Young Māori man with moko faced down by upmarket Mission Bay restaurant patrons

Te Kou O Rehua Panapa says he could feel the hostility from the restaurant room of people in Auckland's swanky Mission Bay. Photo / Supplied

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A young Māori man with a facial tattoo said he was belittled with snide and sarcastic racial remarks from a group of old Pākehā men when he took his whānau to a swanky Mission Bay restaurant for dinner.

Te Kou O Rehua Panapa told the Herald he, his partner and two sons decided to go to one of their favourite restaurants in Mission Bay on Tuesday evening for the steak meal. They had been to the restaurant many times.

Panapa said as soon as they entered the restaurant, it fell silent.

"When we walked in, you could literally hear a pin drop," Panapa said.

"We walked in through the bar, and there was a group of old Pākehā koroua [elderly] sitting at the bar turned to look at us," Panapa said.

"My son said 'Dad what's everybody looking at?'"

"I was new to wearing my mataora and then realised what everyone was looking at."

As the whānau made their way through the crowded restaurant, others started chattering, pointing and laughing.

"I was like, sweet as haere tonu. I'm not going to deal with this. As we waited to be seated and that's when the restaurant basically stopped.

"When we were ushered through the tables, we could hear people talking, 'why would you get your face done like that' and glancing at me with really ugly looks.

"It made me feel uncomfortable and by the time I got to my seat, I was a wreck."

Panapa said he felt like exploding but his wife grabbed his hand and said: "This is all part of the journey."

"My eyes started welling up and I knew she was right.

"Despite my frustration, I had to retain my own mana. I looked around to look at everyone eye to eye.

"I am unapologetically Māori and this is me. We carried on with our dinner because we had to change that experience for our kids."

Panapa said the restaurant staff and management could not have been nicer or more accommodating and he will go back there again.

After heading to their home in Manurewa, Panapa took to Facebook to relay his dinner incident.

He received 2500 private messages of support, three invites from other restaurants in Mission Bay to free meals and even an invite from Kelly Tarlton's for his whānau to attend.

"We know that is the real people of Mission Bay," Panapa said.

"It just happened that on Tuesday steak night, the ugly ones were out."

The incident hasn't put Panapa off from telling it like it is.

"Never again will anyone ever make me feel uncomfortable about being Māori and having Mataora, especially in my own bloody country," he said.