Manu Restaurant and Bar — Restaurant in Christchurch

A small to medium restaurant in the middle of Christchurch. With excellent atmosphere subdued lighting, soft, lux furnishings, which adds to the overall intimate feel, with a curbing of the over all reflected sound. The artwork is interesting, well done and away from the obviously traditional. However, still relates well to the restaurant and the fusion of Asian and New Zealand flavours. There is a well appointed bar on your left as you enter with friendly bar staff (Tom) who immediately makes you feel welcome and who makes a mean twist on the traditional expresso-martini, I believe was called ‘earth to sky’. We were seated quickly with no issues despite being embarrassingly early. The table setting was elegant and elevated. The only improvements I could suggest if I was being particularly picky would be cloth napkins. Hand thrown pottery would be the final touch, though the plates were still elegant and definitely a considered touch as they worked well both in form and size. The table size was adequate for our party of three, however if you are larger people or have a group of four or more I would recommend a requesting a booth upon booking. The food was absolutely delicious. Served in a timely manner we couldn’t have asked for more. I particularly recommend the pork and crayfish dumplings. For three of us, we ordered four of the smaller plates and two of the larger dishes with sides of rice and wok vegetables. This was more than enough as we didn’t finish it all. It was a Thursday night and we were part of the first sitting, the restaurant was reasonably busy with adequate serving staff for the number of customers. The only small, very small issue, was one of our party ordered a second cocktail, which never arrived. Such a small issue is hardly worth mentioning as the rest of the service was attentive and well managed. Overall I would definitely recommend this restaurant, it has good value for money ( three of us with three cocktails and all the above food was about $260 give or take a couple of dollars ), a nice atmosphere and great to excellent service. We will definitely...

This restaurant might have one of the most unique atmospheres in Christchurch. The service were good. But that's where the good part ends because the food certainly lags far behind them.

We ordered a couple of things: -Flat Bread: which was the best thing I ate that night. It had a distinctive flavour and chewy texture that is certainly enjoyable. I wish it was just normal butter or a strong flavour such as duck fat since the chilli, manuka was not noticeable. -Spring roll: the paua and venison not noticeable from a flavour standpoint. The seaweed flavour pretty much dominated the whole dish but it was quite crispy -Lamb Ribs: Despite the tenderness and the Manuka sauce, it is not enough to hide it strong gamey flavour since there was a lot of fat on the ribs. -Pork, Prawn, Crayfish dumplings: this was the most disappointing small plate of the night. The wrapper was not noticeable due to it being overcooked. The texture of the fillings was overcooked lean mincemeat rather than a homogenous texture that is typical of shumai and there was no salt in the filling. There were a lot of shrimp roe which pops and textures more enjoyable, the eel sauce had nice flavour.

For main we ordered 2 things: Laksa: The seafood was cooked well. By far the most flavourful dish of the night but it was pointless since the sauce is too salty for the ingredients to shine. Not to be picky, but this dish is $42 and I expect better than frozen pre-peeled shrimps.

Duck: By far the worst dish we ordered. There was no salt at all in the duck nor the sauce. The sauce itself was just bland and far too sweet for no reason. The duck's meat was very tender although the colour is not visible under the dim lights. The skin was limping with no crispness at all in it.

Overall, there was inconsistency in salt level. A quite noticeable trend in the foods is that a lot of them relies on the sweet taste. Flavours is lackluster. I wish the food to be bolder as the menu has a lot of...

I do feel bad rating this only 4 stars because I wanted to love this place - quite possibly out of my want to support Māori and Pacific businesses.

Service was amazing when we first arrived. Atmosphere is great and it’s awesome to hear music by Samielz and Spawnbreezie whilst dining, something you won’t get at almost any other restaurant in Otautahi.

We ordered the Oka, Fried Chicken, Lamb Ribs and the Pork Adobo.

The lamb ribs were amazing, succulent and juicy with a hint of spice. Yes they are a fatty slice but that’s the nature of lamb ribs. The fried chicken was unfortunately over powered by the bed of sauce it sat in, very sweet with a tang to it. The Samoan Oka, having been spoilt by my Mum’s own throughout my life - just didn’t live up to the standards hers set. For one, there was sesame oil or something that discoloured the coconut cream, making it a browner colour than what I’m accustomed to - but it also altered the flavour. The Oka was good, but at almost $25 - for the portion and flavour, it wasn’t amazing. It could’ve used more lemon in my view but as I said - I was spoiled by a Mum who made amazing oka when she was with us.

The Pork was another very sweet dish, and whilst the pieces of pork were generally succulent - the pieces were less meaty and more fatty … which I don’t mind a little of, but that bowl seemed to be mostly fatty pieces of pork.

Despite this - we did kinda enjoy the food, well some of it and we will probably venture back to try some of the...