The Bicycle Thief Restaurant — Restaurant in Christchurch

Ate here two years ago for my partners birthday and it was fantastic. We were recently celebrating a special occasion and decided to return here, but it was so disappointing and completely different to our previous experience.

The vibe: Firstly, we were sat on a table that was adjoined (at a 90 degree angle) to a six person table, and separated by a curtain. I have never been to a restaurant where I have been that close to other people. It was uncomfortable and weird. We were literally CMs away from the 3 people sat on the other side of the curtain. Everytime they laughed or moved, the curtain would move with them, which was weird and distracting (not their fault, just a bizarre set up) I don't really know how to describe it, it was such a weird and uncomfortable vibe!! We were sat so close that we could hear every word of their conversation as if we were sat on their table (because we basically were) which made it difficult to enjoy our own conversation and was distracting and uncomfortable. Edit no.2 We absolutely DID ask to to move tables and was told it wasn't possible.

The decoration: when we visited before each table had a cute little vase of flowers and a candle/candle in a wine bottle and it felt really cosy and romantic. This time our table was bare, with nothing but 2 K mart plates on. Not even salt or pepper...

The service: the waitress was polite and friendly, but service was a bit lacking and disappointing. For example, it was difficult to order drinks, the starters we wanted weren't available but we weren't told etc.

Food: I had the seafood pasta and the quality of the seafood was poor and the sauce was way over peppered and not very pleasant. I will say that the pasta, which I understand is made on site, was very, very nice and the only positive of the evening.

Overall, disappointing experience and complete contrast to our previous visits. Unfortunately we won't be going back and wish we'd gone somewhere else for our special occasion.

EDIT: since the owners response is to suggest I may have reviewed the wrong restaurant, instead of actually addressing the issue, here's a marked up picture of where I sat. On the other side of that curtain is a 6 person table with a bench at a 90 degree angle to our table. 3 people were sat there, with their heads right against the curtain (it's that close) (represented in blue). If you would enjoy being this close to strangers, and having the curtain move and flap around over your dinner table whilst you're trying to enjoy a night with your partner, sure,...

We visited the bicycle thief for a Saturday lunch in October. We ordered polenta, caprese salad and porchetta. Polenta and porchetta were good and I would recommend them. However, I cannot say the same for the caprese salad. In the menu, they specify they use buffalo mozzarella, instead they use a cheap version of cow mozzarella, typically used on pizzas. I mentioned this to the owner but they tried to convince me that they used buffalo mozzarella, they first tried to bring a buffalo mozzarella container that never existed, in fact they never show it to us, then they blamed their supplier (someone called Paul from Mediterranean food) for selling them that mozzarella as buffalo. I have tried very good NZ-made buffalo mozzarella (e.g. Massimo's, Clevedon, Wairiri), in my opinion, better than the Italian imported, because it is fresh. Just to clarify, this is called "fraud", you cannot charge customers for an high quality product and bring them a low quality product, instead. I had to complain to get a refund for the salad. They said we had half of it, instead, we only had one slice each (my partner and I) and then sent it back. One slice was enough to recognise they were not selling the product they have in the menu. In conclusion, 4 stars for the polenta and the porchetta, 1 star for the caprese and 0 star for the owner lying and initially refusing to refund us the cost of the caprese.

Edit: The owner keeps lying, during the visit she said she used "bacconcini" (probably, she meant "bocconcini") and firmly denied she used any sort of log shaped mozzarella when I challenged her. Now she is admitting she used the log mozzarella!

The message I want to give is: "Customers, don't get scammed by restaurants that charge you high quality products and then brings you low quality products instead. They are assuming customers do not have the knowledge to recognise the difference. This is a fraud!".

P.S. To the owner, we have been having buffalo mozzarella in NZ for 8 years, I know what I am...

New owners and new (old fashioned) menu. I was so looking forward to the re-opening of one of my favourite dining places in chch. We went for my husbands birthday dinner. As we walked to our table as a family we got asked about our water preference - usually staff would wait for you to be seated. We had no less than 4 servers over the course of dinner.

The polenta fries, alpina pizza and beef carpaccio were excellent.

However, the three pasta dishes seafood linguine, carbonara and basil and tomato were completely drowned in sauce that was overdone and resembled store bought. the arancini balls were dry. The wine and cocktail list and menu overall felt like NZ Italian from the 80's, lacking in imagination. I would have been okay with this menu. if the food was delicious - that is what I expect from a meal out - delicious food. The service was very average and staff while lovely appeared to be inexperienced and the standards of service that were part of the awesome previous ownership were sadly lacking.

Only 10 months ago I gave this review: "fantastic staff, great wine and cocktail list, location is paradise, pizza are good, the risotto and the pane (bread) are amazing. love this place".

It breaks my heart that one of my local and favourite places is now so pedestrian and disappointing. I truly wish I had better things to report. I hope that this feedback leads to some improvements in the menu, the food and the service and we can find a reason to try again. I am holding out hope that this could partially be teething problems as it has only been open 6 weeks, however I understand the owner has two other Italian restaurants in the city so maybe, maybe not. sorry about the owners response below - I am trying to be constructive and also I worked at Il Casino in Wellington in the 1990's so am aware of what is good traditional italian food. .... I also resent that people expecting the quality of food and service from previous reviews and owners will be sadly...