gustav's

it was my sister's 40th birthday and we went with a group of 13 ladies for lunch. our wines allarrivedat different times and it took ages for our meals to arrive. i had ravioli and although it was nice, the portion was very small - more an entrée size. the waitress had no idea who ordered what and had to ask every time that she brought something out. the food all came at different times and some people had finished by the time others got theirs. the worst part and the bit that upsets me the most is that my sister's friend had someone make a birthday cake and gustovs charged us $2.50 ea person to have a piece of the cake that we supplied. so the person that had the cake made had to pay for that and for 13 of us to have a piece. this i feel is shameful as we all ordered wine and food and embarrassed my sister on her special day. none of us will return.

went for dinner last night and was very disappointed. originally booked wine bar but our guests wanted to try the kitchen - were told very bluntly that we couldn't eat off the kitchen menu in the wine bar so we asked to move. ordered duck, steak and pork belly - they'd run out of lamb. steak and duck were ok but nothing to get excited about. pork belly was ok but crackling was cold. our side dishes were forgotten and after waiting ages we had to go and ask the waitress. so theyarrivedas we were finishing our mains. yorkshire puddings were cold, hard and inedible, potato lyonnaise was greasy and unappealing. we complained about the food and after some time were offered a free dessert - we hadn't enjoyed the main so why would order a dessert?? 2 waitresses - neither were attentive or particularly helpful - one was obviously over-stretched and really didn't look like she was enjoying her job. no sign of chef or manager to attend to our complaint. poor food, poor customer service. will definitely not eat there again.

a group of four of us went to gustavs for an early evening meal in early dec 2013, wearrivedat 5:30pm and taken through to the restaurant almost straight away it is a very nice area where one can see the food being cooked on an agar stove and this appealed to us as we fancy ourselves as fairly good cooks.
the waiter approached us and he was accompanied by a waitress in training he made us feel very welcome and explained the menu thoroughly, the vegetables are served and priced seperately to the mains something which i am always suspicious of as it really can make the the mains very expensive but he did explain that one serving of vegetables is enough for two.
i chose the fish pie and shared a salad with a friend, the fish pie was delicious and a really hearty serving it would have been enough on its own as it did have peas in it and the topping was the fluffiest melt in your mouth mashed potato.
the fish soup/broth and the lamb that was the choice of two of the other's was given a good review.
the other's in the group had desserts and they looked beautiful and tasted delicious i am not a dessert person but the fish pie and gorgeous salad was more than enough to fill me up.
gustavs is a wonderful restaurant and a lovely place to visit for a special occasion we would visit again.

visited the woolston tannery on a very wet saturday afternoon (29th dec) and were amazed at the number of people there. spotted gustav's at the end of the venue so decided to try it out. my husband and i were seated almost immediately. menu's were produced after 5 minutes and were explained in detail by the waitress when she found out it was our first visit. we ordered wine whicharrivedpromptly and was followed by the chilli & lime lamb - while the lamb was slightly fatty it was well cooked and verrrry tasty. we followed that with the blat and ravioli which were both enjoyed but thank heavens there was some chilli oil on the table as we needed the spice to add flavor after the lamb dish. i ordered a second glass of wine when our mainsarrivedbut never received it. we were never offered a dessert menu so made our way to the till to pay. had to wait to pay????? when i read the previous reviews i now understand the issues with the staff. it did not appear to be as bad as the reviews make out but maybe larger groups have more problems. hope the management sorts out their staffing issues as we would like to try the venue again soon

as a much talked about new venue in christchurch we were pretty excited to be going for lunch, mid december.
arrived and waited around the end of the bar as there was a till there and seemed to also be the area where the staff were congregating.
there was 4 of us and after being passed several times by staff we wondered what we were to do as nobody acknowledged us.
there were 2 waitresses behind the bar in deep discussion and eventually we caught the eye of one of them.
she held up a finger to indicate hang on. which we did.
eventually they split with one going one way and the other sailed right past us without a word.
there were some random menus on the counter so we thought, what the hey, grabbed them and took a seat!
after viewing the menu we felt the choices looked good so then waited for table service. this took 12 minutes before we had the company of a waitress and this was because one rob went to the bar to get service.
eventually we were served our drinks but then it was another long wait - 17 minutes before our orders were taken.
after about 20 minutes a waitress came back to say they had run out of 2 of the dishes we had chosen.
by now we were wondering if we were in some kind of comedy or something!
during this time, no water was poured, or offered, and our drinks were not refreshed.
amateur hour in abundance.
we saw some waitresses working very hard and also some spending plenty of time behind the bar ignoring customers!!
our mealsarrivedafter about a 50 minute wait and by this time we had finished our drinks but not asked if we wanted more.
decided not to have dessert as just too painful to go through all that again.
gustavs is a nice place but is strongly let down by the staff, their lack of expertise, training and attention to customer detail.
it looked to us as if they were understaffed and as previous reviewers have stated, they need a leader/front of house manager.
overall they could have made a lot more money out of us with a little more attention to the customer and our needs.

not a pleasant experience

on a wet friday lunch time we took friends from london (uk) to show them the wonderful and exciting tannery shopping centre and decided to have lunch at gustav’s kitchen and wine bar. we had to wait as it was very busy and were finally seated but we were abandoned without menus or even an enquiry if we required drinks. we gave up waiting and went to the bar to order drinks but were told we could not order at the bar and would have to wait until someone served us! eventually a waitressarrivedto take our food order and realised that we had not been given menus so left to get some. we stopped her and asked if we could place our drinks order with her as we knew what we required. drinksarrivedand she advised the lunch menu had been sold out and gave us the bar food snack menus (she could only find 4 menus - for party of 6!!).
foodarrivedbut minus one meal and with no explanation why all 6 snacks were not served together. another waitress came and said they had sold out of the choice of the missing meal so that guest made a 2nd request. sometime later a 3rd waiter came out and advised that that choice had now also sold out! having made his 3rd choice it finallyarrivedbut the rest of us had almost finished our food. the snacks were tasty however my choice of pork gordita was warm pork served on a cold stainless steel platter!
after we finished our ‘bar snacks’ we decided to leave as although the table behind us was offered the deserts menu we were not offered this service and neither were we offered coffee or even refills of our drinks.
such a nice environment but so disappointing to have such a bad experience and embarrassing for overseas visitors.

had a late lunch here with my mother, sister and brother today, as next door was too busy.
so disappointed. i've read other reviews and almost all suggest a front of house/manager - all of our issues today would have been avoided if they had one.
we found our own tables and menus, we went inside to place our order - tried 3 times with different staff until one said they would come take our orders. her vest was obviously dirty with sauce down the front.
the food promptlyarrivedbut was disappointing. ribs were very fatty, cheeseboard plain and sandwiches bland. no one came to check on how our food was.
we went up to pay, waited 10 mins again. incredibly painful and such a disappointing experience and lunch. will not be back.

to be honest i was expecting better service. i cannot fault the food. really impressed with the environment.
alas on arrival unable to grab any staff's attention to obtain a
drink. 10 minutes later served. advised the restaurant staff we hadarrivedand were having a quick drink at the bar. alas staff did not communicate and we were left for 15 to 20 minutes before being seated. food was stunning. however a shame we had to ask for our sides whicharrivedas the mains were finished. no refreshment of water and no pouring of the wine which may have resulted in another purchase for the table. all in all a very disappointing first impression of what should be an amazing place.

perhaps the food is nice - we never got a chance to find out. we were seated with a menu, the waitress came to introduce herself and pour the water - a good start, but instead of the customary "are you ready to order?" (which we were) we got "i'll let you look at the menu a bit longer" and she went away. and never came back. after a long time someone else came and apologised for the wait as the waitress was busy - 3 tables hadarrivedclose together. then a further very long wait. then we caught her eye and finally shearrivedto take the order. and then... yes one of the dishes we wanted was not available and no-one had bothered to take it off the menu or warn us before we ordered. at this point we walked out to seek food elsewhere. no point offering a nice handwritten menu if the customers can't get served!
pat mcintosh.

i have a friend that whenever he says 'try this place' i immediately book a table. his latest recommendation was gustav's. iarrivedon a sunday at 6pm, as they take bookings in two sittings. i was sat immediately by what turned out would be our waiter, he introduced himself (kiwis don't don't do this enough as servers). he had a big table that needed an order and apologised saying he'd return asap. this gave us a chance to admire our surroundings... amazing! everything in oak, and the kitchen is completely open with a lovely old aga oven. the wine list was over 200 strong at least! our waiter (adam) returned and apologised for the (1minute if that) wait. on finding my partner had picked a bottle of rioja for us he immediately suggested a pastry entree saying in match the wine 'deliciously'. so we did. i, on the adams suggestion had the lamb and my better half had the fish stew, adam selling a chablis as a better match for the fish... guess i'm driving. our pastriesarrivedand i have to admit, the matched the wine without fault, the food itself was delicious and full of flavour. by this stage the restaurant is pretty full but the chefs and servers seemed pretty calm and the atmosphere was very relaxed. our mains came out and both were a presentation in themselves, old style enamel plates have a real country kitchen feel. the food was amazing, that's the only word for it. adam checked on us and brought the chablis, which again was an outstanding match. desert was not an option for either of us despite the waiters insistence it "tastes like happiness". all in all an outstanding evening, food, service, food, wine and food all stunning. i will be back for desert.

so annoyed !!
well where to start. first of all my husband and i went in to the bar at 11.30am on saturday morning to make a booking for 6 of our friends for that night. we were told they only take 1 table booking a night, but if we came back at 5.30pm we will get a table. so arranged to meet others at 6pm, alan & iarrivedat 5.35pm, were told we could not wait at the table (restaurant was empty), and we would have to vacate the table at 7.30pm as they want to get more people in. we waited at the bar had a glass of wine, friends arrived, we all had a drink, waited to called to our table, the restaurant was starting to fill up - no one came to get us . surely a table of 6 adults spending approx. $600 for the night would be worth more courtesy. we left and had a fantastic night at another restaurant. would not recommend gustavs kitchen.