The Smokin' Goose

The Smokin' Goose is a restaurant and beer garden located 10 minutes outside of Whakatane, serving barbecue meats with our own kiwi twist. You can enjoy dining inside our beautiful dining hall, or alternatively enjoy the picturesque outside dining area.

We also offer venue hire for special functions, if you are interested in booking The Smokin' Goose for your next big event, get in contact with us for further details, availability and pricing.

About Us

The Smokin' Goose is an American Barbecue style restaurant and beer garden just outside of Whakatāne. We aim to make everyone who walks through our doors feel welcome providing high quality food and beverages alongside great customer service.

The Smokin' Goose is a place to stick around for a few hours, enjoy a delicious bite to eat and enjoy the company of others with a cosy indoor dining area and large outdoor dining and activities area.

Whether you're a Whakatāne local or visiting the area, we welcome you to come down and sample some of the best food the district has to offer. Alongside being a restaurant and bar we also offer venue and event hire for those special occasions. If you are interested in hosting an event at our beautiful venue, please get in contact with us.

Our Story
We are Alex and Christie, the owners of The Smokin' Goose.

We were inspired through our travels in the USA to create an American style barbecue restaurant and beer garden in Whakatāne. When this site became available in early 2020, we decided to take the plunge and turn our dream into a reality.

The Smokin' Goose offers not only delicious American barbecue dishes, a great selection of drinks and beautiful indoor and outdoor dining areas, but also provides some of that famous southern hospitality, making everyone who walks through our doors feel welcome.

Our Process
American Barbecue is a highly specialised process that takes years to master and at The Smokin' Goose we've put our own spin on it.

We use several smoking methods which include charcoal, wood fire and pellet smoking. We hope to add off-set smoking to the list!

Pellet smoking ensures our meat quality is consistent and infuses a delicious smokey flavour. We add in our own special spice blends and sauces to make our dishes unbelievably tasty.

In addition to our smoked meats, we have a dedicated kitchen that produces our vegan options, burgers, salads, a selection of authentic sides, sauces and of course desserts.

Our Venue

The Smokin' Goose is located just outside off State Highway 30. We are 10 minutes outside of Whakatane, built on what was formerly an orchard.

We've worked hard at developing this site to make it as comfortable as possible having both indoor and outdoor dining areas, an outdoor kitchen, beer garden and a safe area for kids to run around.

Our venue is the ideal space for casual dining and can easily transform into a terrific space for private functions and events.

Why is it called The Smokin' Goose?
1A Luxton Road has been a special site for Awakeri, Whakatāne and the surrounding townships. It was formerly known as The Little Goose, and before that The White Goose due to a colony of flightless geese calling the site home. In homage to the heritage of the site and our resident feathered friends, we decided to keep the 'goose' name alive, but put our own spin on it. Rest assured goose is not on our menu, but they often walk past our doors for a nosy peak.