Review Gpo - Wellington

Wow, best restaurant in Wellington. Tasty food. Great customer service. Friendly staff.

Amazing food and fantastic service. Great deals for dbl or triple courses.

This place is a must for people who liked the exquisite dining. The vegan dishes are stunning

Food was great. But we were sitting under the air con and we all had jackets on but were not asked if we wanted to move. A bit disappointing.

Spectacular food and cocktails to match (Cake tin was the best cocktail I have had in New Zealand). Nice and relaxing ambience and very good service😊

Very happy with our dinner from here.  It was very innovative and delicious.  Meat came out a little red to our liking so we asked for it to be well done and the fixed the issue quickly.

Delicious food and great location, underrated as one of the top restaurants in Wellington. Would recommend.

Business lunch is very tasty. Nice quality and good mood. I recommended this spot.

Great food and absolutely outstanding service. Elegant décor and a great location in Wellington's CBD.

Had an amazing lunch here, i had the duck and my friend had the snapper. Can not fault the food. Also amazing cocktails. As a couple we really enjoyed their 3 course Valentine's dinner with amuse bouche and palate cleanser added in. My aged beef tenderloin was so soft and tasty and the duck breast cooked to perfection. A lovely ambience too with friendly and fun wait service.

Had a hightea here, advised I was pregnant still served me raw salmon, I reminded them this then they bought out a pastrami sandwich which also isn’t recommended to be eaten when pregnant. The hightea was very average for the price, you get a lot of variety but the quality is poor. The bread wasn’t soft, scones were hard. For a 5 star hotel and price I expected more.

Ordered the lamb blackstrap along with the chocolate desert. That blackstrap was amazing the layer of fat added a great texture, the 🍆 was a good addition and what was a nice surprise was the sour cream! 100% recommend this dish. The chocolate desert I wanted to get as it’s not something I would have normally gotten cause I’m expecting an element to be dark chocolate which I hate! But even though it was there it wasn’t over powering, the sorbet kind of cut the richness and sweetness

Great breakfast buffet selection. loved how the baked beans were homemade and not from a can! Even the sausages and hashbrowns tasted homemade too! Service probably needs to be worked on though. Great decor and extremely clean and comfortable.

We visited tonight to celebrate our recent engagement. After dining twice before, and enjoying the size of the meals we returned today to find a new menu which was well thought through, and means we must return to try the other options!<br/>Beautiful and very tasty food. Lovely service, appreciated being asked if we had any dietary requirements prior to seeing the menu.<br/>Complements to the chefs!

InterContinental's main restaurant Chameleon, on the hotel's ground floor offers decent food, but by no means can this place qualify as the marquee restaurant of a premium hotel. It's more like a marginally upmarket cafe, with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out quite drearily onto a pavement. The bare table has a marble-look-alike laminate top. Barbecued "Groper" listed on the menu (better known in NZ as hapuka) is a tasty fillet but nothing to wow you, the accompaniments interesting but not heightening the fish, while Fiordland Crayfish was offered in indulgent hunks which alas did not have inherent shellfish magic.<br/><br/> Dessert was an admirably bold Japanese experiment , with 'set saki' ice cream (chanelling "sake" alcohol) and a salty miso butterscotch which chefs would tremble to put on a dessert plate - very gutsy no doubt but when a lass gets experimental beyond pleasure, you know what happens. Service is average, the young ladies in the service staff seemingly yanked out of any nearby cafe. The hotel is good, the restaurants including service in the Club Lounge, are ho-hum.

We went here on Saturday night for an upmarket meal to celebrate a special wedding anniversary. On their website they claim to be Wellington’s best restaurant and I expected excellent food and service.<br/><br/>The dinner menu is split into three sections, Sea, Farm and Vegetarian; you can have two courses for $50 p.p. or three for $70 p.p. These courses are sized between entree and main sizes, so they aren’t large.  We decided on a starter of seafood chowder, which was very tasty.  We followed this by two of the dinner courses each (two or three each being priced on the menu).  I had the salmon and the tenderloin beef and my husband had the groper and the duck.  We didn’t have any side dishes. The food was all presented beautifully and my salmon and beef were delicious, though my salmon had a sizeable bone in it, which was disappointing for a restaurant of this calibre.  I pointed it out to the waitress who said it wasn’t good enough and she would tell the chef.  Unfortunately, I didn’t receive any apology or feedback from him.<br/><br/>My biggest irritation, though, was that our waitress kept commenting on how much we were eating.  It started off as a bit of a laugh, but then soured as she commented on our eating capacity almost every time she came to our table.  I don’t believe I need to justify how much I’m eating to the waitress!   We didn’t have any dessert; we finished off with just tea and hot chocolate, which were both fine. <br/><br/>The waitress’s commenting moved up a notch when we paid the bill.  She appeared beside the receptionist and told me she couldn’t believe how much we’d eaten.  As I didn’t want an argument on our special wedding anniversary, I let it slide, but she then proceeded to detail everything we’d eaten to the receptionist.  I left disgusted,<br/><br/>I’ve looked at other reviews online and it appears people quite often have two of the dinner plates - after all it’s suggested on the menu - plus a starter or dessert.  The meals are not large and we did not stuff ourselves.  This waitress was very rude and her comments were inappropriate.  Despite generally excellent food, minus fish bone, and good service except the waitress’s comments, we don’t intend to return, to be humiliated by a staff member.  It definitely moved past being funny to being incredibly rude.

Just had the most absolutely amazing food experience here! Love the plate concept, sized between entree and main.. so hubbie and I had 2 plates and desserts each, the perfect amount. I thoroughly enjoyed my choice of Whitebait and Venison, faultless and the Pannacota was to die for! Loved it all.. food & service.. highly recommended... we’ll definitely be back! <br/>

I visited chameleon a couple months ago. I loved it. Still the best restaurant in town. Very lovely staff and delicious food. <br/><br/>Recommend it to everybody. Juan the restaurant manager has the best cocktails.<br/><br/>When I'll be in Wellington I will visit chameleon for sure. Regards to the management from berlin. You deserve to be #1.

Highly recommended - excellent food and top notch service. Their Mon-Fri business lunch is great value for money ($29 for dish of the day + any side + coffee/tea). I had it on two occasions - one was a fish dish and the other was steak, both were very delicious. Their truffle fries are really good too!

I have long been a fan of Chameleon Restaurant in Wellington, in fact, my Uncle took me here for lunch to celebrate my 16th birthday, oh so many years ago. Rather fitting then that I was joining the very same Uncle for breakfast all these years later. Chameleon (along with the Intercontinental Hotel it sits inside) has recently undergone a massive facelift. The interior looks much more modern and has some awesome touches added, like the hand wall.

Delicious food impeccably served. Great service as well. The special dessert nibbles for our birthday guests was amazing! We're looking forward to returning soon. The yellowfin tuna was to die for!

Booked a table for the wifes birthday, and took our two girls as well. Everyone was greeted on arrival which was nice and they had a wee range of kids entertainment items (pictures, colour pencils etc) ready to go. We ordered the fillet steak for the kids, easy option, was well cooked and an ample amount of food for the littlies. We ordered the soft shell crabs, crayfish, venison, duck and chowder, plenty of food for two people. Kids also had the watermelon ice blocks and wifey got a wee dessert platter as a freebie for her birthday! Now for the food, kids food, awesome, steak was cooked perfect and chips were hot fresh and crisp. Soft shell crabs were ok, flavours were mild and Im guessing that was to let the crab be the star of the plate. Crayfish was a very 'fresh' plate, more like a salad than a traditional way we would have crayfish which was really nice. I thought the venison was  superb. I enjoyed every bit of the whole dish, duck was good too, both these last two dishes were full of flavour and 'heavy' rich dishes which I really enjoyed. We found that wifey enjoyed the lighter fresh ones and I like the heavier rich ones. The chowder was probably the star of the show, great deep rich flavours, not a heavy dish, full of various shellfish and rivals and chowder we have had anywhere before. Service was good and very professional. The dessert was very average for the kids, our kids love a good iceblock, and watermelon (who doesn't?!) but this tasted like it was mixed with straight sugar syrup which made them unpalatable for both kids and adults - the other dessert was absolutely amazing though, wonderful chocolate ganache type pops and bits of all sorts in there with a few pop rocks for good measure! We will likely be back for the chowder and or the change of season menu!

I ordered a vegan 6 course meal which was delicious and had 3 thoughtful dishes to choose from for the main. It was an impressive menu with helpful and attentive staff.

First rate breakfast buffet. Great selection of meats, eggs, fruits, pastries. The coffee wad full flavoured and strong. Service was first rate. Smoked salmon was excellent. Kransky sausage had a bit of grisle in it.

Me and the gf went on a Saturday night due to a recommendation. Greeted by pleasant and professional staff and got seated. Very good waitresses and good recommendations with how much food we should order and it was just right. The food itself was amazing everything nicely cooked and just went very well together and it wasn't overpowering. Love how the menu is set out. The meals are all the same size portions not to much not to little and all the same price which I found to be a good way to order as it wasn't about the price. Go check it out

Service was fast, and the food (set menu for the Royal Edinburgh Tattoo) was interesting and delicious. Had the prosciutto, apricot and feta. And the aged angus steak with asparagus and other veg. Very good. Highly recommend

Such awesome food but wow.. As we weren't guests of the hotel we were subject to some scrutiny from the staff. The feel that the staff gave us was one of snootiness. When will places learn that a little friendly hospitality goes a long way.

​We booked for a table of 12 in December for a birthday.  I was looking forward to sampling the summer menu, as I hadn't been since winter which was a very enjoyable dinner.  The summer menu didn't dissapoint either, I started with the Kaikoura crayfish, then onto the aged beef tenderloin and finished with some cheeses.  Chef de Cuisine Paul Limacher showed his sweet side by adding the personal touch with a plate of petits fours complete with "Happy Birthday" written in sauce for the birthday girl.  The service, setting and cuisine was outstanding.  Chameleon restaurant remains firmly in my top 5 in Wellington city.

Chameleon won't be the cheapest place you go to, but that is to expected for a restaurant of this class.<br/><br/>I've been here several times and each time the meals have been outstanding.

My Oh My, This is Such a wonderful restaurant, came here last weekend and had the most wonderful meal. The Deco is beautiful and the menu is changed every season according to the taste and spices available in that season which is Great. The Food was lovely and it is always such a pleasure to come in. But as a tip, always book on the weekends, it's gets quite busy . <br/>

Fantastic meal. Had the crayfish risotto with wasabi pearls. Couldn't really taste the wasabi but enjoyed the texture. Good amount of crayfish in the risotto too - the flavours were subtle but worked superbly.

Restaurant was busy with the Brumbies filling up the restaurant so we dined in the bar today, got the sliders, 3 beef and 3 groper belly, they were a really good size, like not like the 'I could have inhaled 10 of those' kind of sliders. Very tasty and filling.<br/><br/>Lost half a point for having a cocktail on the menu called the 'Cake Tin', isn't that what Aucklander's call W******** Stadium? Well I suppose W*********Stadium doesn't make an interesting cocktail name does it?

I went to chameleon after work on a weekday. The place looked great after it's refurb. We were warmly greeted and even my kids (5 & 3) we're acknowledged by staff.<br/><br/>The meals are a good size and pricing is easy to understand, as it's all the same price. Portions are generous for what we were told; larger than an entree, smaller than a main. <br/><br/>I had the paua, venison and duck, which turned out to be more than enough. My wife had the whitebait and beef tenderloin. Mum had the gnocchi. All the meals were delicious, cooked perfectly and looked great on the plate. My kids had the spaghetti bolognese and fish fingers. They ate quietly, which is an excellent complement! We also had the truffle salt fries, which had good truffle flavour. <br/><br/>Overall, a great experience which we couldn't fault. Will be back in a month or so.

I was invited to dine as a guest to a foodie meet up at Chameleon Restaurant to sample their new autumn menu.<br/>When we first arrived we were treated to an infused (in house) Gin and tonic, which was one of the best I'd ever tasted. <br/>The food was amazing, each of the different dietary needs of the group were able to be met. The menu offers plates rather then the traditional appetizers, and mains. Each plate is the same size and you can choose as many or as few as you want. <br/>The service was great, the staff looked after us very well on the night. I left very impressed by  the evening. <br/><br/>You can find the full description of the night and even more on the food on my blog

I have eaten out rather a lot recently. When I was invited along to The Chameleon for dinner with a friend I did't really know what to expect.<br/>I left impressed , very impressed. <br/>The menu is set out differently to the norm. You can choose when you would like each plate, have several plates or do the norm and have the one and some sides.<br/>Each of our choices were excellent , the service was spot on and the decor has certainly changed for the better.<br/>My full description can be found on my blog.<br/><br/>* the photographs were taken by Lucy from Wellington Foodies.

Updated review: Went to Chameleon for another family member's birthday the other day and received great service again. The whitebait fritters really are very good and I was glad I tried it this time round. The chocolate pavlova I had was nice but not amazing. They could work on their desserts a bit more but overall this place sits comfortably on a four. Previous review: Went to Chameleon for my birthday lunch whilst in Wellington. I was very impressed with the service I received when I made the booking and arranged the cake. Chameleon make and decorate their own birthday cakes for a very reasonable price. The person I spoke to on the phone was very friendly and helpful. I have been to Chameleon a couple of times before but on this particular visit, my expectations were exceeded. The service was 5/5. Our waitress was friendly and attentive and made a real effort to make sure we had everything we needed. The food was delicious. I had the grouper which was cooked beautifully. Several of my family members ordered the whitebait fritters which they all said were delicious. I was also informed by my trustee allies that both the scollop and salmon dishes were divine. We all had a slice of the cake for dessert which was beautiful and had a nice vanilla and raspberry flavour. Unfortunately, the icing was so rich that most of us couldn't eat all of it. Also, the coffee wasn't the best. The decor is mostly black and white. I do feel as though they could do more with the space to give the place a bit more character. All in all, I really enjoyed having lunch at Chameleon and am very impressed by the service and food here. It's a great place for a special occasion.

For me, Chameleon is Heaven! Although quite expensive for a breakfast buffet at almost $40 per head, it has everything you could possibly want for breakfast. There is the cooked food component that includes: eggs in little spoons, tomatoes, mushrooms, home-made baked beans, kranskys, breakfast sausages, hash browns, and waffles; plus a range of breads to toast yourself with a variety of spreads, cereals, self-service cold & hot drinks, salmon, French pastries, muffins, cold meats, fruits, yoghurts & amazing bircher muesli; there is also a set menu if you would like something more standard. You are honestly spoiled for choice in a nice, clean dining area. The staff are very attentive and friendly. I have no complaints whatsoever about this place and, when there as a casual diner, I feel like I'm on holiday overseas. It's a real treat if you want to do something different in the weekend, and you might even see a few famous faces!<br/><br/>A few weeks ago my partner wrote a review for Chameleon on DineOut. He doesn't love the place as much as I do. As a result of his review, the restaurant manager at Chameleon sent him a voucher for two to dine free with the inference that changes would be made in response to his review. So we went back for breakfast yesterday. One of the requests was that the hash browns were actual hash browns - the likes of which even Denny's serves (actual grated potato) - rather than the processed packaged variety. There was no change there. The bacon was still dry - no change there. There were still sugar sachets on the tables - no change there. The egg & salmon pots were still odd tasting - no change there. We left wondering what the point was in inviting us back to sample the changes when there were none. Oh well, I still like the place but have dropped my rating by a star.<br/><br/>My husband's point of view:<br/>Please note this is a review on the breakfast buffet. Is it not reflective on any of the other dining options.<br/><br/>My partner and I came here last week for her birthday. Chameleon’s breakfast buffet is her ‘special ‘treat’ experience, though after two visits I am not sure why.<br/><br/>The environment is as pleasant as you would expect from an establishment such as this, and the staff are also very congenial, again as one would expect.<br/><br/>The issue I have is the food. Now I ‘get’ the whole buffet scene, and by its very nature food is pre-prepared and kept in warmers. You go knowing this, however I still cannot reconcile the quality of some of the food to the star-rating of the hotel. I had the bacon, hash browns, eggs and Kransky sausages. The bacon had been sitting in the warmer for some time; there was an awful lot of it, and looked dried-out and had gone an odd colour. I had a heck of a time trying to cut it with my knife back at the table. The eggs sit in individual-serve bowls, and they too looked worse for wear. They had dried out and had gone very wrinkled, and when eating them they were very over-cooked and only one had any semblance of a runny yolk. The hash browns and sausages were not too bad as they can more-easily survive sitting in warmers, though how these discs of processed-something can be called a 'hash-brown' escapes me. Maybe my expectation in a 5-star hotel is something resembling freshly-grated potato and not packaged food. Is the 'good stuff' saved for those who al a carte their brekkie?<br/><br/>My partner had a similar dish, though she also had the baked-beans and was very fulsome in her praise of them. They certainly seemed to be ‘home-made’.<br/><br/>I went back for Round 2, and the bacon had been replenished and was certainly nicer this time around, though I got the last two of four eggs which by this time were good only for a quick round of nine-holes out Miramar way.<br/><br/>Maybe cook these items in smaller numbers, more often? Might be more work for the cooks out the back, but hey, both times I went up the kitchen staff didn’t appear to be run off their feet. <br/><br/>The rest of the buffet area is beautifully presented, and in keeping with the overall experience.<br/><br/>Another thought - maybe they could label the two cold drink dispensers? I would have gone for one on the left if I had known the one on the right was grapefruit juice.<br/><br/>If I go back, it will only be because my partner still sees this place as a ‘treat’. For $34.00 pp I know we can do much better elsewhere.<br/><br/>14/02/2016:<br/><br/>The hubby & I went back today for Valentine's Day breakfast, for the first time since the place has been 'made over'. I don't think the new decor has made it any nicer - it was fine as it was - more space to move between tables and the breakfast buffet was much easier to navigate. We had the full buffet breakfast which is normally an old favourite ... but today it was somewhat lacking. The poached eggs were rock hard due to sitting the bainmarie ... fine if you like them that way but we prefer ours yolky. The house-made baked beans semi-crunchy in a rather flat sauce; the mushrooms - overcooked to the point where they were almost bitter. Sugar bowls have been replaced with cheap little sachets that are never enough. If you wanted pancakes, there was no maple syrup (at least while we were there), nor was the butter replenished quickly. The toast machine did nothing on the first run through - you need to put it through twice. The bircher muesli was lovely however. It was in no way at all worth $37 each no matter how much you can put away, so we won't be going back for breakfast. Today it was a 2.5 so I have amended my rating from 4.0. Sorry I have not provided a photo - we felt like the staff were monitoring us. We have not been there for lunch or dinner so cannot comment.

I was really looking forward to dining out here and from the look of the menu thought it would be wonderful. The food while in the main did not disappoint - the lamb was tough and sauteed potatoes were almost raw the flavours were great. What disappointed us was the service. Not once were we asked if we wanted drinks in fact i deliberately placed my empty wine glass on the edge of the table which even when plates were cleared remained where it was and still empty. The staff were not attentive - no one asked if our meals were okay or asked if we needed anything. As I say wonderful food but the service was a real let down.

Great service. Personable waiter. We went for the chocolate degustation menu during Wellington on a Plate, was amazing.<br/><br/>Didn't like the scallops, but I'm not a seafood fan so hardly in a position to judge them.

The winter menu is fabulous and none of us could help but RAVE about Ricky's flat bread! Delicious. A huge thank you to Saki who took such excellent care of us, and made the dining experience so special. I would reccomend the wild mushroom pot with garlic foam!<br/><br/>YUM!

The atmosphere was pleasant, good lighting and non-invasive music. We were met by a polite and friendly hostess. <br/><br/>The sustainable menu is good value, we had 2 starters from the sustainable menu, the salmon and the feta; which were very good. We were surprised though that on their own they cost the the same as a main. The pork belly was over cooked slightly but the mustard ice cream made up for it. We felt the deserts were disappointing and not on the same level as the rest of the food. <br/><br/>A real let down though, was the service. Our waiter was pompous, rude and condescending. For example, I tried to order coffee with desert and was told haughtily that the coffee detracts from the flavour of "his" deserts and that we would have to wait until afterwards. He continued to be hostile and conceited, I eat out all the time and have never been so happy to leave a restaurant.

Its been many years since I have been to Chameleon but went there for dinner last night. My lamb shanks were heavenly, although probably a little too much mashed potato for my liking. Dessert was hazelnut tart, again heavenly.<br/><br/>The service was excellent - attentive but not overbearing.

Over the years I have eaten many times here at all times of the day. Personally, I have found the food to be good at lunch and dinner. Breakfast has been more variable.<br/><br/>We have had good professional service and on occasion some excellent dishes. It is a cut above the typical hotel eating place.<br/><br/>Lamb and venison dishes stick in the memory. My wife has a fondness for the dessert selection.