Restaurants, hotels, bars and wineries in Christchurch from the En Primeur Club guide.
Accolades in Christchurch
Cellar Door Christchurch and Gatherings pair extensive wine lists with tasting menus. The George Christchurch adds progressive New Zealand cooking in a boutique hotel.
An Arts Centre restaurant with exceptional wine tasting flights and inventive Mediterranean-inspired cooking. It holds Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence, and the format includes small plates, a la carte, and a tasting menu.
A Merivale restaurant with an ever-changing seasonal menu built around local seafood and organic produce. It is New Zealand's first exclusively natural wine bar, with an exceptional wine program, an extensive list, and tasting menu, family style, and small plates formats.
The George Christchurch holds Michelin Selected recognition (2025) and serves progressive New Zealand cooking in its restaurant. The boutique hotel in Christchurch Central overlooks Hagley Park and won New Zealand's Leading Boutique Hotel at the World Travel Awards (2025).
Christchurch's wider dining scene includes suburb-led Italian cooking, a City Centre cocktail bar, and winery names tied to the city and North Canterbury.
A Halswell restaurant serving authentic Italian cuisine in a small, intimate room. The kitchen makes pasta, breads, and gelato in house with an extensive list.
Dux Central is a City Centre bar serving award-nominated cocktails alongside international DJ entertainment. Its drinks offering centres on craft cocktails, with a minimal wine program, and its awards include a place on the World's 50 Best Bars list in 2009.
Giesen Wine Estate's portfolio includes Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, Hawkes Bay Chardonnay, Waipara Riesling and Pinot Noir. The winery in Christchurch also produces single-vineyard bottlings tied to Clayvin, Brookby Rd and Matthews Lane.
The Arts Centre and Merivale have wine-led restaurants with extensive lists and sommelier-led service. Cellar Door Christchurch in the Arts Centre offers wine tasting flights, while Gatherings in Merivale focuses exclusively on natural wine alongside seasonal seafood and organic produce.
Christchurch has no Michelin-starred restaurants in our guide. The restaurant Cellar Door Christchurch in Arts Centre holds a Michelin Plate (2026), while Gatherings in Merivale holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand (2026).
Cellar Door Christchurch in the Arts Centre and Gatherings in Merivale both offer tasting menus. Cellar Door Christchurch serves Mediterranean-inspired cooking with wine flights, while Gatherings focuses on seasonal local seafood and organic produce alongside natural wine.
Cellar Door Christchurch holds Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence, the only such award in our Christchurch guide. The Arts Centre restaurant has an extensive, sommelier-led wine list and pairs wine tasting flights with Mediterranean-inspired cuisine.
By Emmett Haley · Updated October 8, 2026 · Editorial standards
Christchurch
Selected entries from the current guide for Christchurch.
Christchurch, New Zealand
Cellar Door Christchurch holds a 3-Star World of Fine Wine accreditation and a Regional Winner title for Australasia, placing it among the South Island's most decorated dining addresses. Located on Hereford Street in the central city, it operates within a post-rebuild Christchurch scene that has become one of New Zealand's most compelling for serious wine-led dining.
Christchurch, New Zealand
Gatherings sits in Merivale, one of Christchurch's most composed residential dining precincts, operating as a small, warmly run restaurant with a homelike atmosphere that sits apart from the city's larger, more formal venues. The format rewards guests who want proximity to the cooking and a pace that larger rooms rarely allow. For Christchurch diners weighing intimate neighbourhood options, it is a considered choice.
Christchurch, New Zealand
Pedro's House of Lamb on Papanui Road occupies a clear niche in Merivale's dining scene: a dedicated focus on lamb at a time when Canterbury's pastoral reputation rarely translates into a single-ingredient restaurant concept. The address puts it within Christchurch's most established dining precinct, where the question of provenance matters as much as preparation.
Christchurch, New Zealand
An Italian restaurant anchored in the Halswell suburb of Christchurch, The Amore Italian Restaurant draws on the broader Italian tradition of ingredient-led cooking in a city increasingly defined by its willingness to support neighbourhood dining away from the central strip. For diners exploring Christchurch's outer suburbs, it represents the kind of local Italian room that thrives on repeat custom rather than tourist traffic.
Christchurch, New Zealand
The Kiwi Kebab serves Turkish kebab from 4A McCarthy Street in Hoon Hay, with souvlaki and falafel suited to a quick bite at lunch, dinner, or late night.
Christchurch
Selected entries from the current guide for Christchurch.
Christchurch, New Zealand
Winner of New Zealand's Leading Boutique Hotel at the 2025 World Travel Awards, The George occupies a calm, art-filled address on Park Terrace opposite Hagley Park. The hotel pairs a considered urban design with a restaurant recognized for progressive New Zealand cooking, and The Residence villa adds a separate award-winning tier for guests seeking added privacy.
Christchurch
Selected entries from the current guide for Christchurch.
Christchurch, New Zealand
Double Happy on Lichfield Street earned a place on the World's 50 Best Bars list in 2009, positioning Christchurch inside a global conversation about serious cocktail craft at a moment when New Zealand's bar scene was still finding its register.
Christchurch, New Zealand
On High Street in Christchurch Central, Smash Palace has long held a reputation as one of the city's most characterful drinking spots, occupying a slot in the casual, no-ceremony end of the bar scene. The format leans toward cold beer, direct service, and an atmosphere that reads more neighbourhood institution than polished cocktail bar, a counterweight to the city's glossier post-rebuild venues.
Christchurch
Selected entries from the current guide for Christchurch.
Christchurch, New Zealand
Alan McCorkindale Limited belongs to the quieter side of Christchurch-area wine travel: a small Waipara Valley producer shaped by limestone soils, cool-climate varieties, and a European-influenced cellar language. The draw is not spectacle but terroir literacy, especially for drinkers interested in Pinot Noir, Riesling, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and sparkling styles from North Canterbury.
Christchurch, New Zealand
Charcoal Gully Vineyard reads through land first: Central Otago Pinot Noir and Gewürztraminer shaped by a small-production, sustainable cellar-door format. The experience is quiet and tactile, built around guided tastings, vineyard touring, outdoor seating, and al fresco meals rather than high-volume wine tourism.
Christchurch, New Zealand
Giesen Wine Estate gives Christchurch a South Island anchor for a New Zealand portfolio that reaches beyond one regional identity. Its strongest signal is range: Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, Hawkes Bay Chardonnay, Waipara Riesling, Pinot Noir and single-vineyard bottlings tied to Clayvin, Brookby Rd and Matthews Lane, with several wines recognised in IWSC competition contexts.
Christchurch, New Zealand
Tiki Wines brings North Canterbury fruit, Māori ownership, and a sustainability-led cellar-door sensibility into the Christchurch wine orbit. The draw is not showy luxury but a portfolio built around Waipara origins, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, sparkling wine, and named ranges that connect vineyard, whānau, and place.
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