Joe's Garage Riccarton — Restaurant in Christchurch

I went there this noon with my family, and had to leave without taking any food due to long time waiting.

We heard about this restaurant before, initially from the one in city. This time we came to this one closer to us, and wanted to have a lunch on Saturday. This is really a busy place, we had to sit on the bar seats, with our baby. The waiter promised us to change to the lower seats once available. But he didn’t come back again for this issue, even when we see available seats come out there. It was still OK, because I know we should keep reminding them about our needs. Actually he didn’t give us the menu either when sitting, we had to find them some where else.

The most unacceptable thing is the waiting time. 20mins after we ordered, my kid have finished all her food that we prepared for the waiting time, the size is comparable to her normal lunch box to preschool, and our food was still not coming. That was the first time we asked them for hurrying up, but the lady, who assumes to be the manager, told us a 15 minutes waiting is pretty average for them. The problem is that the food was still not coming after more than 20mins, we didn’t know how much more time should we wait. I was quite sure that we have waited nearly half hour, but in her mouth it was just 15 minutes and “pretty average” waiting time.

She promised the food should come in 5-10mins, so we wasted another dozens of minutes there. When we really lost our patience, the manager still claimed that this is the normal waiting time for their food. So they are totally innocent and have nothing to do. I wonder how many people want to wait for more than half hour for their lunch? Especially in a Cafe! If there are, I can recommend them to go this place to try how wonderful their food is....

I’ve always enjoyed the chill and safe atmosphere at Joe’s Garage in Upper Riccarton. It used to be a regular stop for firefighters and police officers grabbing their morning coffee, though I’ve noticed fewer fire engines in the car park lately.

After a hot day at the beach, I stopped by for a quick break and ordered a cold drink—it was refreshing and just what I needed. However, the service from the gentleman who appeared to be the manager (and possibly soon-to-be general manager) was a bit disappointing.

Throughout our brief interaction, he was busy directing staff while taking my order, making it unclear whether he was speaking to me or his team. He simply repeated my drink order, told me the price, and later brought the drink to my table without a word. An hour later, he returned to ask if I wanted him to clear my cup.

While the smoothie was delicious, the service from him felt impersonal—especially for someone in a leadership role. That said, the rest of the staff were absolutely lovely and provided excellent service to other customers.

I’ve always valued Joe’s Garage as a community spot, and I hope to see the customer service reflect the warm and welcoming atmosphere I...

Came here for a family dinner and will definitely be back. Ill start by saying the service was exceptionally great. We started off with a sweet chilli cheese bread, the Joes fried chicken & also the squid all of it was absolutely delicious the bread was so yummy & a good load of cheese on top the chicken was to die for & the squid was just perfect. After we all scoffed down the starters we couldn't wait to get to the main course. We had one of the pizzas, schnitzel and pork bellys while the kids had just chips they were nearly full of the starters witch were decent portions I shall add. The pork belly was delicious (I would highly recommend) the others also loved there mains of the pizza and schnitzel. We had sticky date for pudding witch was amazing. As we proceeded to call it a night and leaving our table we noticed my little nephew had one of the staff giving him a Joes garage hat and I thought that was awesome of the staff to be so kind. Thanks Joes garage will definitely...