no. 4 bar

my husband and i had a lovely evening at this restaurant. great service, ambiance and a polished interior. we called ahead to advise of my dietary requirements (i'm vegan) and when we arrived it was obvious that the chef and wait staff had discussed several delicious sounding options. in the end, i had a personalized risotto and was not disappointed. thank you for a great evening.

great food highly enjoyed the plank. great ambience, nice place to take a date. in a good location off the main street, the staff were friendly.

date night here tonight first time my husband and i have been out since baby 3 arrived 10mths ago. we were ready for a rare treat! we enjoyed a wine and beer plus some ciabatta which was tasty. we decided to try a cup of soup and have a light meal. the soup was good and came out promptly after the bread. however service then took a dive and we waited and waited for our light meals which arrived 1hr 30 after they were ordered. a chicken salad and a burger and fries should not take that long. also the burger patty was pink and looked undercooked. the salad was boring and lacked flavour. both meals we hardly touched. the waitress took away the burger and said it was the herbs in the patty that made it look pink?? aren't herbs green? she offered us a complimentary dessert but by 10pm we were ready to go home. she took the burger off the total bill but we still left disappointed � we won't be back on our next precious date night. what was worse was my parents had given us a voucher as a christmas present. what a shame we didn't get to enjoy it.

thursday lunch : venison amazing.
cooked perfectly, delicious!
beef fillet was good too. friendly service, sat out in sun on patio, nice & relaxing & quiet.
pricey! 2 mains, 2 beers, 1 wine. $118! ...but worth it for the special occasion. :)

no 4 is definitely a "regulars" type of crowd. during the summers, the patio is filled every night with loud laughs, a sporting event on the tv or live music on the weekends. the average age is around 40, but on thursdays it does draw in a good young population. with various specials featuring every day, it's a great place to unwind after work. as it's located in the merivale/saint albans area, except to drop more than a few gold coins for a drink or a bite to eat, but the food is pretty tasty (put the mango back in the mango chicken salad, please!) and the drinks are made with care. most of the beers on draught are monteith's, so if you fancy something different, try a different spot. what makes this such a great bar (besides the taxi stand out front) are the various rooms that available. there are two separate outdoor patio areas (a larger one where live music is played with high top and low top tables and a smaller more intimate area great for a small group gathering to watch a sport match or for a birthday dinner). inside they have a more formal dining area, a high top area and a library with a large tv and tall top tables. this is where the hen parties can go wild. it's definitely one of the top choices if you're in the area.

we were in christchurch visiting family and stopped in here to grab a bite, my partner and i ordered the large no. 4 tasting platter. the duck liver parfait was especially good. i live in auckland and we cannot find a platter as nice as this one. 
staff very friendly. lovely cosy place to catch up with friends and family.

i had been there for brunch and dinner a big while ago. my memory tells me that their dinner is more impressive than brunch. i still can taste yummy risotto i had now. good environment! nice service!

mixed review...need to go again. afternoon drinks and snacks with friends. bottle of bubbles + beers bought from bar and food ordered from table and self seated outside. a friendly, cozy atmosphere, in a well presented property. shared platter was great, as were fries (shouldn't be too hard) and offered with 2 dipping options. pork sliders were quite dry and we had to request salsa and we rebuilt ourselves. the waiter didn't grudge our request but certainly wasn't interested in our concern. we even said 'thanks, appreciate it' and he walked away with no response. we were spoken to by another waiter an hour or so later (totally separate matter) with the same surly demeanor. nothing was cleared from our table either over 2-3 hrs. food 4*, staff 3*.

first let me say i am astounded by the reviews and am thankful none of my numerous experiences at no. 4 have consisted of any of them. i have always been fortunate enough to have wonderful food when i have dined at no. 4 restaurant, on saying that i did dine there a while ago with a friend and was shocked with how visually unappealing his meal was based around non-searing of the sausages (they looked like food-poisoned tadpoles and inedible), but their recovery at time to pay was no-nonsense, sincere and suitably compensatory and left me with enough confidence to take people there again in the future.

i went there for lunch with a friend who'd flown down earlier this week and have decided never to eat there again.

i ordered the seafood salad on a sunday afternoon. i would have thought that most 'gastro pubs' are fairly busy on the weekends but perhaps not this one. the white fish used was clearly old and was quite dry. the rice balls were inedible. i assume they had been kept uncovered in a fridge or freezer overnight and brought out to cool for my order. they were dry, hard and disgusting. i was really shocked they were even served - we're talking a $25 or $26 salad. the rest was just a bit of salmon, lots of dressing and some salady bits. it was rubbish.

i wanted to complain but as i hadn't seen my friend for some time, i left it as i didn't want to make a big issue of it. i've been annoyed at myself all week for not saying anything. i had resolved to say something if service asked how our meals were but they didn't.

i would never advise anyone to eat there. it's in the middle of merivale and costs a lot but whoever they've got in the kitchen is someone with little pride in their work and as a chef/cook, that is the writing on the wall in my opinion.

we had a great tuesday night at no.4. right from when we walked in the service was engaging and welcoming. even the outside area is warm it you visit with an old smoker.

i would recommend the warm ploughman’s platter with a few beers. it offered a great selection of fresh and well presented tastings.

parking around the back.

we will be heading back.

we went there on saturday night for my daughter's 20th birthday and had a meal. the meal itself was ok but the problem was one of us had prawn entree which after eating one noticed a large blowfly in it. we let the waitress know who was shocked and offered a new one but we declined. she then offered a free drink. not at any time did management come see us. we were disgusted. it cost us $210 for a horrible evening. we will never be back.

a friend an i went here for lunch this week. i had remembered it as having nice food but it is probably 4 years since i had last been there. i wouldn't be in a hurry to go back. $36 for fish of the day and it was awful - salted so as to be almost inedible. i did pass my comments on but nothing was done and not wanting to make more of a fuss and spoil time with my friend i just paid and left.

we went there for our end of year function last year. we ordered from the set christmas menu. it was so bad i can't even start to tell you how bad it was. the ham was year old pressed ham, the turkey was year old pressed turkey. between 5 of us, we received 3 small bowls of vegetables and two bowls of old dried up potatoes (despite that the menu said all meals were served with vegetables and new potatoes). the turkey came in two round slices on a plate with sauce on them and that was it! the entree` was equally as bad as the main. the pumpkin soup was bland and more like pumpkin that had been mashed up for babies than anything else and the pate looked like dog-testicles and didn't taste much better. we complained and their fix was to bring us dessert. we thought that this couldn't possibly go wrong. but we were served with 2 desserts to share between 5 of us! the good thing about all of it was that we didn't have to pay a cent for it, but in reality, i wouldn't have in any event. oh and the waiting times between courses- we waited over an hour for dessert. just as well the wine was free. at least that way we could get tipsy and laugh about the whole fiasco.