Wine Dine and Play: February 2015

Winnie Bagoes Gourmet pizza bar



Christchurch, New Zealand
Nice menu but overall bad service and execution
Dined in August 2014



While in Christchurch for the week, waiting to go down to McMurdo Station on Ross Island, we heard about a pizza restaurant that everyone was talking about called Winnie Bagoes, so my coworkers and I walked down the streets seeing the destruction of the earthquakes, from 2010-11. Their menu looked really good, as did the pizza, but there were flaws that give this review a little less than a perfect rating.

Scroll down to read the main review

World’s Top 100 reviewed:
Alinea, Chicago                         



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Star ratings chart:
5 stars
Extraordinary  
4 stars
Outstanding 
3 stars
Exceeded expectations    
2 stars
Above average                         
1 star
Average
No star rating
Basic, poor, or appalling


Review basics:
Overall Star rating by Wine, Dine, & Play:
2 of 5
Quality of food:
7 of 10
Presentation:
7 of 10
Wine selections by region:
Scroll below the main review section to see the tasting notes of the wines chosen.


4 of 10
Old world:
1.        France:
Champagne
2.        Portugal: Douro Valley
New World:
1.        Australia:Yarra Valley, & South Western Australia
2.        New Zealand:
A). Marlborough: (Wairau Valley,
B). Hawke's Bay:  Te Awanga,
C). Otago: (Central Otago,
D). Other: Gisborne



Customer service:
3 of 10
Ambiance:
6 of 10
Corkage fee’s:
American Restaurant standard is $25.00 per bottle
Restaurant style:
Casual
Dress code:
Casual, or Conservative attire
Reservations:
Not Required
Walk-ins:
Accepted
Child policy:
The Restaurants reviewed on this site may have a child’s menu or cater to them; however for full enjoyment of food and wine, it is recommended for children not to be in attendance. Hire a Babysitter. See Alinea Baby Gate, god I love Alinea.
Cuisine style:
New Zealand (Kiwi), Pizza, & Vegetarian
Music styles:
Background instrumental
Experiences:
Rustic, Tourist grabber,
Gratuities:
Industry standard is 18-20% added to parties of 6 or more
 
Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express
Parking:
street parking
Transport options:
Bus, taxi, limousine, personal vehicle, and walking
The restaurants reviewed on this site may have Wi-Fi, but do not require you to go online, because the excitement of the food and wine alone will keep you too entertained instead of checking your social media and emails.
Noise level:
Medium
Smoking:
Nonsmoking restaurant, and nonsmoking patio

Food price per person
(Excluding tax & gratuity)

Price chart:
$£€¥ -                Under 50.00
$£€¥ x 2 -          Under 75.00
$£€¥ x 3 -          Over 100.00
$£€¥ x 4 -          Over 200.00
$£€¥ x 5 -          Over 400.00

Currencies chosen reflect the world’s major travelers and restaurant connoisseur's

My food bill:
Currency:
Country :
Price chart:
$26.99
New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
$
$19.90
United States Dollar (USD)
 
$
£12.98
Great Britain Pound Sterling (GBP)
 
£
€17.38
European Union (EUR)
$24.92
Canadian Dollar (CAN)

 
$
$25.41
Australian Dollar (AUS)
$
¥121.90
Chinese Yuan (CNY) 
 
¥¥¥

Visit these sites to get up to date currency rates:    
www.xe.com
Alternatively, visit:




From restaurants home page:
Here at Winnies every pizza is hand made from scratch, using only the freshest ingredients and plenty of them on every pizza we make. Our topping are extremely generous and extremely tasty. Forget what you have had in the past, once you try our pizza there is no going back.

Pizza is a great sharing food and what better way to get your mates together for a great relaxed meal than with us. Winnie Bagoes is built for large groups and they are our speciality. Birthdays, Work Do's, Fundraisers or just a great night out with ya mates we can help you out. All you need to do is drop us a line and let us help you organise a great night out. Nothing is a problem.

With big screens in the bar and the courtyard you will never miss your favourite sporting event, regular live music and Dj's and once again do i need to say it Amazing Pizza, we at Winnie Bagoes would love to have you come and experience what we are are about.

Main review:
When we arrived at the Restaurant they were a little less than half full, but it was still early in the evening. We were sat, and we looked over the menus and waited. There were six of us in our group, all but one of us being Chef’s. The menu had some interesting looking selections and combinations with their pizzas. There were few of the basic starters that you would see, some salads, and a pasta section if you didn’t want pizza. For those that have allergens they also had gluten free selections.

After about five minutes or more of looking at the menus no one had come by. So we had to track a person down just to get our drinks, that was strike one. The drink menu had a good selection of New Zealand Beers, and wine. Once we got our drinks, the person that got them said that she wasn’t our server, and the server that we were supposed to have had was in a different section. Okay, no problem, that server could come to us and take the order, no harm no foul in my book. Then came strike two. We had to move to his section, because the section we were in was reserved. Well why the hell did they sit us there then?

Finally we sorted it all out, moved to the other section and started with the fried squid appetizer pictured above. It was decent, don’t know if it was worth $16.00 NZD, but it was okay. Other starters consisted of bbq ribs, smoked salmon, mussels, and potato wedges.  For their salads, they had smoked chicken, charred lamb, Thai beef, traditional Caesar, and Cajun chicken over a bed of greens as some of their selections.
For the main pizza selection, there were several choices, as I mentioned earlier, from a  Florentina with smoked chicken, cashew nuts, apricot preserve, cream cheese and rosemary, a Chicken, Cranberry & Brie, with smoked chicken on a cranberry base and topped with brie cheese, the Kiwi Craving which is the pizza I had pictured below, with roast lamb marinated in mint, wholegrain mustard and soy sauce with honey roasted kumara, potato, red onion, and green capsicum (bell peppers).


Other selections included the Venison Pizza, with strips of prime venison, oven roasted and topped with red onion, Kalamata olives, red capsicum and blue cheese, and two vegetarian selections, the Vegetali, with basil pesto, mushroom, broccoli, green beans, sundried tomatoes, roast pumpkin, kumara, feta, red onion and topped with garlic aioli, and the Blue Belle pizza with sundried tomatoes, broccoli, blue cheese and Kalamata olives topped with a garlic aioli. There were of course several other selections and calzones on the menu as well.
When we were done, we had told the server that we wanted to all pay with separate checks, and when we got the bill it was all put together as one. When we went up to the bar to pay the bill, we asked for it to be separated. This is where strike three came in, and your familiar with the old baseball song, “one, two, and three strikes you’re out”. Well, they couldn’t separate it is what they said, so we had to sit there, and deconstruct the check to pay what we thought was ours versus someone else’s, because unlike a normal receipt with the pizza name, this one just said pizza purchase. So some of us paid more while others paid less, we tried to make it even but the lady said that the computer would not accept even payouts, which honestly was a crock of shit. How does a restaurant with such a great menu, and pizza that tastes really good, fail on service and delivery or execution of their product and overall setup? This place wood have been high on the list if it weren’t for these three failings that we faced  that night.
This Restaurant reminds me of:
Food was good, service and execution was bad, so honestly because of that the rating is low. If the pizza combinations and creativity of the menu wasn’t as good as it was, the rating would have been lower. The wine rating was lower because of the lack of world selections, but those they did have represented New Zealand very well. I would compare Winnie Bagoes to the following restaurants I have reviewed in the past, based on these success’s and faults, to 91 Wood Fire Oven, in Canton, Ohio, and Gaia Restaurant, in American Canyon, California.


Other Christchurch favorites:






Other trending restaurants on Wine, Dine, and Play:
Fleur de Lys, in San Francisco


Restaurant address: 
153 Madras Street
Christchurch Central,
Christchurch
New Zealand
   
  https://www.google.co.nz/maps/place/Winnie+Bagoes/@-43.538053,172.642338,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x3ce0e70aae9e2c39                                      



Neighborhood:
Central Christchurch

Cross streets:
Allen Street & Moorhouse Avenue

GPS Coordinates:
Latitude: -43.538085
Longitude: 172.642298
Contact Information:

Maître d, reservations:
+03-366 6315
Website:
Email:
Social Media:


Facebook Link               
https://www.facebook.com/groups/132206292004/
Pinterest



Hours:

Monday
11:30 am - Late
Tuesday
11:30 am - Late
Wednesday
11:30 am - Late
Thursday
11:30 am - Late
Friday
11:30 am - Late
Saturday
11:30 am - Late
Sunday
11:30 am - Late
  
Standard Time (GMT +12:00)



Explore the menu pdf         




https://www.facebook.com/WineDineAndPlay

Review by:
Chef Sean Overpeck (CFE)















Chef Sean cooks for soldiers in Afghanistan, 2012:























"Culinary perfection consists not in doing extraordinary things, but in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well."

TTFN
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