The Mud Bar & Restro — Restaurant in Christchurch

I havn't got much good things to say other than the furniture being nice and the restaurant being very spacious. The food presentation was decent. But other than that, the restaurant has no entertainment, no tv for sports, nothing interesting to see or read, no pool table, the music was slow and only instrumental making the atmosphere very dull, boring and it was also cold. I booked the night before for 7people writing in the notes section that we were a family of 4adults with 3children over the age of 10. I also noted that our family were big eaters and likely to order atleast 2-3 plates per adult. Despite my notes i made upon booking, when ordering our food, we were told they only had half a dozen oysters for tonight. 15minutes after ordering, we were told our food would be around 20minutes as they were understaffed. We ordered our food at 6:15pm and didnt receive our mains until 7:30pm. The $138.00 aged south fillet followed 7minutes after. All food were not seasoned and the portions were small. All seafood from oysters to paua and even sashimi were all tasteless and watery as if it had been thoroughly washed under water. I spoke to the manager about the seafood and we recieved a discount from our food that was originally around $790.00 and came down to $729.00. During the wait, my family were getting frustrated. The long wait was not worth the quality of food we received nor the price we paid! My family still left hungry or sick and very disappointed. I wouldnt recommend this place to anyone nor would i...

First table for date night. We were very warmly greeted straight away by Tom who looked after us all night. He explained they had a private booking inside and took us through to the court yard. We were given options of where we wanted to sit and then told if it was too cold, he could seat us elsewhere. He quickly filled our waters and left us to look at the menu.

We ordered: pork belly bites buffalo cauliflower bites whiskey glazed chicken mudburst pizza kūmara wedges green salad

The first 4 - absolutely TO DIE for. Omg, unbelievable flavours and freshness. For how quickly our food came out, it tasted like each dish had been cooking for hours. Just WOW. And absolutely stunning plates and bowls. The kūmara wedges were pretty bland. I had 1 and that was enough. They were soft with no crunch that you'd expect from a chip/wedge. The green salad had the perfect ingredients for a green salad, but I wasn't overly fussed on the dressing. It almost taste like a homemade sesame dressing that just lacked the umami that the other 4 sensational dishes had. BUT, that's just my opinion. So really, no issues with the freshness or presentation of the dish.

All and all, we loved our experience. We made sure we let Tom know that he was a big part of why the experience was as amazing as it was. He really respects his job and gives off "I love my job" vibes.

Mad ups to Tom and to the chefs 👏🏽🙌🏽 We will def be back for those first 4...

Booked here on first table and didn’t have a great experience. When we booked we liked the menu and looked like food we’d want. When we came for dinner a few days later they had changed the menu. Not just a few things, but most of the menu. All of the options we wanted was no longer on the menu. Four of the main meals weren’t available for first table offer, which is normal for first table to have some items that are excluded but our only options were burgers, pizza and maybe 3 mains + the starters. Everything on the menu sounded like they cut corners and made everything for cheaper, the Cesar salad was maybe the worst version I’ve had, and I’ve had many. Not much sauce throughout or flavour. cold hard boiled egg on top and had tomatoes in it which was extremely weird, asked for them to be taken out. Lamb burger was fine but other burgers sounded basic and like something you could make at home. I think the new menu lacks variety and the cost is way too high for the quality of food we received. Lucky we were on first table and it was half price because I wouldn’t have wanted to pay full price for that meal....