Drive to the quiet end of Waiheke, down a gravel road that feels like it leads nowhere, and you arrive in a valley that looks a lot like Tuscany: gardens, vines on the hills, ducks and geese on the lawn and a restaurant looking out over the whole thing. It's a family-run winery with a genuine Italian heart, and the owner is often out on the floor greeting arrivals and checking on tables. Lunch is the reason you come, and it's built to take time, with the long lunch running five courses over three or four hours alongside matched wines, while the rest of the menu covers stracciatella, lasagne that changes with the garden, gnocchi with beef ragu and a tiramisu worth leaving room for. There's also a casual bar and garden area for shared plates, bread and olive oil and a glass of rosé when you haven't booked the big table. Everything in the glass is grown on the property, from the Arneis and Chardonnay through to the Syrah, Montepulciano and the Viburno, and most of what arrives on your plate comes out of the garden. Lunch runs from midday to late afternoon Thursday to Monday, Saturday is the only day that stretches into dinner, and it's a fair drive from the ferry, so book ahead and sort your transport.
Written from 379 Google reviews, every one we could get, on 12 November 2026. Rated 4.5 from 370 Google reviews.
Book the long lunch and you get the version of Poderi Crisci that several hundred reviewers rate 4.6: five courses, matched wines and three or four hours at the table. The cooking is proper Italian and the setting is a big part of why people drive out here.
Start with the stracciatella, cool and creamy and made from ingredients good enough to taste on their own, then move on to the lasagne, whether it comes as pumpkin, bechamel or straight from the garden. The short rib and the gnocchi with beef ragu are the other two to order, and the tiramisu or semifreddo with stewed strawberries is how you finish.
The team knows the wine list properly and will talk you through the Arneis, the Syrah and the Viburno as each course arrives, and the owner is often out on the floor greeting tables. It's what makes a birthday feel like an event, though a packed room can make things brisk.
You're on a hillside above the vines, at long tables or out on the terrace, with the gardens and valley in front of you and pukeko and weka wandering past. Between courses you can walk the grounds, play petanque or look through the cellar, and the sunset over the valley is worth booking around.
It's not a cheap afternoon, and the wine list is where a bill climbs fastest, but the long lunch is fair value for five courses and three or four hours at the table. A platter and a bottle in the garden bar is the lighter way in.
This is a long-table place, with big birthdays, family reunions, work Christmas parties and weddings all handled without fuss, and groups of a dozen or twenty are standard. It works as a date too, especially with a sunset over the valley.
The long lunch really does run long, with gaps between courses, so don't arrive starving or with a ferry to catch. On a full room food has come out cold and slow and service offhand, and walk-ins have been turned away before closing, so book ahead.
Every fact on this page was checked on 8 November 2026 against Google, Poderi Crisci's own website and 379 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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