amisfield bistro & cellar door

fantastic service, warm fire, trust thechefand a bottle of their rkv 2008 pinot noir summed the place up for us. if warm enough, it is a great location to sit outside and have a few wines in the country air.

the best part of having trust thechefis not knowing what is going to turn up at the table. if you do want the pork however whisper in the waiters hear.

we will be heading back.

delicious food! could not recommend more. best food we have had since arriving in queenstown almost a week ago. did read a few reviews on here before coming so we were dubious but the staff were lovely and friendly. we had the three course trust thechefand did not mind not having an a la carte menu. it was nice to leave it up to someone else to choose for a change. if you're looking for an average kind of meal with meat and five veg don't come here, but if you're looking for excellent dishes with outstanding flavours give it a go. oh and the presentation of the dishes was like art on a plate.

a beautiful restaurant vineyard located in arrowtown. amazing interior, elegant and spacious great for intimate dining.

ordered trust thecheftasting menu. excellent techniques with in-season local ingredients. the venison was nicely flavored, with yummy truffle sprinkled on top. the abalone was fresh and tender, dipped in abalone juice, maximizing its flavor. loved the tri-set canapés, nice in taste with beautiful presentations.

the main dish was a duck, excellently cooked, firm but tender, matching fairly well with the orange sauce. the caramelized kumara with quite innovative for dessert.

the 2007 pinot noir was one of the best red wines i’ve had. fruity and light bodied, super easy to drink.

service was great too. the waiter/waitress was attentive and knowledgeable.

slightly pricey compared to degustations in auckland. but definitely worthy of the visit.

food: 9/10
food presentation: 9/10
service: 9/10
location: 7/10
ambience: 10/10
price $140 per person excl alcohol

freaking love this place. the food is awesome, they have a great drinks list and the view is to die for. we come here every year when we visit queenstown and have never been disappointed. they have a trust thechefmenu and it is awesome!

go for the wine, but definitely do not stay for the food.

front of house was a bit pompous, the rest of the staff were generally friendly.

the food was absolutely nothing special, every meal we have had in queenstown / wanaka over the past week has been better. including hole in the wall type cafes. the price you are paying does not match up to the food that is being served. ($140 pp, 8 course dinner)

to much “thought” has gone into the presentation, silly stories about the food and not enough into the actual taste.

our waitress would repeat a script she had probably been fed by thechefthat was completely absurd each time a dish was brought out. a block of charred butter was placed on a plate with a group of rocks, the waitress said that one of those rocks was actually a piece of butter. she suggested we might try to figure out which one was butter by gently tapping on each rock. it was extremely obvious what “rock” was in fact butter, it felt like some absurd type of theatre. every time a dish came out some other anecdote went with it, it always felt like they were trying to hard.

amisfield might have had an excellent restaurant from looking at the reviews, but it is definitely not one now.

new zealand. we’re a young country. it would be fair to say that for most of our existence, we’ve hung our culinary hat upon cuisines from other cultures and lands – british, french, asian. we’ve fought over who invented the pavlova, whether marmite is better than vegemite and which three veg should accompany the meat. things are changing rapidly, however, with a group of passionate chefs and restauranteurs working feverishly to change the way we see new zealand food and ingredients. at the pointy end of that charge ischefvaughan mabee of queenstown’s amisfield bistro. with renown forager peter langlands at his side, vaughan is creating a symphony of sublime dishes that showcase native new zealand ingredients in ways this country has been missing.

enjoyed a long lunch with the trust thechefmenu which consists a starter (kingfish tartare cured in hazlenut milk), 2 entree (1. roasted potato and leek soup with truffled butter accompanied with sourdough, whipped butter and amisfield olive oil, 2. cod (?!) with sautéed greens), then venison with potato gratin. no dessert on set menu, so ordered additionally. had the tamarillo soufflé with goats cheese ice cream and custard - worth it. degustation came with matched wine option (pay extra) - all wines good and matching worked well.

my favourite restaurant ever. a newchefmaybe? all dishes ok but they use to be sensational. good service & a great way of eating with shared plates. can't beat the view. maybe everyone else is catching up with exceptional food & service. it's just not quite the same.

posted by chasing a plate in new zealand, queenstown, travel on 14/09/2015. ...we suggest you trust thechefwhen it comes to deciding what to eat. you’ll enjoy several courses which utilise the best of the day’s ingredients. we’ve eaten tender braised beef cheek with pistachio and beetroot and hot smoked akaroa salmon with horseradish and fennel in the winter and seared tuna with a salsa verde and pannacotta and red currants in the summer. it’s always delicious...

i have been here a number of times now and it is a must do everytime i am in queenstown. we usually get the trust thechefmenu which is amazing! it comes out at share plates so you need at least two people. you can give some guidance when you order if there are specific things you don't eat or don't like but generally you have a starter course, a pasta course, a fish course and a meat course. then if you go for the option a dessert course. the basic trust thechefis $70pp, with one glass of wine and dessert $85pp and with 4 matching wines and dessert $120pp. my recommendation, arrange transport so no one has to drive and go the whole hog with matching wines, you won't regret it!

in a nutshell food was 10/10 service was about a 2. very slow on ordering and delivering drinks. having to ask for more water and pouring yourself is not what i would expect. meals were very slow due to the fact our meal was given to the table next to us even though they didn't order that. food was exceptional though and at the end of the day that's why i go places.

went back in 2019 and as a 3chefhat restaurants the experience was to die for... one of the best i’ve had. every dish well thought out and so much flavour. loved it

visited for dinner in may 2013 and then afternoon drinks in october 2014. trust thechefis the way to go. pork was outstanding and worth getting a bottle of their reserve pinot noir to go with it. service is of a high standard, consistent and friendly.

if you can't make it for lunch or dinner, totally worth going for a glass of wine in the courtyard.

i had chosen this winery for dinner as it had been ranked on cuisine's runner up for best winery restaurant and i was visiting queenstown for a weekend so thought i would give it a go.  

i had booked for dinner however i didn't realize until i had turned up that they were only doing a 'trust the chef' menu, so i had no say in what i could eat only what i couldn't eat.  i wish they had told us that when i had called to book it and also that if we had dietary requirements that the whole table would have no option but to have the same meals that i had cause of it.  i felt like it had limited my husband which i didn't think was fair on him since there were some things on other peoples tables which he would have wanted.  i also didn't like that every table got something different so sometimes we would get food envy and see what we got and compared them to others.  

in terms of the food, i found half the dishes to be quite good, the others just average.  the fish was well cooked but was a bit on the salty side and the pairings with the fish didn't have much flavour either.  the short rib was way too salty, mine was less so than my husband but i think cause i mixed it with the mashed potatoes so it might have dulled the taste a bit.

my opinion is that i liked the idea of trust thechefbut i wish it were executed a bit better since all the dishes are shared platters not individual portions which i think would be better than what they have currently.

the amisfield bistro is about 15-20 minutes drive out of the main city and is attached to the local vineyards. the bistro looks like a scene taken out of a movie; it’s a large brick building surrounded by an open picturesque landscape with mountains in the background that truly takes your breath away. upon entering, the place is well lit with extremely high ceilings with exposed beams and wooden furnishings. it had a very rustic vibe that sets a unique dining atmosphere. there’s also a cellar attached to the bistro which allows for sampling and sales of their wines. tonight we are eating from the “trust the chef” menu. for nzd$55 pp, thechefwill dish up two starters, a seafood and meat main for each person. we’re only getting food (with our own separate order of wine) but for a little bit extra, you can get matching wines and a dessert. duck rillette with spiced plum jam and to

another reviewer wrote this:

"the service was faultless, the venue beautiful and the wine divine. if we had chosen our own items from the menu to share we believe our experience could have been fantastic"

and i couldn't agree more.
as we were pushed for time, we decided on trust thechefto try and maximise the different kinds of food we tasted in the short space of time.
the wine tasting and surroundings were beautiful, and even a chilly rainy day outside was softened by a cosy roaring fire inside.

the service was exceptional, and the staff had excellent knowledge of the food and wine.
the trust thecheffood was delicious and beautifully presented, however it wasn't quite adventurous enough for us, and we were a little disappointed.

we also didn't have time for dessert, and by the looks of the menu i think i would have thoroughly enjoyed lingering over dessert/coffee.

next time we go we will make sure we have enough time to enjoy the menu properly (and have dessert!)

(we loved the wine enough to send a case home though)