50 Bistro — Restaurant in Christchurch

Arrived early for High Tea at 50 Bistro (The George Hotel), to an on site customer car park. Lovely, clean & tidy grounds.

Was greeted with a warm, friendly & welcoming reception. Seated early & offered the option of tea or coffee (two coffee selections per person allowable, throughout the duration of the high tea).

Served an apple & cinnamon scone with jam & cream - delicious start to the High Tea!

We decided on tasting by sweet, then savoury, then critiquing each dish as we went along.

Our hero dish was the Crumbed Prawn with saffron aioli. Our least favourite dish was the mushroom vol au vent - which was a little dry.

We saved the mulled plum entremet until last - as this was one of the most interesting looking dishes on the menu. We agreed that it tasted like a Turkish delight - with a soft centred texture (in place of a firm texture). The other interesting dish for us was the frangipane pear tart - presented beautifully & inviting to eat - yum! 😋

The caramel brownie was one of my daughter's favourite dishes, with small chunks of chocolate hidden throughout.

The carrot loaf was absolutely devine & looked stunning on the plate.

The mochaccino coffee was nicer than the cappuccino coffee.

The main waitress serving us was friendly & took the time to engage in conversation with us - good sense of humour too!

The dining area was clean, tidy & nicely presented. The addition of a conservatory dining area provides extra dining space with natural light streaming in.

There are a few changes that we would recommend to help improve the high tea menu & experience 1) Replace the mushroom vol au vent 2) have a high tea menu present on the table (avoids having to remember the waitresses introduction of the dishes) & 3) space your guests out - so they don't feel like there personal space is being invaded. Where possible, leave an empty table between guests.

Overall, we really enjoyed our high tea experience here. We shared thoughts of our experience with the friendly & engaging male & female staff members at reception. They rounded off this great experience for us, by bidding us farewell with 'see you next time.' Thank you for your hospitality today 50 Bistro (The...

I booked high tea for my parents for my Mum's 61st birthday. I called the restaurant leading up to the booking about 5 times to ensure everything was set to sail smoothly, the payment had been made for the $70 option which includes a glass of bubbles per person. The restaurant knew how important this booking was for me given I live in Australia and cannot be there to make it special. Despite this and calling multiple times, they DID NOT offer my parents the glass of bubbles. My father even asked for it and he was denied and LIED TO!!! The wait staff told him that I had paid for the $57.50pp option - an outright LIE. I have receipts and cc payment to prove this. This is pure incompetence. There are so many other restaurants I could have booked but wanted to give them a special experience and booked with George but what a disappointment. If I was a staff here I would have gone above and beyond to ensure this booking went smoothly given how many times the customer has called... I cannot believe that despite my father asking for the bubbles, your staff had the audacity to DENY it rather than checking the records!!!! im so disgusted and disappointed. When I called the restaurant to resolve this, the lady on the phone was so rude. Told me I have to wait for another 2 days to get a call back and get this resolved because apparently "she physically cannot do anything". This is the reason why NZ will never be able to match up with international service standards.. you guys just do not know how to look after your customers. how...

We had Christmas Dinner, and at $195NZD per person, not including any drinks, our expectations were justifiably high. They had three seatings. (Each seating was allotted two hours.) When we arrived five minutes before our reservation and were told that our table was still occupied. (I don’t know why we weren’t seated at another table that was ready—we didn’t reserve a specific table.) we were asked to wait in the bar. After ten minutes without being greeted by a server, we went to the bar to get our own drinks. (No offer to run a tab, although we were to be dining there.) We were shown to our table 30 minutes after our reservation.

The food had been plated ahead of time. The brioche bread was not fresh. The pate was flavorful but too thick, not creamy, I suspect because it had sat out for too long. The main dish, three roasts, ham, turkey and lamb had good flavor, but dry. The best part of the meal were the accompanying veggies, well prepared and tasty.

The impressive looking dessert buffet had a large variety, something for everyone. My main interest was the chocolate cake/brownie, that had been cut and plated earlier and served dry where it had been cut.

And finally, as we were finishing our meal, we were asked to move to another area, so that they could ready our table for the next seating, due to arrive in ten minutes. After having waited 30 minutes to initially be seated, asking us to leave was...