Bessie — Restaurant in Christchurch

My feedback to management......

Having moved to CHC. 2 years ago, Bessie was on the hitlist of venues to experience given its reputation as CHC’s leading steak house and recommendations from friends.

Unfortunately Bessie did not put its best foot forward.

We were informed by your lovely waitstaff that Bessie specialises in dry aged meats.....but these had all sold out for the evening. We were also informed that the fish of the day was sold out. There was one tomahawk remaining.

When we ordered, given the tomahawk was the sole premium selection remaining, my wife and I opted for this......but then we were informed that it too, had sold out.

There may have been external factors that affected your dry-age stock, however for a well-established restaurant to sell out of all of its special mains is inexcusable......particularly as you head into peak season.

I ordered the rib-eye which was perfectly fine, but would not compel me to come back again. The waiter pitched the steak as being accompanied by your choice of sauce and bone marrow on the side. I love bone marrow......but was left underwhelmed by the 10c sized piece of bone marrow which yielded a feeble amount of marrow. I suggest providing a more generous portion of bone marrow.....or simply don’t pitch it as a feature of the steak main. The seaweed butter was tasty!

My wife ordered the chicken which read well, but was overcooked. The lentils had barely been reheated and were therefore claggy. The accompanying miso concoction was not great. Given both the taste and lack of viscosity, I am making the assumption that this “sauce” was comprised of instant miso soup mix combined with butter.......it was not a thick glossy emulsion that would be expected from a venue that markets itself as bringing the highest quality dining experience.

Positives were the entrees (parfait and tartare) and sides (spring potatoes and cos) – simple, well executed and tasty.

Service was satisfactory. Our waiter picked up that we were disappointed and compensated via a free round of 2 x glasses of wine. She was a tad hard to hear over the noise (yes, I am sounding like a baby boomer).....a little more voice projection required when running through the menu......although we clearly heard that the majority of premium mains...

The plan was to treat myself to a good solo meal before I leave New Zealand in a couple of days time. I heard New Zealand has fantastic lamb dishes. I read the reviews, made the booking for 8.30pm but am ultimately disappointed- the wait was not worth it.

I arrived at 8.10pm, 15minutes prior to my booking but was told the place was full and was kindly directly to the bar. I took a seat at the bar, by the counter, waited for a good 5-8minutes to be served/ given the drinks menu to no avail and ultimately had to move from my seat and help myself to a menu. Initiated and made an order for a cocktail whilst waiting for my table.

However, there were no updates about the table seating whatsoever at 8.32pm. I left my seat once again to enquire about my table since all the staff seem busy. Was eventually directed to a table at 8.40pm. Proceeded to make my order of Canterbury lamb, seaweed butter sauce and croquet (gd recommendation on the croquettes-fried potato with duck fats).

From then, it's a waiting game. My dinner did not arrive till after 9.35pm which was supposedly the closing time of the shop (on google). Staff did come up with a complementary side somewhere in between, thank you.

However, when the dish was served, my lamb was not medium cooked as per ordered. The seaweed butter was overly hyped on the reviews. Perhaps I just didn't get a good taste of the seaweed butter because the dishes was on the saltier side. I was no longer motivated to finish my meal midway through and takeaway the rest. Figured things are easier and more efficient without having to call a staff over to inform them about it. Credits to be given, the staff did check in about the dinner when I was making payment and apologised for it.

Perhaps I just came on a bad day. But if it is that busy on a Monday night, I wonder about other days.

Other than that, if you don't mind the noise (can't be helped), the deco is nice and the...

Aged steak was sold out, the lovely waitress recommend to give a try on their 800G tomahawk instead. Chef recommend mid rare but I ordered medium with a reasonable chargrilled characteristic on the steak, with garlic and mushroom sauce pair with strawberry cocktail and finish with choc marquise.

Some improvement can be look into for a better future dining experience:

Steak got cook unevenly, have overcook at one end and perfect medium in the centre but went too off raw at the other edge, which can be understandable it's a large piece of tomahawk getting even cook can be challenging but it's fixable by the hand of experience chefs. Also too much juice which result from not having adequate rest on meat during the cooking, shall rest the steak and do second grill to minimize juice on such an expensive tomahawk, pairing with the too raw part is definitely a pull back for the overall presentation which the steak can actually be presented better as a real good steak.

Paying the price for a steak present by a can do better cook or chef is a slight upset.

Found my way to fix it by having the dry overcook meat to pair with salt, perfect medium to eat as is to taste the sweetness from the meat which is the good side and pair those undercook rare meats to chew with the sauce, sauce is good.

Strawberry cocktail can do better with the price being sold, too much pepper result in strawberry and basil scene are covered.

Choc marquise is still reasonable but under my expectation.

consider better options of knife please for the ease of cutting thick steaks.

My conclusion is there's pros and cons for my dining experience , praise the good service from the lovely waitress served me initially. And the bone marrow, is a good one as it's very rare to be seen on plate. Steak is 8 out of 10. I'm looking forward for a 10 out of 10 steak from Bessie for my next...