Saints Cafe, Restaurant & Bar
What makes your venue the Best Gastropub in New Zealand?
Saints is a cool, trendy restaurant and bar which is nestled amongst a thriving holiday makers and local community! The teams culture embraces a strong family spirit with a positive, fun work environment. As a locally family owned and operated business, we are passionate and truly switched on about what we do, which is reflective in every detail. The food on offer is fresh, honest & delicious local fare and the décor is unique, modern and warm.
From date nights to after-work brews, families to hen’s dos this trend setting venue is the multi-purpose restaurant and bar perfect for all types of occasions.
As a locally family owned and operated Gastropub we have been operating for over 16 years. A bright and eager young couple in our late twenties when we first begun, just like having our two daughters young, we have grown up with our daughters, as well as growing up with Saints and with the different times, changes, eras, fads, recessions and covid. Saints is a labor of love and our true baby. We always wanted to create and have successful done; an environment where our customers want to be – for the environment, service, atmosphere, music, food, drinks, specials and because they feel that Saints is theirs.
Describe the experience your customers have at your establishment – what is your food and beverage offering and why do people come back for more?
We appreciate that it isn't just enough to hand over your hard earned dollars and receive just a drink or meal. You need an experience or why bother. We have created that - a fun, relaxed and personality driven experience for all to enjoy. Our team want and love being at work, they are family, they are Saints. This silently filters into our customers enjoyment as everybody is happy, smiling and having fun. Saints is a place for everybody and everyone, all ages, all reasons. Our menu is extensive, which also makes it great for large groups, as there is something to suit everyone. Our customers can relax with a drink or famous cocktail, shoot some pool, or enjoy a meal where they can choose from our celebrated gourmet pizzas, unique Stonegrill and classic a-la-carte menu.
Tell us how you showcase NZ produce / offerings? Does your menu change with the season and how is it locally influenced. How do you accommodate allergy and dietary requirements?
We showcase and state our NZ produce all throughout our food and beverage menu. We are strong on delivering our customers produce from our own local Hurunui District, North Canterbury, Canterbury and South Island. If we can find a small business that is local, we love to support them.
Our main menu stays the same through the seasons as they are enjoyed and celebrated over the last 16 years. Our sides on our meals change with the seasons and offer beautiful seasonal vegetables and green salads. We do create an additional seasonal menu to represent the amazing produce which also includes a range of seasonal drinks to compliment.
Allergy and dietary requirements are no problem at all. Our food menu is extensive which allows our allergy and dietary requirement customers to choose from many meals or alter meals as we make our meals when ordered. Our excellent training in allergy and dietary requirements and flexibility means we have customers that normally can’t eat out at restaurants, coming to Hanmer Springs to enjoy our service and meals.
What are your key points of difference and how have you managed to deliver them?
With 16 years under our belt and being in our late twenties when we began, we battled with the norm in hospitality of ‘that’s how it’s done’ and being told we were silly for questioning the 'why', reasons or doing anything differently. That became our difference and started what we have today. We got kicked out of the Hanmer Business Association for not charging a surcharge on public holidays - now of course they all don't.
We have always been open every day of the week rather than closing for one or two days, our kitchen is open with our full sized menu every day of the week until 9.30pm or even 10pm in the peak times, we select our own beautiful wine list from local, small family owned wineries that for most aren't in supermarkets instead of being the same as everywhere else by being locked into a contract - meaning every wine on our list - is so delicious. We have a daily ritual every day of the week, this would change monthly until we closed for 4 months from the 2017 Earthquake. We had so much feedback whilst closed of what our customers loved and what days they loved them on, that we fixed our rituals when we re-open in 2018.
The difference and why these are so popular is that we believe that just because it is a special it doesn’t mean that it should change on quality, quantity, flavour and love – just because it is cheaper. For this reason, our daily rituals have become a celebrated symbol of Saints and Hanmer Springs.
Best Known for:
Perfect for all occasions
Open every day
fun, relaxed atmosphere
Please describe your commitment to sustainability.
Our sustainability comes from the top. We have our own rubbish and recycling trailer and take this to the rubbish dump ourselves. We recycle our discarded oil to our farm which is used through the frost season on our orchard. All our takeaway products are recyclable, and we have a comprehensive stocktaking system to ensure we don’t have additional food waste. The food waste we have from customers is also given to our pigs at home.
Please describe how you create ambience.
Music is a huge part of Saints and always has been. It creates exactly the environment we are after, customers are tapping their legs to the beat and can’t help but sing along. Music is a powerful tool that may be treated as a small thing however it makes a huge impact.
