Rātā Restaurant — Restaurant in South Island

Went to Rata after choosing amongst a number of restaurants on First Table and was I in for a treat! The food was so meticulously and finely cooked. It was delicate with unusual pairings but tasted incredible and perfectly balanced. I barely had to use my teeth to chew with everything just melting in my mouth.

For entree, we had the Barry's Bay vintage cheddar donut, honey, truffle salt, jalapeno and I could taste each of those ingredients in one bite. The crust around the donut had a slightly chewy texture while the inside was just a light, melts in your mouth cheese.

For starters, we had the venison tartare with preserved cherries, seaweed and black garlic. Again, each of those components can be tasted on the dish and the flavours were perfectly balanced with not one ingredient being overpowering. The venison was soft and paired well with the slight tartiness of the cherries and the seaweed crisps were so delicate and fine.

We decided to share the Royalburn lamb shoulder, prune, pickled lemon and rosemary for the main. It was soft, fell off the bone and didn't have the game-y taste that most lamb dishes usually have. This was perfectly seasoned and the prune gave a good contrasting flavour that complimented the lamb. I very rarely order lamb because it has such a strong, greasy taste but this did not leave the usual coating of greasiness of a lamb dish at all! The rosemary was even cooked to a crunchy crisp that you can eat rather than being just a spice twig for decoration. I regret ordering just one dish for main because we would've loved to try more dishes but the lamb shoulder is a good size main that can be shared between 3 people. We also ordered the sourdough bread with spinach and truffle butter. As far as breads go, this was well-crafted, freshly baked, and memorable. The crust was crunchy and the inside was soft and stretchy. The butter was infused with just the right amount of truffle and the very light taste of spinach. There were only 2 of us and we managed to finish the dish because it was delicious and still light despite being a generous portion.

There is always room for dessert though, and we chose the Zenkuro sake kasu ice cream sandwich, roasted white chocolate and miso. You wouldn't think miso would go with ice cream but this definitely worked. It was light and refined, with thin sesame crisps as the "sandwich" for the ice cream.

So we've established the food was amazing. The ambiance is cozy and classy. Perfect for a date night or a relaxing night out. The service was also incredible. Our waitress was attentive without being overbearing. Light conversations throughout the night but she knew when to let us enjoy our meal. Our water glasses were always full and our plates and cutlery were changed after each course.

The dinner here is one of the highlights of our trip. I was in for such a wonderful surprise and I know we will remember our dinner here for a very long time. I think they change the menu based on what's in season but I don't think you can go wrong with whatever you order. Everything was just faultless and I highly recommend this restaurant for anyone going...

The menu is designed for snacks, starter, mains and dessert. After snacks then starters, we've basically ordered 2 entrees which means that mains cannot be too large. Therefore, we paid $52 for two small strips of beef + mashed up beef + a fancy carrot for a main.

Why is that? Because this allows space for us to order dessert and perhaps a digestiv. The food itself was fine, I would say the taste and texture is excellent (hence the 5 star rating). The Marlborough oysters, octopus dish and venison tartare were standouts.

However, this is one of those fine dining restaurants designed to make us spend with "value added" (fancy) food. If portion sizes are too large, people cannot order dessert because they've effectively ordered two entrees.

If this is your thing, you'll enjoy Rata thoroughly. If it's not your thing then it'll likely annoy you. Many degustation restaurants basically do the same thing but in one fixed price. At least at Rata, you get a choice whether to skip one of the courses.

Many restaurants feel they need to give customers fancy food but I honestly left feeling exploited (hence the overall 3 star rating). Though I enjoyed the food, I left with a bad taste in my mouth.

Service and ambience was excellent on the night.

Personally, I do my best to avoid fine dining establishments with fancy food but unfortunately my other half thinks this is...

What an experience. We had the sourdough with Marmite butter and the donuts to start, lovely crispy bread, butter was a good balance, donuts were like fluffy, cheesy clouds. Then onto mains, lamb and blue cod. I was especially keen to see how the Southland swede was going to be presented with the blue cod, worked with a lot chefs that would dare consider it a viable menu option but it you cook it right it's a great root vegetable. Rata's use of it was interesting and we'll thought out. The Blue cod was cooked exceptionally well, the sauce not overpowering, just right. Into desserts, the 4 of us shared two desserts, the ice cream sandwich and the deconstructed tiramisu. The tiramisu was hands down the best dessert I have ever had, words cannot describe it. The ice cream sandwich wasn't the favourite of most of table but (shhh they were eating it wrong). Take some wafer and some ice cream and then it is balanced. Eating the cream filling alone you can taste the miso but when you combine that with the wafer you cannot and the combination works. How and why, that's the chef's secret but it was definately a good dish too. The team at Rata were excellent hosts, knowledgeable and nothing was a problem, real hospitality. Thank you to everyone in the team that made the...