cool change bar & eatery

nice place with good variety of wines, tapas and mains. has a cool little bar out front with friendly service. we had a reasonably lengthy wait for our mains on a busy night but food was really nice and all in all would recommend

needed a place to eat on a summery sunday night at 8pm and decided to book here. we had a cured salmon entree, pork loin and lamb mains. was honestly surprised at how good the food was! truly delicious with high quality ingredients. the atmosphere and prices pretty good too. service was quite friendly and fast.

came here as a group after doing round the vines, despite booking during the week a table hadn’t been set up for us🤔 the staff moved a smaller group from a room they were sitting in (so rude!) and started jamming bar leaners into this small space. when coming back to take our orders we were told we could only have tapas despite been given the whole menu and this had not been mentioned, terrible service.. we decided to leave so i’m not sure what the food is like...

slow slow service. which is a good thing. means you have time for a pint of every tap beer before your food turns up. tuatara beer. it’s worth trying all four because it’s great beer. your surf and turf will be just fantastic. i’ve had two over the summer both have been perfect. big fat prawns a juicy steak. the place is nice the people are nice martinborough is nice. slow slow service is perfect, believe me.

like several reviews will show - there aren't a lot of choices when you come to martinborough. having exhausted the options, we settled on cool change on a sunday night. it was lively enough, we were told that only tapas were on offer for the night.

first of all - they're not tapas. they are huge. maybe i don't want to labour the point of how things are named on a menu but if i'm having tapas i want spanish tapas.

we ordered the chicken wings, fries, beef and onion quesadilla and the lamb cutlets.

everything just needed a tiny bit of love and it would've been great. the food was tasty enough but just really lacked any care whatsoever. here are my tips for the restaurant going forward:

chicken: calm down on the sauce in the bowl and crisp up those edges in the oven a bit. also a little five spice sprinkle maybe even some chilli kick wouldn't go amiss!

lamb: overlooked. way over cooked. it also wasn't in any way shape or form, crusted. do yourself a favour and make a gremolata or a chimichurri and serve it with that on top - please stop using that green oil.

fries: okay, well cooked - but too much. you can chill on the serving size. it's out of proportion. especially if you insist on calling it tapas.

quesadilla: a thin quesadilla served on a cold plate is going to come out cold. again, needs spice. flavour. come on! it's supposed to be mexican! where my spices at! this one needs the most punch and i didn't get it. also beetroot relish and caramelised onions do not go with this so don't serve it. make some salsa, get some jalapeños. do the right thing.

hopefully this place will take some care from now and stop skipping out on the flavour

the selection of open restaurants in martinborough at 8pm is limited. but that doesn't mean a good experience is out of the question. my friend and i stumbled upon cool change as we were walking around the silents streets of martinborough at night. what we discovered was a great evening out.

we were not sold on the limited menu but the staff seemed friendly, so we took the chance.

friendly staff was an understatement. we couldn't decide on a pinot noir so the waitress suggested we sample a selection of local options. she never rushed us and was happy to serve 2 glasses of our chosen wine.

the food was equally as impressive. the pork terrine was devine but the apple jelly that accompanied it made the dish go from good to great. not a diet dish, but a cheat day treat anytime.

the pork belly lacked a crackled skin but was cooked to perfection. i can forgive this minor error as the flavours in the dish were heavenly. though i may have used the crackling crumb from the terrine to lift the texture of the dish. the accompanying sides were good but lacked imagination. it was essentially meat and three vege on a plate.

no dessert for me, but still on overall great dining experience.

warm and accomodating service, particularly given the late hour. the food was well flavoured, and there is a wide selection available. definitely worth a detour on a long drive.

this is place is amazing! the food here is so, so good and they have an impressive wine list. we ordered the charred bread, dips and warm olives to begin. yum! what is it about charred food that is just so damn good? it tasted glorious with the good quality olive oil and flavoursome dips. the warm olives were divine. for main we both had the steak. it wasn’t the best steak i have ever had but it was very good. the accompaniments were delicious, especially the onion rings. would have loved a bit more hollandaise though, i can never get enough hollandaise! we passed on dessert but where given 2 giant jaffas with the bill, a cute touch. the service was excellent.

on account of another restaurant we had a booking being closed, we popped into cool change for an evening meal. the bar area was very busy, but that's to be expected on a balmy saturday evening.

the meals were reasonably priced but not a huge selection. they were tasty and generous portions, and the restaurant on the whole had a good atmosphere

quite possibly the worst customer service i have ever experienced when dining out.  the food was appalling and lacked flavour and imagination and was very over priced.  staff are rude and abrupt and i wonder if they even have a qualified chef working here.  my advice, avoid!

superb evening. went on the mexican night. (every thursday) $25 a head for a 3 course mexican meal. received a warm welcome. food and atmosphere was great. i highly recommend this eatery to all. i had read earlier reviews about this restaurant and wanted to see for our self's what is was like and found it to be a fantastic place to eat and will certainly be booking our next meal out there very soon.

it seems to be popular with the locals as well; filling with chatter and laughter as they drop by after work for a wind-down tipple before heading home.

we had booked a table for a group of 4 on the saturday night of the toast weekend. the menu was very disappointing with very limited options. cheese fondue, duck, beef wellington, goats cheese soufflé and fish, the latter of which was sold out as was the asparagus. so if you're not into cheese you've 2 choices. no pasta, no chicken dishes. i was amazed that this was all that was on offer on what was obviously going to be an extremely busy weekend. poor planning. also extortionate prices, i think the goats cheese soufflé was around $32, which i think is over priced for a vegetarian dish. we ended up leaving and heading over the road to the martinborough hotel and eating in their bar which had heaps more options from their bar menu alone. we've had an average meal here previously also, though had been prepared to give it another shot. we will not be going there again. on the upside they didn't charge us for our drinks which we'd already ordered on arrival, which was appreciated.

we dined at cool change a couple of weeks ago - for the fourth time - and once again enjoyed an excellent meal. the food was well presented and delicious. we'll be back!

cool change was a terrible end to what had been a lovely and special weekend away.

i have never had such a terrible meal, and am gutted that i had to pay $36 for my main which was virtually inedible. my friends meals were just as bad (if not worse). terrible service, terrible food. from the reviews posted it seems like it started out ok but something has gone terribly terribly wrong. my suggestion: don't go!!