Chamois Bar and Grill

Final Rating:  3 stars

average price, average meal

We are staying in the Mount Cook Backpackers and Lodge while visiting Aoraki and decided to try out their bar and grill for our dinner.  The atmosphere is very casual and cheap.  You order at the bar and your food in put on a counter for you to collect.  The prices are higher than I’m used to for pub food, but then its been quite some time since I’ve had dinner in a pub so who knows….I was hoping for an improvement on last night’s steak with mushroom sauce so I ordered the Mackenzie Rib Eye with Mushroom Sauce.  It came with crinkle cut fries, salad and a fried egg.

 

Speights Alehouse

Final Rating: 3 stars

A bit hit or miss

Went out to dinner with C last night for his work Christmas party.  The brewery tour was interesting enough although the temperature got so hot I had to take my jersey off and wander around in my singlet pretending I couldn’t see my bra straps at all!  In the post-tour beer tasting session I thoroughly enjoyed a Macs Sour Apple drink.  It has a real tart taste to it that Appletiser and Fresh Up Big Fizz Apple are missing.  It’s not as sweet as them and so I don’t think it ranks up as high on my list of favourites.  It is still a wonderfully refreshing beverage, definitely to be enjoyed again!

 

Grand Century

Final Rating : 3 and 1/2 stars
A nice and cheap yumcha option, although a little greasy

I know I’ve said it before, and I’ll no doubt say it again, but I adore Asian food, Chinese is not usually on my list of top foods but that is largely because the options available to me aren’t that good.  You usually get the sweet & sour pork, fried rice, chicken chow mein, and beef in black bean sauce.  I adore schezuan cuisine and the kinds of dishes you rarely find in a small Chinese takeaway in a town like Dunedin.  There is one thing that I adore about Chinese food however, and that is yumcha.  For those of you who don’t know yumcha is like a giant smorgasbord brunch where, if the place is good, you sit and select dishes as they come around.  The idea is to have a little bit of a whole bunch of different things.  I tend to find that I order too much as everything looks and smells divine and it’s sometimes hard to tell how much you’ve ordered as they come around.  Its not something you go to on your own as the dishes come in servings of 3-5 so basically on your own you get one maybe two dishes.

 

The Garden Court Brasserie (The Chateau on the Park)

Final Rating : 4 stars
An amazingly upmarket meal in a casual, bistro style setting

I have eaten so much food today. I found that morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea all blended together into one glutt. The food was lovely and I especially enjoyed the tart freshness of fresh pineapple, strawberries and melons. What truly stands out however is the fabulous meal I just had for dinner at the Garden Court Brasserie. When I saw beef fillet steak wrapped in steady bacon with green olive and mushroom crust on scalloped potatoes & grappa glaze sauce I knew I had to have it and boy did this place not disappoint. The steak was cooked perfectly medium-rare as requested and it was moist and juicy and really did not need the sauce. The sauce however was just a fabulous blend of the sweet and the tart, perfectly complimenting the potatoes and the steak, while the olive and mushroom crust was an interesting touch I had never seen before. I was a little worried when I saw it on the menu but I decided to be adventurous and I’m glad I was. It was almost the consistency of pâté and really added to the blending of flavours on my plate. The only downside to the entire meal was the presence of asparagus on my plate yet again, however they did give me scalloped potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower as well so I forgive them.

 

one80 (Copthorne Orental Bay)

Final Rating: 3 and a half stars
Very delicious, but not a lot of bang for your buck

Work has me staying in the Copthorne Oriental Bay tonight, the whole purpose of this trip to Wellington has been for work, and tonight we had dinner at the hotel. Now this sort of restaurant is usually out of my price range, however it is fairly standard for this sort of work. I was actually a little disappointed in the decor of the restaurant. The hotel itself is lovely, and my room is definitely very posh with its gorgeous harbour views and lush furniture. The service however was fabulous. I booked the dinner a while ago and advised that we needed to be kept fairly private due to the nature of the meeting. The restaurant was too busy to accommodate us so we were moved to a private business suite with a personal waitress who was lovely. Throughout the meal they were friendly and efficient, although one colleague’s meal obviously got missed somehow. They brought out the side dishes to compensate and offered a free drink on the house while she waited.