying on down the hallway, checked in on the shared toilet facilities, looks they were recently upgraded and look great. The showers are still old, dusty and still without hot water. I’m sure they’ll be updated in due course. The room was fine, minimally appointed as expected. The sink also had no hot water either, and unfortunatley the room was also situated above the sports bar. This means the loud thumping music was felt and heard till just past 12. I was more aware of this before arriving than the renovation. At 6 I went to the bar and ordered a drink and burger from the bar which arrived very quickly. Wow it was so good! Sat by the warm wood fireplace and watched the Warriors get absolutely dismantled on the big screens at the bar. The next downside was that the cleaners arrived around 6:30am crash banging around and thowing large bags of beer bottles out from the previous night, maybe celebrating the Blues win? Perhaps they aren’t used to people staying at the hotel - I’m fairly sure I was the only one staying that night so was pretty unnerving at first. In any case don’t expect a good night sleep staying here. All in all I knew what I was getting myself into but was overall pretty happy as I got to stay in the historic Kentish Hotel. I would echo another reviewer though - I wouldn’t bring wifey here, she appreciates her sleep far more than I do.

Thank you guys for giving our Motorhome Group from Omokoroa such a great night. The food was awesome and you attended to all our needs. We hope to come back again soon. Thank you also for the park over which we didn't previously know about but will recommend to other groups.

The senior club had the Xmas buffet luncheon . It was not a Buffet I would recommend,the meat was dry like it was left over from night before , no gravy for potatoes we had to ask for xtra as not enough was serve out, dessert was only a dry brownie and canned whipped cream not ice cream as stated. The seating was bench seats crammed together , not suitable for seniors. Poor service. Non of the club members enjoyed the meal.

Truly awful in every possible way. Booked for 2 nights....it is not a hotel is a hostel with hotel prices. Rooms are old, no bathroom, thin curtains that don't block light, no sound proofing and while staff are very friendly, Management is dreadful. We weren't told about the noise til we arrived from put of town with nowhere else to go. It was like sleeping in a rock concert. Cold showers....not in our room, dirty bathrooms. Couldn't wait to leave. No staff available at check out, no way we wanted to stay a second night. Called them 7 times, knocked on 2 doors, from 7am to cancel 2nd night. Sent an email, left a voice mail....no one replied. Finally got through at 11am after trying all morning, only to be told we wouldn't get a refund because we didn't tell them before 10am!!!! Pretty hard to do that when all avenues of communication are blocked. Spoke to one person who told me she was the cleaner and refused to give me the managers phone number. I asked for manager to call me....and they never did. Absolute freaking NIGHTMARE

As a local this is a dissapointing review to write. We continue to give this place a chance but we have hit the final straw after years of it slowly going down hill. Trying to celebrate the husbands 50th bday we went there on a Monday night so it was incredibly quiet. Lemon in the gin and tonic was rotten so needed it to be remade. Manager did his best and we cant fault him. An hour after ordering he came and told us there were issues in the kitchen and the head chef had been called in to help as the new chef is clearly not a chef. Kids pasta was well over cheesed and barely edible. The Thai Chilli mussels the husband and I got as an entree was served with the over cheese sauced from the kids pasta and no thai chilli sauce at all. Husband's steak was barely edible and it was all very underwhelming. We won't be going back to eat until something dramatically changes.

This place seems to have gone downhill. This is the second time we have eaten at the Kentish. Last time was some years prior and we enjoyed our meal then. This time it was unfortunately substandard. The staff were very inexperienced and didn’t know anything about the menu. The steak was ordinary, mushroom sauce was nice but the veggies they were served with were clearly from a frozen bag and some were still frozen! My ribs were OK but should have been way better. I feel for many businesses these days with lack of good staff and covid losses etc, but somehow we need to do way better. Unfortunately our dinner tonight was just simply a disappointment.

We were placed directly above the bar and the extremely loud pub band. Our elderly unimproved unsoundproofed room vibrated and shook until midnight. The shared toilets were a nightmare and faeces adorned (probably due to a drunk guest). My duvet smelled like the lungs of a smoker. All in all just awful.

I hate arriving at a restaurant and being ignored. We stood at the entrance and all the staff seemed to put their heads down and carry on scurrying around doing bits and pieces. Five minutes on we got the attention of a waitress and were seated. Placed our order for two cobs of garlic bread and a bowl of chips as our entree to share while we waited for our mains to be cooked. Anyway .... 45 minutes later and the bread and chips where no where to be seen. One of our group went up to the bar where the staff where congregating and requested the entree as we were starving by this stage. The meals arrived with the garlic bread (One portion) and chips. There seemed to be a table of people dining beside us and a dispute about items not served as part of a meal that were on the menu. Another table had a gripe about something as well. The meals were well below standard, but as I said, we were hungry punters. Vegetarian pasta that was ordered by two of our group was tasteless, cold and raw ... not el dente but raw. The waitress behind the bar continuously played with her hair, grooming it into new positions so much so that my business partner asked her to at least wash her hands while serving customers. Gross!! Plenty of staff on but all not sure of what or where to be. Tables sat dirty our entire lunch. With so many staff on I would think that the sticky, grubby menus could be wiped and the salt and pepper shakers cleaned and maybe even the gravy wiped off the table number card. Thank you God for sanitiser.