Review Curator's House Restaurant - Christchurch

What a lovely find! This is a charming eatery located in the Botanical Gardens. The food was fabulous, we had a Tapas sharing plate, the calamari was light and not greasy and everything else was very fresh with a beautiful preparation. My husband enjoyed the seafood casserole and my catch of the day was cooked perfectly. The restaurant building is quaint and surrounded by lovely gardens. The staff was very friendly and attentive.

So delightful to spend our few remaining hours left in Christchurch with lunch at the Curators House Restaurant. Very charming and hospitable hosts, who chatted away and looked after us superbly. Such a great way to relax and spend the early afternoon before heading for the airport...

Came here for dinner - when we walked in we had some super friendly ladies seated us. We started off out, but then it was cold and asked to go in - the tall dude there informed us us they were "full" even though we booked lucky for us the ladies knew what was going on and we had a great dinner

We ordered the shareable tapas and enjoyed every crumb of it. Each dish was perfection and they complimented each other. Our server, an English gentleman, was not only an attentive server, but had good recommendations for things to do in the area.

If you don't base your experience off of 5 star service, definitely impressed with the service received. Wish I could remember the gentleman's name, couple of tweaks and he would be more than capable of 5 star service. The food was generous and flavourful. Went for a work function dinner and no complaints from any of our staff. Would gladly return and will continue to recommend guests to visit.

Boutique yet interestingly Spanish influenced place, great for sitting around the outside (if it wasn’t raining cats and dogs) and enjoying some fresh light lunch or afternoon tea with the pleasing view of their gorgeous garden. The food is quite surprising with a strong Spanish touch, we got the recommended tapas tasting and the house specialty paella, the tapas are nice, but I was expecting something a little more vege-cheese oriented, and less fried stuff, but they tasted pretty good nonetheless. The paella, which would be perfect if the bottom was more appropriately charred, is still the best we have had in NZ so far, nicely balanced seasoning with strong hint of saffron, the rice is perfectly cooked to Al dente, the seafood are fresh and properly cooked and goes great with the rice, we found the mayo based sauce a little unnecessary but it’s generally great. The desserts are just alright, the almond tart with sherry is a great dish, but the Creme brûlée is a little too runny and too sweet for our liking. Also, their house made sangrias are a must try, so refreshing!

Had a splendid evening here! We had the last reservation of the night and were still treated with incredible service. The food was immaculate, fresh and well designed. My partner and I shared a variety of their tapas and I am so glad we got to taste so many of their wonderfully cultivated menu items. To top the entire thing off, the indoor fireplaces kept a great comfort over the dinner table and the stunningly manicured garden was perfect to finish our bottle of wine. Thank you Curator team - we had a wonderful anniversary dinner with you.

Nice place. Food is good. Pricing is not too bad for the location in town. One portion of the main dish is enough to be satisfied with the meal. Ordered chicken and lamb shoulder. Both very nicely cooked with right amount of herbs and tasted very good. Lamb was very soft and tender. Gravy for it is spot on. Chicken comes with beans in sort of tomato sauce. That combination is great. Garden salad as a side dish was a must for both as I'm a salad person. Kids menu very minimal with good pricing. Very nice authentic environment with great Spanish accent. Place is quiet and peaceful. We enjoyed our meal there and definitely can recommend to visit. One star off for waiting time and higher that usual places of the same level pricing. Overall very pleasant experience.

We went on a Saturday afternoon just after lunch for some nibbles and drinks. It was a bright sunny day so we sat outside and enjoyed the view around us. The staff were lovely. We had a traditional sangria each, and the tasting platter; which was shared between two. Would go back again.

While most of the meals delivered to our table looked good and tasty, my own choice of main, the seafood casserole fell miserably short on taste and substance. More of a $43 entree than a main and the seafood was of low quality imo. But we had a good time none the less.

We've visited here twice in recent weeks and plan to go again. Note that the menu Zomato has, and indeed the menu on the restaurant's own website, is no longer very accurate.<br/><br/>Setting is lovely, historical building in its own small garden, with the always lovely Christchurch Botanic Gardens next door. Wheelchair access is round the back and you'll need to get them to move the crockery cart which blocks the hallway to the dining room. There are outdoor seating areas -- open and covered -- which don't have this problem. It looked as if the only accessible toilet was in the ladies' (gents' is upstairs).<br/><br/>On our first visit, for a lazy lunch, we shared the lamb cutlet tapas and the chargrilled market fish main. This was the perfect amount of food for one small and one average eater. The lamb was very tender but rather bland, with the only real flavouring the olive oil drizzle. The fish and accompaniments were excellent. Chocolate mousse and Bailey's dessert wonderful, cappuccino average.<br/><br/>Our second visit was for a cosy dinner in front of the gas fire on a chilly early winter's night. Three of us this time. I had the beef fillet with Pedro Ximenez reduction.  This came with dauphinoise potatoes, portobello mushroom, broccoli, roast cherry tomatoes, and some sort of vegetable crisps on top. The steak was magnificently tender, and cooked exactly as requested. I loved this dish!  Mum had the braised lamb, which was delicious and melt-in-the-mouth tender. Our guest had the duck with pear, which disappeared rapidly. All in all, a great set of mains. For dessert I had the fruit salad with mango sorbet, which capped my meal off perfectly. Mum had the cheesecake with quince paste -- nicely presented, and no complaints.  Guest had the almond torte with ice cream and barely refrained from licking his plate afterwards.<br/><br/>Will definitely return. I want to try the braised lamb myself. &amp;nbsp;And the venison. &amp;nbsp;And...<br/> <br/><br/>ETA: Returned. Had the beef fillet again, got them to swap the dauphinoise for gourmet potatoes, much more to my taste. Guest had the venison. Happy campers. <br/><br/>ETA: Went back (September).  There have been some slight tweaks to the menu (and the menu on the restaurant's website is now uptodate).  So I gave the lamb tapas another go.  It's now lamb loin chops rather than cutlets, so a cheaper cut of meat that doesn't work out as tender, but in terms of flavour I was delighted.  Could taste the chargrilling, and there was a hint of herbs too.  Much improved.  We also revisited the Bailey's dark chocolate mousse.  This seemed less overwhelmingly boozy than last time, and it had cream on top for contrast.  Massive improvement.   Can also recommend the vegetarian tapas tasting selection--the only bit we didn't care for was the patatas bravas (deep-fried potato wedges that tasted like nothing, with a sort of capsicum sauce), but they are happy to swap things around  The mushroom and Parmesan croquetas are fantastic.  I've nudged this review up to a 5-star on the back of recent revisits.  It would be difficult not to have a good time here.

Birthday Lunch<br/><br/>Shared with family. This is a beautiful setting in Hagley Park .. The dishes were equally well presented .. I enjoyed my seafood chowder, unfortunately the other meals lacked flavour and overpriced for what was delivered

Nice place, quite pricey - A lovely setting to celebrate a mothers Birthday Lunch. We had appetiser, Main and some desserts.. The presentation was great, just the flavours weren’t quite there .. Salmon appetiser was served cold with cold broccoli .. the $44 Steak looked great but bit bland .. Staff were friendly and professional but for a lunch at $190 for 3 people I would hope for a bit more in the food .. Good selection of wines and beers!

The ambiance was lovely, but the food left so much to be desired. I ordered the huevos vegetarianos, as the way it was described on the menu sounded delicious. What arrived was overcooked eggs atop pre-cut frozen mixed vegetables. I can't understand paying $25 for a main if it's something I could cook better myself - and had it turned out like this, I would have served it directly to the bin because rubbery, chewy eggs are revolting as are cubed carrots and soggy green beans. I expressed my disappointment but I don't think our server could do much about it anyway - you're paying for location here, not quality food.

Had coffee here, fast service but you will have to pay inside after eating. Not quite sure if this is their practice here in Christchurch....

This was a lovely place to stop and have something small to eat. The waiters and waitresses were so accommodating and friendly. The price was alright for the tapas although I didn’t see the size of the mains they seemed a little dear. We had the king prawns, chicken and chorizo croquettes and fresh bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Overlooking the garden with such fresh food was really beautiful.

This place is beautiful, the building itself is gorgeous & its nestled amongst gardens along side the Avon river with a lovely outdoor seating area. I dined her for lunch with a friend & they had a $29.50pp set menu which we decided to order.<br/><br/>The set menu was shared tapas & came with Chorizo, calamari, mushrooms, lamb cutlets & croquettes as well as a salad & bread. This was perfect for me as I love to nibble & try different dishes. All of the food was delicious & the flavours complemented each other well.<br/><br/>The service was good we were greeted when we arrived & looked after throughout our visit. I would recommend visiting if you're in Christchurch.

Finally after walking pass the curator's house many times when we visited the garden, we finally entered the restaurant. We had dinner here for our friend's reception dinner after the wedding, but the menu we got is pretty much the same to the standard menu so I believe the food is the same. <br/><br/>The curator's house is modified from a normal house so the space inside is not like a standard restaurant. It is a bit hard to move when it is full but nice atmosphere inside. The service is really good that is really satisfied and nothing to complain. <br/><br/>We got Asado de Cordero - Lamb Shoulder and Solomillo de Buey - Fillet of Angus Beef for our main. The lamb shoulder is super tender and soft, the meat would just fall off the bones and they are flavourful and delicious. The Angus beef is nice and tasty as well, not sure what they grilled with but a strong wood ember cooked flavor perfects it. The portion is decent as well. Both my wife and I felt full after the main.<br/><br/>The dessert we got Decadent Chocolate cake and Crema Catalana. The chocolate cake is okay, really rich chocolate flavour for people who love chocolate. The Crema Catalana is a house specialty. It is interesting, it looks like Crème brûlée especially with the caramelized sugar coating at the top, however it tasted completely different to it. The cream is really nice with smooth slushy like texture. It has strong cinnamon taste so if you don't like cinnamon this is definitely not your first choice. I have never tried something like this before but I enjoyed it, all the people at our table like it as well. <br/><br/>A really nice place with nice service and nice food. The price is a bit high if only for normal dinner, but for special occasions this totally worth it.

I was here from an invitation to a wedding reception, thanks to my generous friends I could have this fancy meal experience for the 1st time. (And it's free! Hahaha..) I don't usually dare to dine here because it is pricey to me, but since they have beautifully cooked lamb shoulder I guess I will come back again for a special occasion♡ Nice atmosphere, I really enjoyed their seafood bisque as an entrée too :)

Would very much like to record complete satisfaction with this charming restaurant ;recently had a very large  function upstairs at  The Curators House ;the food was just wonderful,  service superb , not a thing to criticise. Highly recommend .

My partner and I had a lovely experience for dinner tonight. I booked early and request a quiet table. We ended up with the "honeymoon table" in a semi private room with a beautiful view of the gardens. The service was excellent all night, we had a selection of tapas the larger share plate, pigs trotters, prawns, lamb cutlets. It was alot of food for 2 people. Ut was all very nicely presented and came out at a reasonable time. The food wasn't amazing but it was nice. It was rather pricey for what the food was but overall we thoroughly enjoyed the experience and will definitely be back

Enjoyed dinner with family there on a Sunday evening next to the open fire by the bar. The staff were helpful and always on hand. <br/>The food was ok. We had tapas of chorizo, calamari, whitebait (the only dish I would say was good) and croquettes. <br/>The setting is picturesque, a mock Tudor house by the river, slightly set back from the road.

Dined here for lunch with a group of girls, the venue is nice but the food was very expensive and terrible.  We had tapas, the prawns were four slightly bigger than shrimp size, they were old and fishy tasting, probably frozen, for this I think we paid nearly $20, the other tapas were tiny and no better.  Would' recommend to anyone.

Didn't make it past the door. It has a sign outside indicating that it is a cafe - however when I entered and said I'd like a coffee - the manager shook his head 'no'. This uppity attitude won't bring me back with my family for a meal.

Great view, good beer and calamaris... Nice atmosphere on a summer afternoon. We did not get to try their proper food menu but the only thing I guess goes against a perfect score is the price.... A bit in the expensive side and also the fact that I did not get to try proper food here....though the menu looked really enticing!

I have been there twice for dinner and lunch! Love traditional Spanish food there! They are amazing! Tapas there are just over my expectation. Seafood paella is fantastic! I recommended it to my friends, most of them enjoyed it as much as I did. <br/><br/>If you are a meat lover, don't forget to try out their lamb shoulder. It is tender and juicy, certainly big portion. This dish sits on top of my favourite food list.

Lovely lunch with tasting plates, lovely Spanish flavours lots to love about this menu, little pricey but worth it for the ambience. Will be back soon

We specifically wanted to dine in this restaurant because it serves one of my favourite dishes - Paella , which can be difficult to find in NZ. The menu states that we had to give prior notice so they could prepare the dish because of a 25 min cooking time . The dish was served on time and was delivered in a single traditional Spanish style pan and was piping hot. The first thing we noticed was the portion size was a little small for two people. We also noticed the dish was lacking some of the key ingredients , mainly chicken and vegetables . Half way through eating the meal we both knew something wasn't quite right with the food. We figured out that the salt content was far to high and we had to drink a few glasses of water to wash the taste away. At $100 for two people i wont ever be returning to this restaurant. Such a big disappointment because they hyped up the menu but only served a below average Paella.

My partner and I made a booking to celebrate our anniversary.<br/>While the meal quality was of the usual excellent standard, unfortunately the service was not.<br/>On arrival my name had been incorrectly entered on the booking sheet so it took a few moments to confirm our reservation. Once this was done we were informed the requested ‘window table’ wasn't’t available so we accepted a table nearby.<br/>My partner was not impressed when the waitress leaned over her when explaining menu options and she found the strong smell of cigarette smoke on her clothing to be quite offensive. We ordered drinks, garlic bread to share, followed by entrees and mains.<br/>Drinks were served, followed by the entrees and bread - at the same time.<br/>That surprised us as we had requested the ‘entrees to follow’. This (and my chorizo entrée slipping to the edge of the plate on the way to the table) made the meal feel rushed.<br/>The mains were brought to the table before plates from the previous course had been cleared.<br/>My partners main was served, plates removed to make room, then mine served. I might expect it in a café but certainly not in a quality restaurant.<br/>During our meal we were then presented with a ‘floor show’ which consisted of a young male waiter rushing past our table several times to apparently look at the unused ‘window table’ about 2 metres away, stomping the floor several times and creating a distraction and draught as he did so.<br/>He then proceeded to clear the table setting amidst much clinking of glasses and rattling of cutlery. The tablecloth was removed, shaken (more draught) and noisily folded, the view towards the window now filled with dust particles floating in the fading evening light.<br/>Tables were separated and hurriedly reset causing more noise and distraction.<br/>Dessert arrived uneventfully and eventually a couple arrived to occupy the reset table.<br/>The temperature of the room had dropped noticeably by now (the outside doors were still open) so we decided not to stay for coffee and headed home earlier than planned, by now our quiet ‘romantic dinner’ well and truly shattered.<br/>We were both very disappointed with the consistently poor quality of service and disruptive atmosphere we experienced throughout the evening.<br/>For many years now we have dined at Curator’s House and Rotherhams (until it closed) as our preferred restaurants for special events.<br/>If we can’t rely on a consistent level of good service we will be dining elsewhere in the future.<br/>I wrote a letter to the manager outlining the above situation and after a month still haven't received a reply.<br/>They are obviously successful enough to not be interested in retaining customers.<br/>We won't be back.

An important international guest was entertained to a splendid dinner at the Curator's House in October 2013. The attention we received was outstanding, the service most attentive and the cuisine excellent. All who attended were very pleased indeed.

Just had a wonderful lunch- heritage building, views onto the botanic gardens in full bloom, sunny day- magic. Chirozo lunch dish very nice, tad small, excellent service. will return without hesitation

The most atrocious restaurant experience we have ever had. Will not be dining here. We were seated when we arrived then totally ignored for 10mins waiting for menus to be brought out. I eventually went in to get menus and asked the waitress for water for the table. The waitress came to take our order at the same time as I'd just handed my partner the menu! We said we weren't ready and I asked for water again and the waitress glared at me. When she came back with water she slammed it on the table without acknowledging us or apologising. We decided not to dine due to her rudeness so when she returned to take our order we told her we would not be dining and she promptly got the manager to throw us out for drinking the water!!

We went to the Curator's House while visiting Christchurch, the place was great. A real treat, it's rare to find a place with such character in Christchurch these days. We had lunch out in the garden on a hot day for July a real surprise. Service was good, we had a bottle of wine and a few different dishes to share, all in all a pleasant experience.

Me and my wife dined at the Curators House the other evening. It was our wedding anniversary. We went on a week-night but the place was still pretty busy. We used to love coming here before the earthquake and were glad to see it reopened. The food we had was very good we had chorizo and calamari both good sizes and delicious. For main course the waiter talked us into the lamb shoulder and glad I was too it was fantastic!! This is the reason people love New Zealand lamb. We shared a dessert a pear and toffee cheesecake which was delicious. The young waiter was attentive but not overwhelming. We will definitely be back.

The quality of the food was excellent, and portions were fine, but the service somewhat less so. We took a family party to the restaurant for my mother's birthday. We asked what the soup of the day was and were told it was "tomato". My young daughter enthusiastically ordered that. When lunch arrived, the soup looked nothing like tomato. It was only at the end of the meal when i commented to the waitress that it didn't look or taste much like tomato soup, she commented "oh, I got it wrong; the soup today was "sweet potato". No serious apology, no offer to discount our bill (my daughter did not like sweet potato soup and so ate very little of it), just a sort of indifference as if this was the sort of error one might reasonably expect at an expensive restuarant. A shame because it is a wonderful location.

We used to love coming to the curator's house for dinner pre-earthquake. The decor and ambiance are the same as ever, slightly rustic and very lovely, particularly outside. The bathrooms are very nice.<br/><br/>Staff were inattentive at best. I came with my whole family, and we ordered a number of dishes to share. Since I have gluten and dairy allergies, I was delighted to see a number of suitable dishes labelled clearly on the menu, but checked with the staff to ensure they were df and gf. Dished arrived drenched in butter. On telling the staff, no apologies were made, the dishes were not replaced, and we were charged full price. Portions were tiny, and food was expensive. I would not recommend this restaurant, nor would I ever return.

Dinner was ok, good mixture of flavours.<br/>staff were ok, not over ordinary.<br/>food was very expensive.<br/>wont be returning again

We eat out A LOT. We often entertain business guests from overseas and we found the service to be unobtrusive, yet attentive. The food was fantastic. Several guests commented on the standard of the soup, which was delicious. We were all extremely impressed with ALL of our mains, so, we hope the chefs are proud of their achievements. We will be back again, and will recommend, without reserve, to all of our business associates and friends. A lovely evening out, and a credit to Christchurch.