Seventy-two seats along the north wall
The Greenstone Room runs the length of the ground floor with the water in every window. Seventy-two seats inside and twenty-four on the terrace from October to April, when the terrace is warm enough to be worth the walk.
It is open to anyone, not only to hotel guests. Dinner is worth booking from Thursday to Sunday and in the ski season; breakfast never needs a booking.
When it is open
- Breakfast
- 6.30am to 10.30am, seven days. Buffet plus a short cooked menu. Included in every room rate.
- Lunch
- Midday to 2.30pm, Friday to Sunday and daily through January.
- Dinner
- 5.30pm to 9.30pm, seven days. Last orders at 9pm.
- Terrace
- October to April, weather permitting, same hours as the room.
- Room service
- A short menu, 6am to 10.30pm.
Bookings on +64 3 442 6180 or through the enquiry form. Tables of nine or more take a set menu chosen in advance.
The menu
À la carte plus a four-course set menu at NZ$96 a head, which is the one the kitchen would rather cook and the one that changes most often. Both change with what the growers and the boats send, which in practice means five or six times a year.
Beef and lamb come from Otago and Southland. Vegetables come from the Cromwell basin between November and May, and from further north outside that. Fish is landed at Bluff and Riverton and arrives twice weekly. Bread is baked in the building each morning.
Vegetarian and vegan versions of the set menu are cooked as a matter of course rather than as a substitution, and gluten-free bread is baked in the same kitchen. Tell us when the table is booked and the kitchen will have it ready.
The list
A hundred and forty entries, of which ninety-one are from Central Otago and thirty from Gibbston alone. Pinot noir dominates because the region does; the list carries eleven vintages of it by the glass on a Coravin.
The remainder covers Marlborough, Hawke’s Bay, Australia, Burgundy and Alsace. Corkage is NZ$25 a bottle for wine bought at a Gibbston cellar door on the day, which happens often enough that we stopped charging the full rate for it.
The list is on the table rather than on a tablet, and the sommelier works Thursday to Sunday.
The Moke Room at dinner
The Moke Room takes ten around one table and is used for private dinners outside working hours. Same kitchen, same list, one service. There is no room hire charge above a minimum spend of NZ$900, and no cover charge.
Larger private dinners go into The Rees Room, which seats twenty-six, or The Dart Room, which seats a hundred. Both are covered on the events page.
Before an early start
For a 6am coach to Milford Sound or a first lift at Coronet Peak, the kitchen packs a breakfast box the night before at no charge: coffee in a flask, fruit, yoghurt, and something baked in the building. Ask at the front desk before 9pm.
The dining room itself opens at 6.30am, seven days, including public holidays.
