The Bridge Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in South Island

The Bridge has reopened.

Came here during the first week of opening. It was fairly busy with lots of people crowding the bar side of the building. The dining area was only about half full, if that. The food was well presented. The menu suited the "family eatery and sports bar" title. Only 2 vegetarian options and no vegan options on the menu though (I'm not counting the bar snacks/sides as options). Portion sizes were good. I noticed a lot of plates being cleared with with food left on them. If you're a bigger eater, you should be fairly content, but it may be less wasteful to reduce portion sizes slightly and lower prices a little.

The staff were run off their feet during our visit, but were always very attentive and working hard to keep things moving. Well done. Despite this, our food came out a little on the colder side, which was a shame. It doesn't help that they have a lot of the doors open, contributing to cooling draughts, particularly when it's windy outside.

A down side to this venue is the noise inside. Due to the architecture and furnishings, things get very loud in there. Less of a problem on the bar side, but if you're sitting down to eat with friends or family, you have to really speak up to be heard, even by the person sitting next to you. Maybe something can be done to reduce the echo inside. Some extra wind shelter would be welcomed to make sitting outside more comfortable.

Before the recent reopening, this place used to be an Armadillos (visited it once, and the food and service were bad). And before that it used to be... The Bridge. Good to see it opened again and would happily revisit. Perhaps with a little more variety on the menu in time as the place establishes...

Had a disappointing meal here last night. They had roast pork on the menu served with roast veges and chips. I said to the waitress chips that's a bit weird to which she replied you can have mashed potatoes instead if you want to to which i replied yes please. The roast arrived with a frozen mixed veges mix, mashed potato and some bits of potatoes that looked like they had been baked but roasted. No fresh veges such as pumpkin, kumura, broccoli or parsnip which you would expect. Also ordered the garlic bread which was 4 mini dinner rolls like you can buy at the supermarkrt with a side dish of butter on the side. Couldn't even taste the garlic. Went to pay for the bill and noticed they had charged us $32 for the roast instead of the advertised $30. When I questioned this the waitress said mashed potatoes are $2 extra! This is the second time we've had a disappointing meal here since they have re_opened....

Went to take family visiting out for dinner and I was embarrassed that this is where I picked.. There was no vegetable options besides salads, the fries were too salty ( my fries addicted children didn't even eat them) , the fish wasn't fresh fish ( It's box brought ) and to make things even worse I had to pull out a black hair from my loaded wedges. While we finished the rest of our food the staff kept looking over as if they were laughing and talking about us so it became very uncomfortable. All and all even down to the bouncy castle that had big kids on it trying to tip it over while my young ones were on it, It was not pleasant and alot would need to change if we were to give it another go. Highly...