Craft Bar & kitchen — Restaurant in Otago

Ew, ew, ew. Chefs should be ashamed at themselves.

Writing this at 01:30 with food sitting like a lump in my belly after ordering a salmon pappardelle.

I chose what I thought would be a fresh, vibrant dish and instead I got what can only be described as reheated (and yes, I can tell that because I was a chef) slop with chunks of dry overcooked salmon (not smoked), about 300g of nuked, wrinkled peas that had started turning the appetising grey-khaki a few of us remember our grandmothers made when boiling veges to death was the done thing, a few strings of slimy “zucchini ribbons” that had had their life force cooked out, pasta that was so wet and overcooked that I didn’t need to chew. No seasoning. Floating in its own defrost-juices. And finally lumps of cold ricotta strewn on top to make it look somewhat appetising. No “summer herbs” or lemon in sight or taste. Words cannot describe how disappointing it is to hand over money for such a load of careless kitchen waste - wouldn’t surprise me if this is batched cooked, frozen and thawed for service. - from frozen or reheated- both are absolutely no-gos for These ingredients.

I didn’t make a fuss because it was a birthday dinner for my partner’s colleague.

Meanwhile, my partner (who literally eats anything with voracity and can hardly smell and therefore taste anything) told me his beef burger meat tasted bitter- but the chips were good. Why is beef “bitter”? - that tells me either something’s not been cleaned well or possibly burnt within an inch of its life? And I couldn’t help be horrified that the chef had made the absolute rookie error of flipping a tiny piece of grill-your-own steak at it’s prime grey-pallor stage before bringing it out for our table mate - which suggests that a restaurant specialising in meat, doesn’t know anything about meat.

So, we spend about 1/2 a days wages for two meals that we don’t enjoy, don’t finish and have little to no saving graces about them. Add to that that I feel really yuck - could just be overcooked pasta-glue in my gut… and hopefully nothing more. I’m grateful I didn’t order a salad as I would not trust what’s going on in that kitchen with the lack of care I saw on plate.

Wouldn’t come back ever, for any reason. There’s a reason the restaurant was quiet at 6:30 on a Saturday night. The highlander’s game flicked on halfway through our meal was a classy touch, as were the grease and dust-fuzzed light cages overhead. Clearly a place that prides itself on cleanliness.

Staff were pleasant but I could tell they were ashamed at what they were handing over. Which is telling.

Photos after a couple of bites once I confirmed the food that looked vile, was...

A Craft Bar without any craft beer! This was our first night in Dunedin and we chose this place because of good Google reviews. What a mistake.

We were seated half heartedly - the place was quiet. I asked for a craft beer flight and got told "we don't have any craft beer on draft because the cellar's too warm". It was a balmy 10 degrees celsius outside. I spent 30 seconds picking out a bottle of craft beer and got told "you're gonna hate me - we don't have that one either - can't get it from the suppliers". The choice, it was revealed, was "pilsner or cider".

I ordered the steak sandwich with rocket, and my partner ordered the vegan burger. The steak sandwich was gristly at one end - my partner could hear me chewing it from across the table - and didn't have any rocket, just wilted iceberg. Otherwise, edible.

My partner's "vegan" burger came with halloumi instead of the black bean pattie. Luckily she isn't actually vegan!

Dunedin is quiet when the students aren't around, and it looks like this place lets its team just switch off until they're back.

Maybe it's okay if you're in your early 20s, but if not... do...

A very disappointing and over priced experience. When I enquired about an alcohol free wine the waitress literally laughed in my face, when I ordered affogato coffees another waitress said "oh we don't do those" and then proceeded to check the dessert menu, so I explained they were coffee with ice cream and listed on the coffee menu, to which she responded with a fair amount of lip. Because we wanted to sit outside I had to prepay our meals and the food was delivered with as much gusto as a wet blanket, the "gypsy slaw" was brown and tasted stale, there was a short curly hair in my fries, which were dry and tasted like they had been reheated. After all of that I was going to order a final round of coffees and when she gave me the price (remember because I had to prepay as I'm some dodgey looking runner) and I asked "did you get that" (because it didn't add up and she got the order wrong), another round of lip bordering sarcasm so I said forget it, only to catch the waitresses bitching about...