Gatherings Restaurant — Restaurant in Christchurch

It's been a week since enjoying an exquisite meal at Gatherings and in that week, I have spent a good amount of time talking about my experience, thinking of it, or recommending the restaurant.

My husband thought a seafood restaurant would be nice. Nothing came to our minds so, we set about on some research. Someone recommended this restaurant to us and I booked right away. I glanced the online menu and had mostly seafood.

When we walked in their small dining room, a sense that you are about to experience a very good meal settles you into your cozy nook. We decided on a glass or prosseco and a Ghost Dog beer for the hubby, but after 1 he switched to Prosseco as well. It was tasty.

Our soft spoken wait staff explained that you order a "centerpiece" and recommended 2-3 sides for the 2 of us. Family style. Brilliant. I find eating this way intimate, social and fun.

The centerpiece was a whole lemon sole with a smokey sauce. We then decided on eggplant, King fish tartare, hand cut chips and a green salad. After we placed the order my husband commented that he thought the eggplant must be good as he recognised approval on the waitstaff's face. We ordered an extra side and thought it was the perfect amount, as we finished it all and we're not overfill or wanting more.

When the food arrived, it looked fantastic and the flutter around our table to drop the different dishes was well executed. The green salad was crunchy and lightly dressed. The hand cut chips were huge cuts and a small portion which we appreciated as it didn't take away from the main events and was a true side dish. The Kingfish Tartare with pickled gooseberries was so much fun. It looked festive. Who has ever had a pickled gooseberry before? It was such a pop of sensational flavour. I'm hoping next year to win the war from the birds and try making some. The eggplant, is one of our 2 dishes I cannot get off of my mind. It is skinned and battered. You eat the whole thing. It looks charred, but it is certainly not the case. The flavours had a light Indian spice. The inside was so soft and yummy. The whole dish was balanced perfectly. If you like or love or are suspicious of eggplant, you must try this dish. This brings us to the centerpiece of lemon sole in a smokey butter sauce. Out of our top 3 dishes of Kingfish, eggplant and sole, this was the one I thought would be ok, but I certainly wouldn't have picked it, if it wasn't recommended. Fortunately for me, it was and I had the biggest food orgasm over it. Back story... I'm not a smokey flavour girl. I do not eat bbq chips or crackers. Anything with smoke flavour added, is off my personal menu. I do love a good homemade bbq sauce or bbq rubs, obvi w/out the smoke flavour. In case you do not know, "smoke flavour" is something you can add into/onto food. OK MOVING ON😂.... This lemon sole with smokey butter and goodness changed my life. It was so delicious, so memorable, so enviable, so artful, so loving. My husband was talking, but I legit couldn't hear him when I had this sole and sauce in my mouth bc it was THAT GOOD. We did not lick plates, but we were thankful for those chips and sourdough bread to mop up all the sauce so we didn't have to.

As we were leaving, my heart broke a bit as I knew there was more of that smokey butter sauce somewhere in back and we would be apart for who knows how long. When the lovely soft spoken waitstaff bid us adou, I learned he was actually Chef Alex Davies... the talk of ChCh foodie circles. He had prepped all of the food during the day and was out front connecting with all of us. We will be back.

**Edit was there 2 weeks ago to show out of country guests a great meal. We come a couple times a year. Gatherings still amazing. Kudos...

11/08/2022 I had a 4 star review for this place after our dinner last night. And have dropped it to a 1 star review after the friend who invited me to dinner at this place received an email from the owner. Your email assumed my friend was the person who left the review on Google map and you used her booking email to accuse her for the action she didn't take. Your email has taken away every single bit of my empathy for a small local business like yours during this Covid time. I hope you learn your lesson and how google review works - this is a place for people to share their experience, not to make you look good!

Also, see below reply to your email to help improve your business:

You said we called your food EXPENSIVE - that's incorrect! Read my review again. I never said anything about the price. I said the portion was small, because they were - see photos for evidence.

You said we didn't order PROPERLY - That's incorrect! Your staff kindly walked us through the menu on 'how to order'. So we followed what he recommended and ordered 9 dishes altogether, 2 from the 'to share' menu and 7 from the dishes for 5 adults and 2 toddlers. For those who has not seen the menu, we ordered EVERY SINGLE item on their menu from Flounder, Oyster, to all 7 dishes that their staff recommended. Worst of all, I asked the staff: will this be enough for our table? They replied: Yes, more than enough. That is when I told the staff to only bring out 1 kids' pasta instead of 2, because we don't want to waste food - we don't want to waste YOUR food/effort/money/cost to run the business.

We waited 45min for the last dish to arrive, because your staff sent it to the wrong table and forgot about us. He apologised sincerely, so I didn't complain in my first review.

You have embarrassed yourself through your action of emailing your customer about a review that they didn't write. Your email was not inviting for a conversation, and if anything, you should reply directly below my review. I will report you to Google map about abusing customer through their booking email for issues unrelated to the booking itself.

10/8/2022 Slightly outside the central city location, parking can be a bit tricky on the main street or nearby. A petite restaurant probably seats 7 tables between 2-4 people each, booking in advance recommended. Creative dishes, petite sides and mains. We've ordered every item from the menu with 2 'to share mains' and 7 sides for 5 people. We were nowhere near full, even the kids were still hungry and we had to ask for another kid's pasta (kids get complimentary pasta). Overall dishes are slightly too salty and the portions are too small, other than that it is quite...

We have been living in Christchurch for nine years, and this was by far the worst dining experience we have ever had.

Where do we even begin?

We started by ordering two Negroni cocktails. At first, we were pleasantly surprised to see that they were $3 cheaper than at other places. However, when they arrived, we realized why : the cocktails were half the size of a standard pour, making them far more expensive.

For food, we ordered: • Fiordland crayfish toast with mayonnaise ($35) – This dish was a complete disappointment. What we received were two tiny, burned pieces of toast with nothing but mayonnaise on them. There was no crayfish at all. Charging $35 for this is outrageous, and frankly, it’s shocking that the kitchen had no hesitation in serving it ! • Chargrilled monkfish kebab ($35) – There’s no other way to describe this than disgusting. What arrived was a small portion of what seemed like frozen fish balls,m. The interior was dry and undercooked, while the exterior left an unpleasant burnt taste. • Pan-roasted gurnard with crayfish bisque and clams (55$ !!!)– This was yet another disaster. They served us the caudal fin (tail) of the fish, which was full of bones and had barely any edible meat. To make things worse, the clams were undercooked.

We honestly don’t understand how this restaurant has a good reputation. The quality of the food was appalling, the portions were small, and the total bill came to $195 (including two glasses of wine).

Without a doubt, this was the worst dining experience we’ve had in...