Review Anchor Bar & Grill - Nelson

Do you like seafood? We do, and luckily, we have found this restaurant. We visited on Easter Sunday, and it was not busy at all. There are plenty of seating options, both inside and outside. We ordered different dishes: calamari, a seafood selection, and a cibatta baked with cheese plate. The calamari dish contains a whole calamari, not just some quick-fried pieces. According to my friend, she really enjoyed it. The cibatta was huge, crispy on the outside, soft inside, and served with abundant garlic butter. Finally, we tasted the huge seafood plate, which easily fed two adults. We enjoyed the larger variety of seafood, including mussels, octopus tentacles, shrimp, and other sea creatures. Check out the attached pictures. ☺️

Braving the storm, I decided to take my parents out for lunch as they were on holiday with us and the rubbish weather reduced our options for entertainment. We were looking for something to warm us up, something tasty and somewhere interesting, and all being seafood fans, we decided on The Anchor. While the venue was busy, we were quickly seated and immediately asked if we wanted coffee - Great start! The coffee came and was nice, and got our gears moving ready to order our lunch! I ordered the Salmon Nicoise Salad, as I had been feeling a little chubby with all of the eating and sharing I've have been doing! The salmon was served cold, a smoked fillet, whiskey cured, sitting on a bed of fresh salad with potatoes and a poached egg. I really enjoyed this dish, and was surprised at the freshness and quantity of the salad given the season and current cost of lettuce! My wife had the chowder, as she often does, and this was well received and warmed her up on this cold, wet day. My mother had the prawn risotto, and while it wasn't something she would normally order, she enjoyed it. Dad ordered the duck parfait, and this was very tasty although he was eyeing up mum's risotto and helped her finish it! The restaurant is a great place to visit, you can sit and watch the boats come and go. I have often visited on a nice sunny day and sat with a cold beer and watched the boats. A very relaxing undertaking! This day was very wet, but the restaurant was warm and dry, a great way to spend the afternoon!

Great meal with a great view highly recommend for a nice night out.

It was my first time there and one I would happily do it again. The atmosphere of the place and the friendlyness of the staff combined with the meal made it an enjoyable experience. The meals are value for money and you have the choice of eating indoors or outside soaking up the atmosphere of the harbour,boats and wildlife. With that I'd have no problem recommending it to friends and family. Thank you guys for a wonderful experience.

If this was out of 10 I would give a solid 10….out of 5 stars, worth every one! Hit every high!! From the warm welcome to the hands that blessed this food, we can’t thank you enough and highly recommend whanau. Delicious top tier kai from entree main to dessert, there was no fault at all.

We went there with a large group of club members for lunch. Organisation was well set up, so service went well. Meals were well presented and tasty. Nicely sized portions. Friendly staff. Wait staff were friendly and efficient. Nice marine theme inside the restaurant with views over the marina. Restaurant is easily wheelchair accessible. Set in the Port of Nelson. Well worth a visit.

Always Fabulous !! The Best Seafood Chowder; Creamy Flavourful and lots of Seafood . Salmon Caesar Salad totally delicious. Salt & Pepper Calamari is always a Winner too. Very good Variety on the Wine List. Great Variety Kids Menu, and a Colouring In Picture to keep the kids happily busy . Genuine Friendly Welcoming Staff. Fantastic view of Boats : )

Fabulous dinner to cap off our South Island road trip. The surf & turf was beautifully presented, the scallops perfectly fried. Desserts were wonderful treats.

We had the Anchor seafood platter, it was really good. The two of us were so full 🐟 Only thing I would say is that quite alot of the things are fried so it is quite oily. The scallops were a nice surprise too! Nice interior and quiet space.

The food is good here. The seafood platter was plentiful (easily feed 3) albeit slightly on the overly deep fried side for my liking - I would have liked to see some variation in preparation style such as grilled/steamed/cooked in sauce.

Wife and I had the seafood platter for lunch. Delicious, nice variety. Beer was nice and cold. Great views. Great service. Awesome place.

Have been here several times and always get fantastic service. The meals are all excellent. Highly recommend! Will definitely be going again.<br/>

Very Very disappointed by this place !!<br/><br/>I have been many times, for a lunch or a drink, but today i took a coffee and work on my computer as i do everywhere i go, I'm a traveller.<br/><br/>The owner came to see me and told me:<br/><br/>"you don't take anything else?<br/><br/>Me: I'm ok thank you<br/><br/>Owner: You take my power and my internet and you don't take something else !!?<br/><br/>Me: I don't understand, what do you mean?<br/><br/>Owner: You take a coffee and use my power and my internet !!<br/><br/>And he left....<br/><br/>I was tremendously surprised of this greedy behavior, without knowing how many times i could have come in his restaurant.<br/><br/>I'm very disappointed by this kind of behaviour, and i think that people as greedy as it shouldn't deserve success !<br/><br/>I'm an active entrepreneur and philanthropist and i know more than everything that if give first to customers, they will give you back !! by chatting together about how good is your place, how kind is this owner etc,etc.<br/><br/>Today i decide to never comeback here, i will never leave one more cent to someone like this.<br/><br/>AVOID IT !

After waiting for 1 and a half hours, we tried to cancel our order. They said it was five minutes away, but it still took another 20 minutes. It was very ordinary, boring food, and very over priced.

Very disappointing evening out. 1:30hrs to get our main meal. Very average food. Over priced. Wouldn't bother booking a table again. Kids and grandparents were about to lose the plot. Disappointing end to our holiday.

Great service great food was pretty busy and service was onto every a new cheaper menu and it was to die for I will be back for sure keep it up anchor

Been here a couple of times. I should have learnt my lesson from the first disappointing visit but thought I'd give it another go.<br/><br/>Both experiences are relection of other disappointing reviews in that we were left to wonder around and seek attention from staff when you would expect to be at least greeted by them (it wasn't busy on either occasion).<br/><br/>I may as well have flown to the USA and back to get my own Coke the service was that slow.<br/><br/>And when our meals arrived they were definitely not value for money when comparing the meals with the overpriced menu.<br/><br/>Yes, it's in a great location but I think they must add a 'view' fee into their prices which are pretty steep.<br/><br/>I've had better meals and service in a pub packed with customers.<br/><br/>Oh well. At least I'll know to never go back here or recommend it to international visitors I deal with.

Gosh this is an erratic place.....<br/>Beautiful location is constant.. <br/>Food is overpriced and very average.<br/><br/>Often for lunches the wait staff are 1/2 dressed teenagers who just wander around never actively working the tables, have to flag them down and ask if you want to order anything... plan to take extra time if you want to pursue desert and coffee........<br/><br/>Last night we were served by a more mature lady who was very friendly and certainly knew what she was doing...we were well looked after. The meals were all a good size however overpriced for the quality... <br/><br/>We stated with what was on the menu as OVEN FRESH GARLIC &amp; PARSLEY BREAD 6.50<br/>Straight from the oven and oozing with flavour – heaps for two.<br/>And received one warmed 20c frankfurter roll. ?!<br/><br/>Followed by $25 for "Gourmet" Fish and Chips??<br/>I couldn't see anything gourmet about a couple of pieces of battered fish plonked on top of a random pile of soggy pale shoestring fries.... For that price and description many things could have been done *a lot* better....hand cut fries would have been a basic start maybe?<br/><br/>Same for my meal, for $32 the presentation and quality was a real disappointment and the green goo under the potatoes that I suspect was supposed to be some kind of herb butter tasted rancid.<br/><br/>I don't think we'll bother going back again.....

hi, i had the pleasure of dining with restaurant and team, was very very happy with the night food was outstanding service was also , awesome location, good atmosphere. to be honest the feed back below and the other negative ratings etc below do not know what they are talking about was awesoooooooooooome!!!!!!!! keep up the good work as i sure as hell will be back to try something different and im sure will be another wiicked night. i will be highley recommending you guys to others. thanks!!!!!!!!

Horrible service to start with. Please don't bother spending $18 for an appetizer ( Calamari). We were served one tube which was sliced into 6 pieces for $18 with a sauce which resembled pureed hay - string of lemongrass and ginger not even pureed. Very bad and definitely not $18 painful. Coke was served which was flat. Going on because of its location that's all....Never going back ...

Beautiful location. Pricing OK, staff OK (did not see much of them at Midday). Tried the beer battered fish and chips, which was absolutely divine. Best fish and chips I have had in New Zealand. Plate was full to the brim - very large servings, so you do get your moneys worth!

Not blown away by the food or service. The service was the worse. I couldn't decide what to order and the surly (unkempt)waitress didn't bother to take the time to make a recommendation and in a 'told you so' snarky type tone when I asked if the scallops were fresh said 'Frozen'. Excuse me for not knowing about the intricacies of the seafood industry. The more I think about this service I am compelled to change my rating from a 2 to a 1, which I will.<br/>Food bland and can you please oil the squeaky door at the side of the restaurant, very irritating.

Just fantastic. This is Nelson's hidden gem for food. It's obviously a favourite of the locals and our taste buds now know why. The steaks are superb, the seafood is plentiful and the staff are friendly. A child friendly environment it was a pleasure to eat here with the kids. Definitely on my list of places to return to.

Loved the food, loved the atmosphere. Child friendly and great food is a hard combination to find but here at Anchor it's all in one bundle. I had the mega steak and it was cooked perfectly with the most perfect taste. Great dessert topped off a over fill tummmy from the very generous meal. Hubby had the seafood chowder and it was impressive. Filled with seafood, creamy and thick. Can't be enthusiastic enough about this place. Almost worth a trip to Nelson just for the meal! Loved it Anchor - my only negative comment would be that we didn't find you sooner - you need to market yourself into the motels more so us visitors know where your gem is hidden!

Just read the above review and was suprised at the comments about the seafood platter. We eat here about once a month and have done for the last 4 years, my husband just about always has the platter and it is exactly the same each time and two of most items on the plate, it is a big meal for one person. The waitbait has been a fav of ours also and locals go there for that reason. It is one of the busier places in Nelson so maybe you encountered a bad night.<br/><br/>Def not the place to take a date, its more family style/bar. You picked the wrong place for romance. It is casual dining.

Ill run you through my experience at this high potential establish, <br/>First I made a reservation prior for a somewhat romantic table. As me and my partner walk through the door and stand in the main room/lobby the staff walk past and look at as if "why you standing in the middle of our restaurant, I ended up having to walk up to the bar and even then I had to get the bartenders attention before I was seated.<br/><br/>Our waitress didn't say "hello" just told us to follow her to a table next a table of 7 children crawl on the floor and banging glasses together (romantic?), once seating We weren't ask if we would like drink or to order she said "ill be back".... 5 minutes later I had to flag her down for our order and didn't even asked we wanted anything to drink. <br/>Our meal was half cold, white bait fritter was a teaspoon of wait bait with 80% egg, seafood platter had, 1 of each food described in the menue. The chips looked as if the had just been dumbed on the plate on top of sauce ramekin covered in grease. After our mediocre poor value meal which it looked as if it would have costed them between $5 to $10 dollars to make, we were not asked if we would like to order any desserts, nor "how was your meal".<br/>We And at the counter the lady didn't ask how our meal was didn't say thank you just have a good night.<br/><br/>Most disappointed as I was recommend this place by a friend who went there 2 years and like it (different management?)<br/><br/>Damn poor, never again.