Joe's Garage — Restaurant in Canterbury

It is not often I hand out 5 stars but this visit for dinner deserves it. Reservation for Dinner on Saturday night was needed. We booked for 5.30pm for 3 adults. Seated by smiling staff and shown to the table. Drinks waitress arrived and took our order. Delivered exactly what was required and remembered what we ordered when we reordered. Waitress knowledge of the menu was excellent. Food delivered as she described. We ordered: Entree (shared on table). Squid - beautifully cooked and plenty in the serving. Chicken pieces - enough for a few pieces each. Chicken was hot and moist. The sauce accompanying the chicken was spot on. Flat bread with cheese and garlic. Full of flavour. Well presented. For the mains: The chicken burger and chips. The chicken fillet was cooked well, salad well portioned for the burger. Chips cooked nicely not overcooked. The Tiger salad - a large portion arrived. Chicken was well cooked with a generous salad. Sirloin Steak 250g arrived medium rare with a flavoursome mushroom sauce, chips and salad. The salad was fresh, vinaigrette was generous but not overpowering, along with tomatoes, and red onion. Great salad and I am not a salad fan. The mains were amazing and the service was excellent and on time. Well worth the price. Watching the restaurant there was a good mixture of clients of all ages and tables ranging from 2 to 6 people at them including children. The restaurant was reasonably quiet we were able to hear the music in the background yet were still able to talk at the table at a normal level without yelling to be heard.

Staff communicated well and delivered as promised. Well done and keep up the great service. Looking forward to the next visit.

Really happy to support local businesses...

I don't usually write reviews for franchises but this one deserves it.

Both Dunedin and Queenstown Joe's never disappoint but this one left a sore spot.

We walked in, waiting to be greeted and a server told us to take a seat. We did. Fifteen minutes later - with no menus or water this server was nowhere to be seen. (Your tap was out of order so we couldn't grab that ourselves).

Two other waitresses cleared a empty table across the restaurant from us while no one approached us. I witnessed another table of 3 whom had finished their meals 15 minutes ago bring their plates up to the counter because no one had checked on them or offered them anything else.

Five minutes later a waitress approached us offering menus. Food and drinks were good; it was just a shame with the slow service it took up to half an hour to get these.

Your restaurant was also not busy at this time. We were one of the five tables in (the table of 3 included). Three of these tables were already eating also.

The other two franchises I've mentioned above have much better service.

Food is good but your service is slow and needs A LOT of improvement. Very disappointed as our table and some others today were just not...

30.6.2023 Well we went there today everything had gone downhill all of the staff that came to our table had filthy uniforms on marks all over there clothes dried food etc the tsp with the coffee was dirty someone came said how were our meals I said the mushrooms were past good and dried up and rubbery he smiled and said oh sorry the fried potatoes were white like just mashed the toast on picking it up just drooped over !! what a dreadful meal and service the staff seriously need to tidy themselves up and deliver better service as if they actually care ! We will never go back we’ve been quite a few times but never ever again.!! What a dreadful time .. we had to scrape someone else’s leftovers off the table unbelievable really! We went to Riccarton Joes today where we used to regularly go we had a fabulous breakfast Izzi served us she is so awesome it was nice to see they all respect how they present themselves so clean and professional but friendly what an efficient and fantastic team ! Such a total opposite experience to...