The staff at True South Dining Room and The Rees Hotel are wonderful and attentive, the level of service was the best we experienced in Queenstown (and on our last day too!)
The food was well priced, well presented, high quality, thoughtful and delicious.
As we booked dinner at 7pm the view was not visible, so I recommend booking before or around sundown if you wanted to enjoy the view.
Never the less the ambience was great, the food and service were top notch.
Thank you for the cherry on top of our visit to Queenstown, especially after experiencing some discrimination at the Boatshed earlier in our trip.
We look forward to dining with you again!!
We had a wonderful time here. We returned because of Ashish - our server who had an incredible knowledge and passion for wine. One of our top experiences in Queenstown.
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Dinner
Service: 5
Fantastic food, excellent staff especially Celine and Yana, great decoration and incredible views. What else do you want? It’s a small restaurant in a hotel but we were impressed with the results and attention to detail. We had the intention to cancel because we have had many fantastic meals on this holiday however I’m very glad that we didn’t as the restaurant was wonderful. The delicious wine that will stay in my memory, the colourful and tasty food that has been served, and the exquisite service offered made me grateful for the experience.
We checked in late and did not want to go out for dinner. Then the receptionist recommended us to have dinner here.(He also booked a table for us/ I appreciate it) It turns out such a Wow experience. The food was great. Customer service was brilliant!
I recommend you to select the set menu, Trust the chef and enjoy your great experience.
You will not disappoint!
This is my honest review of True South Dining Room. We dinned there on 18 December 2023 at 7pm. The restaurant was a bit hard to find when we got to the restaurant but nothing too difficult. We got to the restaurant on time and got our lovely table with a great view right by the window. There was one other family of four that walked in right after us. Everything is downhill from here.
The staff waiting on us (Ashish) asked if we would like to have a drink, and he insisted to my partner that the Pinot Noir was lovely. Which was a bit odd since we haven't decided what we wanted to eat or mentioned we liked red wine, and why only insist that for my partner and not me? It's weird but ok. My partner ordered a Pinot Noir glass, and I got a gin-based cocktail. He came around with the drinks, and later asked my partner how his glass of wine was, and then didn't bother asking me if I liked my drink, and walked away. Again, weird but moving on.
We ordered our meals. My partner ordered steak, and I ordered the mushroom risotto for our mains. For starters, we ordered the pate and olives. The starters were just fine. They came out the mains, and he was explaining to my partner how his steak was done and all the sides, pointing a bit too close to the food for my liking but again I can ignore that. Then he turned to me, looked at my plate and said to my partner "'Enjoy your meal'' and walked away.
Ashish, then came out to clear the plates and asked my partner if he enjoyed his meal, and immediately turned to me to ask " Have you finished yet?". I was still eating so he left. Luckily, he didn't clear my partners plate at that point, or I would have completely lost it. As soon as he turned around, I just burst out in laughter because I could not contain how terrible the service was. We both looked at each other and agreed, the service and food was terrible.
He then came back to clear the plates, completely blocked me out facing his back to me and facing my partner and asking him if he wanted dessert. Of course, didn't bother asking me since his back was facing me.
I asked for the bill (this time to the other waiting staff and not Ashish), and he looked at my partner to confirm if we wanted to the bill. At this point it was clear, they needed proper training at the restaurant. Ashish came out with the bill, I asked for the card machine to pay, tapped my phone and he thanked my partner. Lucky for him, I was on a holiday and was in a great mood and didn't want to create a scene.
At this point, another family had arrived, and they were seated right behind us. They asked politely if they could have the table by the window to which Ashish responded, "The view is the same from here or there".
We thanked the staff and got out of there.
I would not recommend this restaurant, for food or service. Grab a drink, enjoy the view and get out. But there are plenty of other places in town to do that. Highly not recommended to visit True South. Do not bother.
I returned back to my hotel and saw some similar reviews and that confirmed my doubt, it wasn't just me who had this experience.
Now to put things in perspective, we are a gay couple, my partner is Caucasian and I'm a person of colour. I will leave it at that.
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Dinner
Price per person
$90–100
Food: 1
Service: 1
Atmosphere: 1
What a fabulous dining experience with my family. I booked a table to celebrate my wife's birthday and boy the food and friendly staff completely exceeded my expectation. Highly recommended!
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Dinner
The dining environment is beautiful and the staff is friendly.
Take some time to find a parking space (hotel parking lot).
It is a pity that "8hr merino lamb shoulder, nevis beans and feta, mint jelly (please allow 45 mins)" takes too long.
We changed some other main meals, very delicious, very recommended.
Enjoy a fantastic evening here with my beautiful wife, awesome meals, stunning views and great service. Smiles all round from us tonight. Thank you.
Food: 5
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 5
In terms of the food this restaurant is top notch! Everything on every plate is awesome! The restaurant staff are great, but the hotel staff are a bit pretentious which sort of dampened my experience. The view is spectacular
