Editor Pick
Ginkgo - Quiet
- September 17, 2008
- Rated 4 of 5 by
rufusni from Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Dinner on a Saturday night normally means a busy bustling restaurant but this wasn't at all what happened on my visit to Ginkgo. In the city centre, this place is relatively easy to find and also has parking spaces behind the building down an alleyway, but it is well-lit.
The decor of the restuarant is pleasant enough, with lots of interesting objects displayed around the room. It is a lovely spacious room but with screens and shelves of objects it doesn't seem cavenous. There is a waiting area with soft seating, and the dining area has a wide range of table sizes. However, Saturday night dinner here was rather without atmosphere as only there were only two tables of diners. Nor was the atmophere helped by the temperature being a little too cool to be pleasant given it was still winter outside.
This is a place to linger over a meal - its not quick service! This is not that it is bad service, the waitress was quite attentive and helpful - entertaining the early arrivals of the group with explaining some of the objects on display, for instance chinese wine glasses. We sat and chatted for a long time before our order was taken, and felt that we weren't being rushed. However, the restaurant closes early at 10pm and we were asked to leave politely.
Our meal started with dumplings which were tasty enough, and then whole prawns with dipping sauce, which some of our group found very strange to eat heads and all - but they were very tasty. However having chosen a selection of different main courses to share, they took various lenghts of time to come out, but the quality of the food was good. The menu has a huge variety of options, all well explained but with some quirky combinations - we did try the beef with pear which was a strange mix and which I quite enjoyed. However, it was the sauteed green beans, ordered as a vegetable dish, that I was especially enamoured with, to the point that I would have happily had it alone. Rice was plentiful and topped up by the waitress when it began to run low.
I did find it strange to eat in a nearly empty restaurant but the attention to detail in service and to the food more than made up for it. It is somewhere I'd visit again when in Christchurch
From journal All Calm in Christchurch