The Sparrow — Restaurant in South Island

In short: good but too expensive for what you get. We had dinner and were very excited to try this new place. We knew that it's going to be pricey. The menu sounds great like it could be almost fine dine. The staff was great - very friendly and attentive. The interior doesn't appear that it changed too much from the previous owners (this awful carpet..), but you can tell they updated the place. It is a cozy, rustic, atmosphere and not a sterile takeaway-restaurant look with bad lighting, many places these days seem to embrace. Unfortunately the food did not live up to the expectations. While the ingredients seemed to be of good quality, the end result, how it is cooked and presented did not appear to be very sophisticated. The meals we had were good/OK in taste, but there was nonothing that would make it taste or look like something special. And that would be totally fine if it was an average priced restaurant with basic, solid food options. But not for minimum $40+ per standard meal. That's a price level, you pay in ChCh at some 'better' dine places, but you get a really well balanced and special meal where you can tell the kitchen was creative with ingredients and their craft. I am happy to pay a higher price for such meals. But while the food at the Sparrow was absolutely fine, it was like I could have cooked it myself. And for that it was too expensive,...

Two of us for dinner. Shrimp and veal main course. A bit disappointing. Service was well below par - not all that friendly and reception distracted looking on laptop,

My main disappointment was how they cheated on the beer. I always drink Tuatara Hazy. They had a tap there displaying that so I bought a pint. It was NOT Tuatara Hazy. It was some characterless pilsner, probably Kingfisher or similar. Tuatara Hazy looks like its label says - Hazy. When I pointed this out to the lady that it was clear and not hazy, she was adamant it was Tuatara hazy - mistaking the condensation on the outside of the glass as 'hazy'. When I showed her it was clear she just ignored that and would not admit it wasn't Tuatara Hazy - for which you pay a premium price! I felt cheated and was left to just keep drinking it. Giving her the benefit of the doubt she mistook the tap pour, when I asked for another one from a different staff member, the same tasteless pilsener came out - certainly not the Tuatara Hazy I know so well.

I intend to let Monteiths know that this restaurant is passing off substitute as one of their...

Oh! Sparrow I love you. Came here to have our dinner.I was lucky enough that the fish of the day was a Salmon.After hearing the word Salmon - I did stopped listening and kept saying YES.How I wish they will put this Salmon in their menu and this would be my number 1 resto to go to when I wanted Salmon. My other half got A steak and it was cook in perfection with their gravy that he almost lick his plate. It was only one staff but she was great in managing the all table.From getting an order, getting the payment and cleaning the table and checking the customers. The athmosphere were good as well - not much noice and ypu can hear each other.We might just be lucky with no kids having a tantrums...