Description: Dux De Lux is an "aquatarian" restaurant/bar complex in Christchurch, New Zealand that offers great food for vegetarians (and pescetarians) at a reasonable price. It is located in the city centre, next to the Arts centre, and is extremely close to the Botanic Gardens. On the two occasions that I have been there, the outside seating has been extremely crowded, with a few spaces inside in the restaurant area. Dux de Lux is a complex that is divided into several parts – including the restaurant, three bars, and two outside seating areas. This review is about the restaurant.
===The atmosphere===
The furnishing and atmosphere here are a quirky mixture of "traditional British pub" mixed with "gleaming school canteen" – for the most part, the tables and surrounds are very traditional, with thick carpets and wooden panelling, but the food ordering area and kitchen are brightly lit chrome that you can see a fair amount of from the nearby tables (though fortunately, it’s not particularly noisy). The seating is comfortable, though not opulent and provides an excellent opportunity to people-watch. As it is indoors, it is no-smoking.
===The food===
Described on its web page as "Aquatarian", the foods available are seafood or vegetarian, with a fair number of the dishes having a Dairy free, gluten free or vegan versions – but be sure to specify this when you order, because they aren’t generally DF, GF or vegan by default.A key attraction here is the wide range of relatively unusual pizzas that they have – several seafood variants, a few roast vegetable variants and a Mexican pizza which was extremely spicy (but delicious!).
As well as the pizzas, they have a mixture of starters/snacks, main dishes and desserts. Most of the main dishes are fairly substantial fare and will leave you very full. I tried the Gado Gado, which is basically vegetables, rice and a satay sauce – it was spicy, tasty and filling enough, but nothing like as tasty as the pizza I had had on my previous trip, which was superb!
In summary: order the pizza (there are GF bases available).
People who prefer bland and plain food or meals comprising meat and two vegetable will definitely struggle to find something that they enjoy here, but for vegetarians and other food-lovers, it’s fantastic.
===The cost===
Eating out in New Zealand is generally much cheaper than the UK. The food here was a little bit more than most of the comparable (i.e. vegetarian-friendly) restaurants I’d been to in New Zealand, but not excessively so –main dishes cost around the NZD$23-28 mark (about £10-13), but the food was superb, so you get good value for money.
===The rest===
As mentioned, this are also three bars as well as the restaurant, which means you have a good selection of drinks available, though we were very traditional and stuck with a local wine with our meal (New Zealand produces some excellent wines, so we thought it only fair to sample as many as we possibly could). There was a brewery bar (which apparently brews its own award-winning beer on-site!), and from the adverts, I gather that there is frequently live music at the Dux (although sadly not when I was there).
In terms of accessibility, when approaching it from the car-park side, as we did, we had to weave our way through many people and navigate several steps. This might have been tricky had we had more than the one glass of wine or any mobility problems!
===The sister-bar===
The sister bar/restaurant of the same name in Queenstown isn’t anywhere near as good in my opinion – the seating is all much more bar-like and uncomfortable, the range of foods offered are much reduced, the lighting is poor and the place was noisy. But you will get some proper meat dishes (sadly not much at all for vegetarians or vegans). Basically, it’s a bar that does a few meals. It’s good at being a bar, but if you were a vegetarian expecting the same as the Christchurch location, you will be disappointed.
===In Conclusion===
In conclusion, the restaurant at the Christchurch Dux de Lux was my favourite restaurant in New Zealand. It offers excellent food at a reasonable price.Review may be cross-posted elsewhere
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