Because there are 3 birthdays in my group of closest friends (Barbara, Jane and Bill) in the space of 3 weeks, I took these three fabulous friends out for dinner last night to one of my favourite restaurants in Christchurch which claims to have an “international cuisine”. It’s never failed to delight.
Its location on Victoria Street means that that there is easy parking as well.
I had decided we were doing “trust the chef” and whew! didn’t the “chef” do well? I managed to take photos of 6 courses, but when I counted up all the dishes that were presented to the table, there were actually 10.
The tacos and prawns arrived at the table less than 5 minutes after I’d told the waiter we wanted to trust the chef. We actually ended up – somehow – with 2 lots of mushroom tacos being delivered to the table. I’m not all that fussed about mushrooms, but these did not actually taste at all “mushroomy”. The sauce for the taco was a great blend of Mexican flavours.
The crispy prawns were, to my thinking, a bit overcooked – and I’m still not sure what the “crispy” actually was as there was lots of it and it was very crisp.
The tuna was barely warm, which is the way it was expected, but the salsa that it was presented was a delicious, piquant addition to the flavours.
Chicken was presented in 2 different ways, and I only remembered to take a photos of the skewered chicken. The other chicken dish was a spicy dish stir-fried with vegetables.
The calamari was the best calamari I’ve ever eaten. It melted in my mouth and wasn’t the slightest bit chewy unlike every other time I’ve ever tried it. Sadly, I can’t now remember what the flavour was. But it was definitely delicious.
Apart from the spicy chicken, I also missed taking photos of the pork dumplings and salad, and, of course, the second lot of mushroom tacos which were presented slightly differently from the first lot.
The final dish was dessert- hot apple pie and chocolate cake (?) with a piece of hokey-pokey on top so maybe it wasn’t just chocolate. Both were delicious, but I still can’t see what the theme was between the 2. Maybe there didn’t need to be and so there wasn’t. Who knows?
Service: 4/5 Food: 5/5 Ambience: 4/5 Total 13/15
Film & Food 