Gengy’s Christchurch — Restaurant in Christchurch

Had my birthday today. My family and I have been here several times with excellent quality and a positive atmosphere. Unfortunately tonight’s experience was poor. We went up twice for our dinner and we noticed that none of the meals on the grill plate was being cleaned with their water bottle to scrap off after each dish being cooked. On top of that our food had a burnt taste throughout our meals with my mother’s second dish being the worst. Possibly because it wasn’t cleaned properly. I thought it to be polite to let the nice lady at the counter know that we were noticing a burnt taste so others wouldn’t have to experience what we did. The chef who came to our table to talk with us about what I mentioned, who I found out after paying he was the manager.. didn’t hear our concerns and deflected us by saying “from what I can see the food is cooked and not burnt.” While also telling us that there’s not much else they can do and telling my mother that if she wants another dish cooked they can do it inside the kitchen for her. Though to be fair you don’t go to Gengy’s to NOT have the great experience of watching your food being cooked in front of you on the grill. I’ve added photos of my mother’s dish with what may be hard to notice had pineapples in it. It’s as expected to be a bit chard on a grill, but to taste burnt through the whole meal and have some “pineapple” pieces burnt to a crisp.. we noticed the “oil tip” sign on our second round and even took that into consideration thinking it’s OUR fault. Though after the way we were spoken to by the chef manager I lost my appetite to even give it another chance. You don’t speak to your customers and tell them based on “what you can see” that there’s nothing wrong with the food. I hope that this reaches to someone above that manager, because I won’t be bringing my family back there again after being treated like it was our fault or to be treated like we were lower than a “professional” chef by that manager. It doesn’t hurt to take criticism, it’s how we all learn and prevent it from happening to someone else. Off to the pub. “From what I can see”...

4 adults, 2 children - we came on a Friday evening to celebrate a birthday, and we all agreed that we would all be very happy to come again. The place was quite busy (I would recommend booking), and as other reviews have said, queues for the cooking area can get moderately long. Despite that, the cooks were quick! I was quite happy to get just a small amount of food and go up several times The food was delicious. Ample variety to choose from - great variety of meats, plain/spicey/marinated options, lots of vegetables and salads, plenty of sauces, flavourings and different oils to add if you want (nice garlic oil!) A great range of ready-cooked food as well. The pancakes (cooked while you wait) were likewise delicious, and there were plenty of dessert options (fruit, ice cream, jelly, mapel/chocolate/caramel/berry syrups). The price for 3 adults and 2 children was great (because it was my birthday with 3 other full price adult meals my personal meal was a whole $1...)

Negatives? It was moderately noisy; despite having a big parking area, the number of other businesses around meant empty spaces could be hard to find at times.

We will...

It's good. It's a different buffet experience than the norm. As in you take a bowl then fill it with your choice of beef, chicken, lamb or prawns move along to the vegetables, move along to the different sauces, then flavour shakers after that your bowl is taken by 1 of the chefs. You need to watch where it goes to be cooked as the chefs move around and not everything is ready in the order it was out on the grill. When it's ready you can take your plate and add some sides. The salad section has a lot of fruit but also some sushi. There are 2 soup pots and rolls. The desserts are pancakes, flavoured sauces and vanilla, strawberry or chocolate ice cream. This place is good for large or small groups. The sides are not filled often and in the hour we were there (7pm Saturday night) most of them were filled up at all. The staff are friendly but some need more training. The floor and tables are not always fully clean. Beware of small children running around also. If there's a birthday the chefs put on a show when the music comes on which is well...