The Whaler - Kaikoura New Zealand

Although it's categorized as pub food, it truly exceeded our expectations. We found this place while looking for a spot to watch the rugby and were pleasantly surprised. The fish was incredibly fresh and beautifully presented. The atmosphere was lovely too. Overall, it was a great experience. Definitely worth a visit!

I stopped by on a quiet Sunday evening. The staff were friendly and allowed us to relax and take in the atmosphere and views. The portion sizes were generous and offered at a great price. There's also some interesting history associated with the building.

This restaurant offers fantastic food and has a cozy atmosphere, making it the perfect spot to grab a drink or a bite to eat while traveling from Picton to Christchurch.

Starting off positive Mains were excellent with good sized portions. The chicken was a little dry but the peppercorn sauce made up for it. The ribs were a winner and practically fell off the bone. Dessert was where things fell down. The dessert special was a mango, rhubarb and beetroot crumble which intrigued me, but in hindsight should have been a warning! Firstly, why the mango and beetroot? You couldn't taste either, so just do a really good rhubarb crumble! Secondly, a crumble should have a fruit base with crumb on top. This... thing... had a crumb base and then extra thick chunks of crumb on top, almost like it was trying to be a pie, but failed at the last moment. Thirdly, it was twice the size it needed to be. Unless your menu says otherwise, keep the different items to similar portion sizes! As for the creme brulee the star of the dish is the layer of caramelized sugar on top. Putting icing sugar on top of that just ruins the point! It was a good dessert just trying to look too fancy. I've seen other restaurants use edible flowers to make it look great. On the other hand, I saw other patrons with seafood dishes and the brownies which all looked excellent, so maybe we were just unlucky with ours. Finally, service was fairly slow taking about two hours for mains and a dessert. It felt like we waited for our dessert for as long as we did for our mains. Overall I would recommend checking this place out for lunch, for their mains, or just for a great place to hang out for a few drinks. The bar itself and the atmosphere is pretty great and had a relaxed vibe going. Just expect to wait a bit for food.

Decent pub food, excellent chowder and fish. Staff really busy on the holiday weekend but stayed cheerful and very helpful. I'm never that thrilled with Monteith's (DB) beers but this is a really good pub.