The Pedal Pusher Addington — Restaurant in Christchurch

The epitome of "Mid".

What a waste of an opportunity this place is. One of the very few restaurants along Lincoln Road and they go with the most boring menu and selection of beers and other drinks, no effort into any atmosphere and have the place freezing on a very cold Autumn night.

Having tickets to a show at the Court Theatre we hoped to have a nice dinner beforehand, so booked (completely unnecessarily btw) a table for two people.

Food options are completely uninspiring with the starters a carbon copy of every other pub/bistro you go to nowadays. Pork belly bites, fried chicken, squid rings etc. Nothing that jumps out at you at all. Mains are equally bland in choices. Burgers, Crispy Chicken Salad, Fish and Chips and a couple of Grill/Slow Cooked options. Yawn.

We opted for Steak (Rib Eye), with Duck Fat Potatoes and Garden Salad and the slow cooked Beef Cheeks with the Duck Fat Potatoes, Seasonal Greens and Red Cabbage. And, well, I've got to tell you, the food lives up to the preceding expectations, just bland. Actually it was more annoying than disappointing.

Steak was cooked nicely at Medium Rare, nice and pink all the way through and came out hot. Beef Cheek was the same, cooked really well. Tender and with nice colour and temperature. But it was all so very, very bland. Not seasoned, no flavor, nothing. The steak was very lean, didn't taste "steaky". The Beef Cheek didn't even come with any sauce or other flavourings that it was slow cooked it.

The "Garden" salad was a mix of coleslaw and greenery straight out of the bag from the supermarket. I get keeping salads around is tricky, but come on, not a single bit of effort to add some other zing to it, nope straight out of the bag with a drizzle of honey mustard dressing directly from the bottle. Boring. And Lazy.

Oh what about the "Duck Fat Potatoes" you ask. Well, join the club, because I'm still asking about them as well. There are three words in the description on the menu, and only one of them is correct - Potato. They were 100% potatoes that had been cooked a few days before and left in the fridge to be introduced to the flat top grill for 3 seconds like a speed date, only to be ripped away before dumped on our plates and hidden under the steak and beef cheek in the hope we wouldn't notice them.

They were tiny, little uneven chopped up bits that still had the skin on and oily. They were equal parts grey and hard, from being a few days old, and soft and squishy from the sudden warming. I've had more enjoyable potato experiences in the Pak N Save carpark trying to get a loose spud out from the wheel of a shopping trolly. Whoever was in the kitchen that day needs to give themselves an uppercut. Actually both types, the one with your own hand and the other being a bag of chips. At least you might find out what a crisp, well cooked potato might feel like.

Atmosphere wise, they don't know what they are trying to be. Copious amounts of fake plants, way too many giant tables that seat at least 10, 3 tv screens playing awful ads for their own stuff, poorly presented staff - (tshirt and athletic shorts? come on guys), minimal decor that relates to the Push Bike theme? I don't know. I don't think they do either.

This place could corner the market for a really nice, funky place to come have a good traditional pub/bistro meal in Addington, great location, good parking nearby and not many other options at all in that vicinity. Unfortunately, they're shooting themselves in the foot by trying to be like every other boring place in Christchurch, and they suck at that too.

Hard pass, can't...

4 of us went to the pedal pusher to start off we were the only ones dining... we got served by a young wait staff she was amazing I never got her name she took our orders and was all going well until the food came... I ordered a beef burger partner had venison my friends had salmon salad and pork belly... the pattie in my burger tasted sour so I asked 1 of the other wait staff was this made fresh she said I'll go ask the chef she came back and said no it was made 2 days ago!!! I'm guessing my meat was off... I never ate my meal.. my partners venison was lovely the only meal that was. The salmon salad was a whole lot of random stuff thrown together on a plate.. the pork belly was cold ! We told the wait staff and they told the kitchen. We noticed the group next to us ordered the burger as well and he looked like he was going to be sick so I asked him what was wrong with his burger he said it was raw and he couldn't eat it I told him it was probably off like mine since it was made 2 days ago... they left around the same time as us.We thought we would get deserts I got the brownie and my friends got the brulee my brownie had whipped butter I'm guessing it was suppose to be cream... and the brulee still tasted like sugar that hadn't desolved. End of the night we went up to pay we had got the young girl again and we told her everything I have written here she was nearly in tears she told me she had 6 complaints in 1 night and she didn't know what to do anymore we asked her to tell the chef and she said they don't listen to her no matter what she tells them. This young girl I'd say in her 20s was doing an amazing job considering she had to deal with all the backlash of the terrible food. It's a shame as this place has so much potential. We ended up paying for pretty much nothing and off we went. Very...

I just ordered from off Uber eats.

Now what really annoyed me is it was advertised as 300g steak. I weighed what I received at 163g. Ya taking the piss and now I’m still hungry and annoyed at being ripped off.

Also while I’m here. Introduce your chefs to seasoning because that is the least seasoned food I’ve ever had. If you’d like I’d be happy to come teach your chefs how to cook a steak and season properly. Jeez even the mushroom sauce was under seasoned. Like it’s a mushroom sauce. I’m glad I didn’t get the Jus and have to experience how you had butchered that to.

Why are you serving me a single slice of white sliced bread with the prawn salad? Also a crisp salad is not a coleslaw that was dressed before service and is now limp. Do you take no pride in your cooking at all chef?

Front of house. I specifically requested cutlery as I’m at a place that doesn’t have it. This didn’t arrive so that was fun eating with a couple of pairing knives.

If your thinking of going here to eat please save yourself the assault to your taste buds. There are so many other places to eat other than this place that you will enjoy...