The Fat Duck Gastropub
What makes your venue the Best Gastropub in New Zealand?
We believe great food and hospitality go hand in hand, creating a harmonious fusion of flavours and welcoming service. Our dedicated team, with some team members sticking with us for seven years, creates a consistent and epic environment. We've crafted a workplace where our staff not only love their jobs but also relish sharing the experience with our guests.
Our Chefs are always up to date with the latest food trends, love exploring new flavours, and mix it up with classic favourites that our locals adore. They're also actively involved in local events, giving back to the community.
Our success is rooted in a fantastic team, guided by our values, strategies, and well-defined systems. Continuous training ensures our operations consistently meet the highest standards, providing our locals with the quality experience they love.
We prioritize a positive work environment, empowering our team to go the extra mile for our customers. This empowerment translates into an outstanding customer experience that consistently exceeds expectations.
In essence our recipe for success lies in our dedicated team, experienced leadership, commitment to excellence, and a strong focus on building relationships. We're not just a dining spot; we're a community driven, hospitality-focused experience that keeps our customers coming back for more.
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From the moment our customers step through our doors, they embark on a journey filled with warmth, hospitality, and culinary delight.
Our commitment to amazing hospitality goes beyond service; it's about creating connections. We take joy in creating the WOW factor, small touches that elevate the experience for our dinners, from thoughtful decorations to card messages, every detail contributes to making each visit one to remember.
Our food menu is a celebration of simplicity, featuring local and seasonal produce in contemporary dishes, pub classics, and high-quality mains. We're advocates of "locals backing locals," supporting Fiordland and Southland's rich heritage and food story.
Customers come back because whether it's a laid back meal or a special occasion, we strive to exceed expectations every single time. Dining with us it’s an experience that leaves a lasting impression, where customers return for great food, warm hospitality, and the genuine care we put into every moment.
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We love fresh, local food that follows the seasons.
Our menu shifts with the seasons, showcasing up to 70% local produce in the summer and around 50% throughout the rest of the year. We proudly dedicate two pages to local producers on our menu, sharing their stories and actively spotlighting them through our social media.
Here at The Fat Duck we are passionate about where our food comes from. Hand selecting only the freshest and most premium ingredients puts our local suppliers at the cornerstone of every dish and our guests enjoy access to the highest quality, locally produced organic vegetables, premium meats, and supreme seafood, much of it grown and harvested in the Southland region.
We take pride in celebrating the unique flavours of Fiordland and Southland, actively supporting our local community by fostering direct relationships with farmers, growers, and producers. Our farm-to-table philosophy is rooted in a commitment to quality, sustainability, and authenticity, extending beyond the boundaries of our kitchen.
Last year, we joined Al Brown for "Cooking up a Storm," a long table dinner dedicated to Cyclone Gabrielle relief. Where our team donated their time on their day off and and some of our amazing suppliers generously donated fish, meat, and produce. Together, we created a great kiwi menu, delivering a memorable night in support of this cause. We proudly promoted all our local suppliers, giving our diners a chance to learn more about them.
We also highlighted our local suppliers in various events, including "Street Dine Fiordland," a long lunch organized by Hospitality NZ, “Flavours of Fiordland,” a Fiordland food festival, and "Savour the South," a Southland promotion featuring dishes made from locally sourced products throughout April.
Understanding diverse dietary needs is crucial to us. Our kitchen team takes a personalized approach, carefully crafting dishes to accommodate various allergies and requirements. Effective communication between our front of house staff and customers ensures a seamless and safe dining experience. And our menu provides clear information on allergens, empowering customers to make informed choices.
To support our team, we've developed comprehensive tools and implemented thorough training systems and procedures. This helps raise awareness of dietary requirements and equips our staff to handle customer queries effectively. Additionally, we can provide a separate menu detailing allergens for each dish, offering customers more information to make informed decisions and aligning with our goal of ensuring customer satisfaction.
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We make our customers feel special by personalizing their dining experience. It's awesome that our NPS score always sits between 85-95% and we take our feedback seriously to help improve our business.
Our food philosophy is simple and beautiful. We let high-quality ingredients shine, creating dishes that tell their own stories without unnecessary complexity. Our kitchen team crafts seasonal menus using top-notch local produce, giving our customers a farm-to-table experience.
Innovation is part of our business model. We invest in our team's growth through continuous coaching and development. From courses with The Hospitality Company to Host Responsibility refreshers with Hospitality NZ, we ensure our team is constantly engaged in excelling. We're also pioneers in our community, integrating technological innovation like ordering through QR codes with Mr Yum for efficiency and convenience.
Our strong reputation is built on delivering more than what we promise. We actively help our community through donations, sponsorships, mentoring, and volunteering. Also, our food events bring extra joy, creating a strong community feeling that goes beyond the dining table.
We believe our commitment to a personalized customer experience, consistently great food, ongoing development, technological innovation, and community engagement sets us apart. We are always aiming to create an experience that resonates with our values and leaves a lasting impression on our customers and community.
Best Known for:
Personalised dining experience
Simple and beautiful
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We are committed to making a positive impact on Te Anau and Southland. We prioritize local sourcing. Selecting ingredients are sourced from nearby farmers, growers, and producers, not just for the taste but to contribute to our community's vitality. This also helps minimize carbon emissions associated with transportation.
Reducing wastage is a key focus in our kitchen. Through continuous exploration of techniques and recipes, we ensure responsible resource utilization, using ingredients to their fullest potential.
Since 2019, we've eliminated non-recyclable takeaway coffee cups, showcasing our commitment to waste reduction.
Our engagement with sustainability goes beyond our gastropub; we actively contribute to Te Anau and Southland through donations of time, food, and financial support to various causes. We aspire to enhance our community continually.
For instance, our partnership with the local Lions Club involves collecting all our metal bottle tops. The Club manually removes plastic inserts before sending them for recycling. The funds generated from this initiative go to Kidney Kids, a notable not-for-profit organization supporting children with kidney disease and their families.
Our commitment to sustainability isn't just about the environment – it's about caring for our community and doing business ethically. Every little action, no matter how small, helps build a better future for everyone. We are always finding ways to improve and make choices that align with our commitment to sustainability.
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Our Executive Chef and Co-Owner, Cameron Davies, received the Beef & Lamb Ambassador recognition for 2022/2023 and is a finalist for 2024/2025. He was also a finalist in the Hospitality NZ Chef of the Year category. Additionally, Cam won the South Pacific Global Chef Semi-Final 2023, showcasing his hard work and dedication to NZ and international culinary excellence.
We were included in the 250 Best New Zealand Restaurant List by Cuisine Magazine 2023 and recognized as a Cuisine Favourite Destination in the Cuisine Good Food Guide 2023/2024. And we were finalists in the Southland Chamber of Commerce “Employer of the Year” and “Small Business of the Year” 2023.
These awards inspire and motivate us to continue delivering exceptional service, innovative cuisine, and memorable dining experiences. We look forward to building on these achievements and continuing to delight our customers and staff in the future.
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To us making the perfect ambiance is a big part of giving a complete dining experience. It's a mix of personal service, thoughtful details, the right music and cool tech.
From the moment our customers enter our gastropub we welcome them with genuine warmth and a friendly smile. Our team is all about making them feel special.
Details matter to us, from table decorations to personalized cards and messages, we go the extra mile to make our venue look good and feel special.
Music is a big part of setting the mood, we have carefully created music playlists and our dinners get to enjoy live music on the weekends with a local musician, making the whole vibe better.
Innovative technology like QR codes with Mr Yum for easy ordering. It not only makes things efficient but also adds a modern and dynamic feel.
And when it comes to the space, our venue is set up to be cosy but also spacious. The seating in our different areas is comfy so our customers can chill and enjoy the experience.
