rātā

my partner and i booked in here almost as soon as we knew we were coming to queenstown, so the anticipation was pretty high. through reviews and first hand accounts we were told to expect something special. rātā did not disappoint.

i had the seared beef starter and it was ah-mah-zing. my main was the venison loin and cheek ehich wad very well balanced and i finished with the manuka honey custard with the sponge and it was delightful but wasnt quite as good as the first two courses.

i would recommend this place to anyone going toqueenstownand looking for something special.

rata has been on my bookmarked list of fine dining restaurants inqueenstownto visit since i saw photos and reviews when it first opened (i can’t remember how long ago now). for various reasons, it becomes a last minute decision on our last night in queenstown. initially, over the phone, the lovely maître d’, claire, is only able to accommodate my son and i at the bar, which is fine with us. when we turn up however, despite having the places set at the bar, she kindly offers us a vacant table that isn’t required until 8:30pm - perfect!
we had eaten some late afternoon snacks elsewhere after a long bike ride, so we are happy to have just main courses tonight.
the two ciders on offer are both enjoyed as we wait the estimated 20mins for our meals to arrive. i opt for the te mana rack of lamb, onion tart tatin, smoked onion purée, salsa verde yoghurt, and ty takes the glazed beef cheek, red cabbage, canterbury truffle, garlic crumb, quick brown fox jus. we supplement these with sides of charred organic cauliflower, and the beetroot and goats cheese salad. i also leave the choice of red wine to accompany my lamb in the hands in of our waiter, and i’m very happy with a robust pinot noir, served in the largest special pinot glass on the planet! overall, each mouthful of each dish came together like a well orchestrated symphony of flavours, textures and colour. there is a lot of quiet moaning and each of us thinks our own choice is the best. the beef cheeks are incredibly tender, yet holding their shape, and my lamb is beautifully pink, succulent and flavoursome. all the components of our plates just seem to harmonise magically, leaving us very satisfied. full marks to the front of house, and back of house teams for making it an experience to treasure for a very long time.

wonderful night. outstanding food and drinks menu, lovely friendly staff, comfortable modern interior. never thought i’d come toqueenstownand choose a perfect entree, main, dessert and two beers that all had incredible flavour and all meals were exceptionally well presented. definitely wish there was a local restaurant back home that was this stunning. well worth the visit.

tucked into the ground floor of a building behind the old courthouse, rata is not easy to find - but who cares when josh emmett's reputation and achievements fill it nightly. the average rating makes no sense to us - in january 2018 it was our best meal in four days inqueenstownby s considerable margin. professional service. creative menu. exceptional wine list.

came here with a friend the first night we arrived in queenstown, and we're so happy to have dined here because the food quality and service was 10/10 . our waiter was very knowledgable about wine and we were pleased with his recommendations. we had bluff oysters and goat cheese profiteroles for starters, and they were both delicious! we also ordered the beef wellington in advance because it takes 45 minutes to cook. the beef wellington also comes with your choice of two sides, we had roasted potatoes and the kale salad. the beef wellington is probably the best steak i've ever had, it was so juicy, tender, full of flavour, and melt in the mouth. trust me, it's a must try!!! we didn't end up finishing the beef wellington because it was way too much for two people, i would recommend sharing it with 3 others. btw, it's $110 including the two sides. overall, we had the best dining experience at rata dining, and would definitely return if we ever visitqueenstownagain.

i didn't have a favourite restaurant inqueenstownuntil tonight. wow. wow. amazing. the food is incredible. the service is impeccable. the ambience and fitout is just perfect. i was unexpectedly dining solo and felt so welcomed not out of place at all. my fav part was pudding (hey i'm english!) cheese please. out comes a large selection of cheeses with an explanation/description of each so i can make an informed decision on the ones i wanted to choose. thank you josh. this restaurant and your staff are a credit to you.

probably my favourite restaurant inqueenstownand that's a big call! you just cannot fault the food and service here. we ordered their infamous goats cheese profiteroles, cloudy bay clams, karaage chicken, pork belly and their beef wellington was to die for. if you're a foodie this restaurant is a must!

rata restaurant was absolutely shocking! my experience here was traumatizing. i came here with a group of friends who came toqueenstownfrom china, and all i wanted was a peaceful night accompanied by a nice dinner to exhibit the fine food nz has to offer… however, this was not the case. first of all, the service was terrible, the waiters were not very welcoming or friendly, nor were they very attentive and also very rude. anyway, we decided to order as soon as we got in to rata before it got too busy, as we were starving after a long day of being at the snow. i saw they had oysters, so i wanted to order 2 dozens, as all my friends were dying to try nz oysters and i rata dining had some. i was disappointed to find, they only had 6 oysters left, and this was only at 6pm, which meant there was not enough oysters for everybody. shortly after, i ordered a round of beers, which i asked the waiter to assist me in, the beer wasn’t bad and when i went to order my second round, he told me they had also sold out of the beer?! this definitely came as a shock to me, how could a restaurant not have anymore beer? in addition to this, the beer cost $18 a bottle, talk about ridiculous. i can’t say, i have ever paid over $11 for a bottle of beer in my lifetime. the beer most certainly wasn’t brewed in diamonds or gold, i don’t understand why it cost so much. an hour and a half had passed, and our food still had not arrived, we were one of the first who came to the restaurant that night, and it came to my attention that all the other tables had food, apart from ours even though we specifically ordered early so that we would get out food sooner. after asking the wait staff about our food, they recurringly told us 5 minutes, 5 minutes, but half an hour had passed and our food still hadn’t arrived. at this stage i was extremely hungry and angry, so the rata staff abruptly told us to leave, kicking us out of rata. the bill was $150, for a few beers, and they had also charged us for food, which had not even come out yet. i was extremely humiliated that my friends who had come from so far away, had to experience such prejudicial treatment from a restaurant in nz. it reflected badly not only on me, on the country, as it proved that racism is amongst us here in nz, and occurs in every aspect of our lives. we came to rata dining for our pure leisure and enjoyment, but we left the restaurant feeling oppressed and discriminated against.

its going to be quite some time before we can treat ourselves to a dining experience so while holidaying inqueenstownwe had pre-booked dinner at rata. we had heard rave reviews. so anyway, its quite a different layout, has a almost asian influence/feel to it. the lighting was quite dark, i suppose to set a romantic type mood. the forest feature on the end wall was different but made a cool look.
we wanted to treat ourselves so we had entree, main, and dessert. we arrived around 6.30pm and it was just staring to get busy. the place was practically full by the time we finished and left.
entrees were the cheese roll for the wife, and flounder for myself. cheese roll was light, soft and the crepe type surround was delicious. the fish, goodness it was simply fantastic. it just fell apart with a touch of the fork. i've had a lot of fish dinners in my time and this one is up there as one of the best - and this was just an entree!
mains were the duck for my wife, and the venison for myself. two more dishes that delivered exceptional, well seasoned meals. the smaller chunks of venison and miniature beetroot was very pleasant. was a bit of a wait between the entree and main, but well worth the wait. the main servings were generous compared to other restaurants.
desserts, were an interesting chocolate with earl grey ice-cream. unusual mix of flavours but it worked amazingly well. i had the meringue which was far different to what i imagined. it was delicate, gooey, crunchy in some places, and (i think it was) the apricot component was scrumptious. 
service was friendly, smiling, attentive, focused and knew the menu well.
rata is a fine dining experience and well worth paying that bit extra to have a memorable dinner. ended our stay inqueenstownon a good note.

really amazing dining experience. dishes are good decent size for fine dining. great atmosphere, service and everything in general just makes it a favorite inqueenstown and one of the best places in new zealand.

when i mentioned that i was spending the weekend in queenstown, rata was the second most popular suggestion people gave me, following the very obviousqueenstownattraction - fergburger.

tucked off the main road, we gladly settled in for lunch in the warmth rata had to offer in exchange for the cold winter blast. the restaurant is spacious, clean and sleek, furnished with wooden tones that aligns with it's name. the staff were also very professional. we went for the two course set lunch, sharing a starter and dessert between the two of us. we had the green lip mussels to start off with, which was light yet delicious, and the broth was warm and tangy. the mussels were de-shelled, so it was a nice touch not to have to struggle to remove the mussel as a whole. i went with the salmon for my main and thoroughly enjoyed it, the salmon was cooked to perfection, crisply grilled on the outside but still a little pink on the inside. i also had a taste of the merino lamb cassoulet, which was quite nice though abit too lamb-y for my liking and the portion seemed smaller compared to the salmon dish. we ended the meal with the steamed ginger pudding. the pudding itself was alright, but what shined in that dish was the apple & fig ice cream.

went to rata for a relaxed lunch... and .... that is absolutely what i got .... the service was amazing... food was great the most incredible part of the entire 3 course meal was the portion control it was bang on!! perfect! had green lipped mussels ... chicken oysters with spinach risotto (main) and ginger pudding. if i'm inqueenstownagain i have no doubt where i'm headed for a meal.

thank you for the very memorable dining experience on tuesday night,  excellent cuisine. also tried  madam woos last night on recommendation from your staff .  most impressed.  bought your book and will definitely return toqueenstownnext year, same place (rata), same time, to celebrate my birthday again.

simply sublime, if i could rate a restaurant 6 stars then i would! josh came out to say hi which was nice, and the whole experience from beginning to end was first class.. . the starters were out of this world, the pork main beautiful, and my chocolate parfait deliriously tasty! we also tried some of the cocktails, one with rum and grand marnier, the other with elderflower, both superb. definitely the top restaurant so far inqueenstownon my list. did i mention the presentation was meticulous and also the service attentive.

being regular patrons ofqueenstownrestaurants we took our family out to lunch on sunday. with all the hype and press that josh emett is enjoying presently we found our dining experience to be disappointing. our greeting was less than enthusiastic by our waitress who definitely didn't want to be working. she was unfriendly and unhelpful. our water was luke warm, we asked for ice twice to cool the water which finally arrived when most had finished their water, we were not offered more water. we ordered the croquettes and hand cut chips to share which were fine then organic chicken and prosciutto terrine for three which was bland, dry and uninteresting and pork belly for one which was reported to be very nice and obviously was as nobody else was offered a morsel to try!
we decided not to stay for desert and coffee and left to go elsewhere where we were welcome customers.
sadly a disappointing experience, maybe evening meals are rata's forte? we feel there are much better options for lunchtime time eating in queenstown.