The Flaming Rabbit — Restaurant in Canterbury

I'll start with the positives. The seat was reasonably comfy, the waitress polite and the ice in the water was a nice touch. Other than that there is not much to compliment. After a long wait to order I chose the roast pork accompanied by crackling, duck fat potatoes; roast carrots, pumpkin and parsnips; peas, apple puree and gravy. The centre piece of the meal, the roast pork, was acceptable, nothing special but definitely not the worst part of the dish. The crackling was somehow soggy and tooth-breaking hard at the same time. What really disappointed me was the roast vegetables. The duck fat potatoes were what I was most excited for but I was severely underwhelmed. Describing these monstrosities as 'roast' is disrespectful, they were closer to boiled potatoes soaked in oil. The rest of the roast vegetables were similarly underwhelming, the carrots had less flavour than cardboard straight out of recycling, the pumpkin tasted like flavoured water and the parsnips were indistinguishable from the potatoes. The peas were shriveled and were merely a plate filler to a disappointing meal. The apple puree was reminiscent of baby food and looked like it had been poured straight out of the bottle. The gravy was again nothing special, all right but not anything to talk about. If I had ordered this meal from a dusty pub, I wouldn't be feeling so hard done by. However, I payed $30 in what was supposed to be an upmarket eatery. I would have been better off going to Lincoln Uni for a free meal. The highlight of the night was watching the Australian Open. Unfortunately there's no zero star option so I'll have to settle for one star. Thanks for wasting your ingredients on me but I won't be returning. (In a party of 15 no one else had complaints about their food but this review is not...

I visited on a Wednesday night it was a very hot day and still hot inside. We had a booking and we're seated quickly. I asked for a bottle of water it was out fast but it would have been better if it had been chilled. The menu bar the aged beef is standard gastro pub with fish n chips, salads, burgers, and similar. I got the chicken burger, the chips were good crisp and chunky. The burger was OK, it was cooked fine but it had little flavour, the breading on the chicken could have had more seasoning garlic, onion powder maybe or the sauce could have more kick. My aunt got the Fish n Chips which was gurnard it was a sizeable portion and she liked it. After that we had trouble getting the serving staffs attention they were at the bar facing away from us and once we finished our meals it took a bit of effort to get their attention to get the dessert menu. I got sorbet, a sizeable portion but it was already melting and was the same sorbet you could buy in stores. My aunt liked her crumble. Again we had trouble trying to get the servers attention as they were leaning against the bar facing away from us. My Aunt enjoyed the meal but I'm not really interested in trying anything else...

I'll acknowledge that a restaurant with stuffed animals and slabs of meat hanging in display cabinets would not feature in the choice of vegan dining but when invited and obliged to attend, the vegan meal we were promised would be be available was no where to be seen. Likewise the "see your server for vegan options" written on the menu appeared to fill the waitress with terror. I was presented with a meal promised to be a roast vegetable salad. In reality it was a few cubed potatoes under cooked minuture pieces of beetroot with half a bag of baby spinach dumped on top. No dressing at all, seriously, not even some lemon juice or salt and pepper. Granted this is a veritable slaughter house of meat dishes but then don't promise what you can't deliver. And then charge $20, yes $20 for it. A very poor example of "cheffing" when the "chef" can't put a bit of lemon juice on a salad. If you'd like me to come show you how to mix lemon juice and olive oil together let me know. Not all salads need mayonnaise!! 😂🤣If I could it would get 0 stars but thats not an...