Bistro Gentil

  My partner and I went to Bistro Gentil for our anniversary and had a lovely experience. There is an option on the menu to "trust the chef". This was such... read more a fun option and the meals were delicious. Our waitress Caragh was wonderful and explained each of our dishes to us and even communicated with the chef to pair the perfect wine with our meal. We sat in the outdoor area with beautiful views and the staff immediately turned the heating on as we sat down to ensure we felt comfortable. I highly recommend eating here and my partner and I will definitely be back!

  Fabulous meal, thet best we have eaten in a long time. Easily beats the #1 rated place.

Best on a nice day, to eat outside.

  Absolutely amazing food - it's art designed to wow your eyes and taste buds.
Definitely recommend for a date night, but also as a special occasion place to treat yourself... read more and your loved ones, or amaze a potential client or business-partner.

  Bistro Gentil is, far and away, the best restaurant in Wanaka. My husband and I have enjoyed a meal here every time we come to Wanaka, but we also had... read more our rehearsal dinner here the night before our wedding and everything about it was wonderful....More

  Bistro Gentil is described in a major tourist brochure for Wanaka as '...our award winning restaurant ' and came up as #1 on Trip Advisor reviews. The online menu looked... read more exciting too, so off we went for dinner.
Now I don't like writing negative reviews but I really was disappointed.
Wild venison carpaccio as an entree had about as much venison as a single thin slice of prosciutto. And with more than that in the form of poached pear, cranberry gel and sun dried tomato, I just couldn't taste the venison. It's not that these things don't go with venison, but the dish was so mean on the venison that it just got swamped.
It didn't get much better with the fish main. Three tiny pieces of monkfish, while tasting good, just didn't show the character of the fish. The celeriac puree was good, and could have been the main counterpoint of the fish with maybe one other flavour. But add prawns, leek, orange and bok choy to a tiny serve of fish and it just got lost. Somewhere there was apparently black garlic butter too... I've had many entrees that were more generous.
On the plus side, the garden salad was good and so were the wines (though a bit on the high price side by the glass).
Overall I think Bistro Gentil is trying too hard, maybe to hold or rescue some past glory. But the meanness of the and better balanced than this.
A French onion soup was sweet but maybe at the expense of some flavour of the onion. It was saved by a crust of gruyere but we're still trying to work out where the crouton was.
Overall the meanness of the feature ingredients in the serves, and the overcomplicated and overcompensated accompaniments, really it down.
I'm hoping they were just having a bad night, as their menu should really set you alight.

  Eye watering prices mediocre food. Not fresh not tasty.Very pretentious.They call it french cuisine but I doubt any frenchman would want to make that comparison.

  There have been a few places we have eaten in that were memorable but this is certainly one of them. Nothing we ate or drank came short of the mark... read more and the service attentive and overall experience notable. We both had the Ora King Salmon, tempura soft shell crab, avocado, soy glaze, grapefruit gel, pickled radish, fennel. Remarkable and perfect in every way. Our mains were the free range pork belly, crumbed rib, tomato relish, bok choy, broccoli, hot sauce, white bbq sauce, crispy kale, and the aged beef fillet, red onion relish, onion caramel, café de paris, potato dauphines. Both were faultless. Desserts were unbaked fig cheesecake and the salted caramel set mousse. With all this came a complimentary amuse-gueule to start and a surprise course for our wedding anniversary (which I had casually mentioned when I had booked). All in all a huge treat and one of the best meals out we have experienced (and we have a surfeit of restaurants in Wellington to compare). So nice to read that other reviewers have felt the same way. Keep on doing what you do!

  So nice to have a restaurant that is not so big and noisy.
We never got a chance to admire he views due to the bad weather however the food... read more was excellent with great service.
One wee complaint the room temperature was a bit too cold to dine with out a jacket on

  We had an enjoyable birthday dinner at the cozy and romantic Bistro Gentil. The Chef and his team put much love into their dishes. They are beautifully plated. The menu... read more options cover a good spectrum. The self serve wine wall is a cool option. You...More

  Sensational setting and note worthy food. We opted to do the chefs choice 3 course with wine pairings. It was wonderful! The rabbit gnocchi was very flavorful and excellent texture.... read more All the food we saw come out of the kitchen looked mouth watering. The view over the lake is not to be missed. Service was attentive and very informed. They handled my allergy’s and food preferences very professionally. This is a must place to book into while visiting wanaka.