The Waimate
What makes your venue the Best Gastropub in New Zealand?
Located on the main street in a town with the population of 3,500, we strive to present our guests with a world class experience, showcasing a memorable ambiance, unbeatable service and most importantly - seasonal, creative, filling dishes and an extensive drink selection of locally sourced wines and beers, plus creative cocktails.
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 want our local Waimos to always have the opportunity to try fresh, seasonal dishes when they dine with us, so we mix things up by changing our menu every 6 weeks. However, our signature dishes, like the Mama’s Fried Chicken and Trailer Park Pizza have remained on the menu since opening day, 4 years ago; they keep locals coming back for more, and visitors drooling and dreaming of their next visit.
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 always offer a wide range of vegan, vegetarian and gluten free options across all our menus including small dishes, mains, pizzas, desserts and our children’s menu.
We plan our menus with our local growers around what they’ll be producing season to season and plan our menus accordingly, changing dishes out every 6 weeks to maintain optimum freshness.
At the moment, strawberries are plentiful in the area and we showcase them on one of our vegetarian pizzas Jack n’ the Patch and on our sugar-free dessert, Strawberry Panna Cotta.
What are your key points of difference and how have you managed to deliver them?
Our experienced, local and international staff create a unique dining experience through the use of creative flavours in the kitchen and exceptional service in the restaurant. We love a good chat, and often find ourselves sharing stories about the history of the pub over the years.
Best Known for:
Menu changes every 6 weeks
Memorable ambience and service
Vegan-friendly
Please describe your commitment to sustainability.
All of our food waste is put out each day for local pig farmers to collect. Much of our produce is sourced locally within 10kms, including eggs, fruit and vegetables. Our bread and pastry offerings are all baked in house daily, using organic ingredients. Anything unused from our bakery goes to the community food bank.
Cloth napkins and biodegradable takeaway packaging is used throughout our businesses.
All staff are on the Living Wage Rate or more, and are offered affordable housing within walking distance of the restaurant to try and reduce our carbon footprint.
Please describe how you create ambience.
Ambiance is crucial to us and setting a comfortable, cozy scene for guests is key. Our building has recently had a complete modern refurbishment inside and out, but maintains historic charm with its original exposed brick walls and the original, 100 year old, cast iron oven sits pride-of-place in the restaurant and is used as a host stand.
Throughout the colder months, candles are lit on every table, a fire burns to warm the bar area, and the music hums in the background to the tunes of classic rock, kiwianna, and country.
