The Cow — Restaurant in South Island

Disgustingly overpriced tourist trap please avoid at all costs!

I am so dissapointed we decided to go out here for dinner I almost dont know where to begin.

The atmosphere seems nice at first but quickly goes down the drain as soon as the food is served.

We ordered 4 meals and all 4 of them were nigh inedible,

The bolognese was watery, had barely any meat in the dish and the pasta was overcooked... far far over al dente - absolutely ridiculous to charge 34 dollars for a dish of this shoddy quality and sheer lack of actual substance.

The seafood pasta tasted like the sauce was poured straight from a jar and the pasta cooking was equally as bad as the bolognese.

Both pastas tasted as if a premade sauce was lazily ladled onto overcooked pasta - no passion or care at all.

Now for the pizzas, somehow this is even more disgraceful, the prosciutto pizza we ordered had ZERO prosciutto on it and was low quality shaved ham - quite dissapointing to be misled by this, the waiter was unapologetic when we raised this with her.

The supreme pizza we ordered was equally disheartening with low quality ingredients especially considering we had to pay extra for ingredients that should be included anyway... who has the audacity to charge extra for olives on a supreme pizza.

The base on both pizzas was extremely underwhelming - the kitchen doesnt have a woodfire oven which should of been a red flag from the get go. The undercarriage had zero char on the bottom and had no structural integrity... All flop and no substance, complete lack of puff on the crust aswell.

The final result were a $50+ pizza that somehow tasted worse than dominos - to say the least we felt incredibly ripped off.

The waiters became personally offended when we raised concerns about the food and we were met with hostility leading to an extremely awkward interaction.

The chef is not Italian and has absolutely no business pretending to serve a cuisine he knows nothing about. I feel sorry for any italians unfortunate enough to make the mistake of eating here.

Overall it was an extremely dissapointing and frustrating experience considering we payed an exorbitant price for an extremely low quality meal and were met with hostility from the management.

Again I must reiterate- STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS!

There are far more legitimate Italian restaurants you can spend your money at (for a less extortionate price) - Bella Cucina for example actually have a woodfired oven and know how to serve...

The atmosphere is like that of an old style Irish pub; a few booths, one long table and a tiny bar with a cosy fire thats insulated by a gorgeous fireplace. The architecture is a mood unto itself. All that's missing is some Jonty jig music or a haggered regular playing songs on an Irish tin whistle while a bar wench sings heart melting songs about love and heartbreak.

But they choose to play hip hop and top of the pops/charts music instead ¯(ツ)/¯

The menu consists of spaghetti bowls and pizzas (with a sprinkle of desserts and appatisers) I appreciate a place that keeps a small menu as it stops a lot of Umm'ing and Urr'ing when it comes to deciding what to have for dinner.

I went with a group, all of us were craving a bowl of Italian deliciousness, so I won't speak for the pizza menu (- although the one I spied on the table across for it looked pretty amazing)

I ordered the recommended Garlic Bread and the Di Pollo. The bread arrived as an entire loaf with plain butter on the side covered in parsley. While the presentation of the dish is Divine, simply covering the loaf of bread with garlic and parcley dosent flavour the dough inside - Calling this dish "Garlic Bread" is sacrilege to actual garlic bread and should be renamed to "Garlic ON bread". The dish comes across as pretty, but lazy. With a few tweaks, this could be a banger of an entree.

As for the Spaghetti - I like that the dish that was postured as having heat actually came with some real heat! The portion was a good size, but the chef deffinetly skipped out on the marketed ingredients, as I barely found any bacon or chicken in the sause. The portioning of Spaghetti to sauce was just right, but it would of been nice to experience the chicken and bacon too.

Over all the experience was ...fine. I didn't mind it. I liked the atmosphere, even if the music didn't suit it, and the food was filling, but a...

I have conflicting feeling about this place, and here is why. I have been to The Cow 4 times, in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019. The first time we had a blast: I and my wife got a bread and 2 soups. The soup was really good and the bread was the highlight of the whole Queenstown's trip for how amazing it was. We spent $18, 2x soup for $5 each, 1x bread at $8. Great experience. We did not get either pizza nor pasta because they did not really look good (btw, I am italian, and this is supposed to be an "italian" place or, anyway, making italian food... but whatever, both bread and soup were amazing!!!!). Last year, the soup was at $12 each, the bread $10. We got bread and a pizza. The bread, as most of the clients every time wasted a lot as it was too big, they resized it, smaller, but the price did not decreased along with the size. Also, tbh, 5 years earlier they used to put more garlic and it was tasting better. The pizza, "I thought worse". The look is not the best, but the taste is fine. 2 cons, though: 1) the tomato sauce they use, it's not a good one, as you can easily taste the sourness from the vinegar it is used to preserve the sauce... good tomato sauces have a good balance of it and don't over-use it. 2) again, the price. If you pay over $20 for a Margherita pizza, where ever you are in NZ, you know you are paying too much. Here, called "plain", it is sold for $31... I am talking about a normal sized pizza, the 14" one that they call "large"... It's not "large", it's normal size. Overall in 2014 I would have had no doubts in giving 5 star to this place, in 2019 I see myself forced to give 2 star... The vibe is still very beautiful, but the quality is easily going down, and it is a shame. 2022, we are not...