Ministry of Works Bar & Eatery — Restaurant in South Island

Four of us attended for dinner after a day on the lake. Our first interaction with wait staff was, having been here six days earlier for dinner (and eaten pizza), asking if there was an additional menu that we were missing which included the pizzas and any extra items. The response was a blunt ‘what?’ Which included leaning abruptly into my friend’s face to try and hear the response. Once we ascertained that the menu had been trimmed down to account for the business of the establishment, we ordered our food. It took 45 minutes, a reminder that we hadn’t been fed yet, and watching multiple groups that had arrived well after us receive their food for our food to arrive. I had the beef burger, which wasn’t terrible, but a little dry and the bun was stale. Two of our group had the fish and chips, which included minuscule portions of fish. After seeing one of the aforementioned tables with their fish and chips piled high with both fish (bigger fillets, and one extra) and chips, we opted to say something and were kindly given an extra small piece of fish and some more chips. The salad on the side was wilted and remained untouched. The biggest disappointment was the ‘buffalo wings’, which simply appeared to be served without any buffalo sauce at all, but with a splash of sweet chilli sauce instead. Quite a different condiment. Worth mentioning that the alcoholic ginger beer they had on tap was delicious. Will be going next door for dinner at every...

The service from the time Mum rang up to book was incredible. We were greeted when we arrived by the whole team and got to sit where we wanted to. Our main server for the night had an extremely outgoing nature and an incredible ability to meet all our requests. At one point Mum and Dad said "he just never stops ... he is an extremely hard worker." He checked in on us more than once to make sure we were okay, and the timing could never be better with each check in as it was when we were about ready to order the next thing. The food was top notch - none of us could fault it in any way. My 8 year old niece kept exclaiming "this is amazing." Mum and Dad had the lamb rump - they are still raving about it and everything that was on the plate. The kids loved their food - one shared with their Mum (the 8 year old) and the 6 year old thought his kids meal was epic. They always love the kids menu with the games and colouring in on it. And the desserts - always a fav - so good!!! Especially the apple won tons!! MoW has always been a favourite with this family but after last night it has gone even higher in the ratings - pretty hard to go above 1 but it will now take a huge effort on another place to get to that position. Overall a fantastic evening out where the service was equal to the amazing food...

Edit: I was here 3 years ago and was throughly impressed with the vegan quesadilla, I came back based off that experience. This time around ordered the same thing and it was MUCH worse. No corn salsa, the guacamole was runny, and the vegan cheese they use now has a nasty taste. It also had much less filling than before, before it was a nice thick loaded quesadilla. Today is was thin and skimpy. I would not come back here again based on my experience today. The service was good the food was not.

Original: I was just passing through Twizel on my way to Wanaka and wanted to find some food. Vegan food can be hit or miss, and in a small rural town it’s usually more of a miss. I was so pleasantly surprised by this place though! They had nothing vegan on the menu, but a couple things that seemed like good options if they were willing to modify it for me. I told them what I was looking for and they mentioned they had vegan cheese and could make the veggie quesadilla vegan! Loaded with beans, onions, zucchini, artichoke, tomatoes, jalapeños and vegan cheese, served with guacamole and corn salsa. They were very accommodating, and the food came out incredibly fast and was delicious. Quite a large portion as well. I will definitely return next time I pass...