Bienvenue au Bistro Gentil
Appetisers:
- Oyster, mignonette/8 ea
- Manuka smoked olives/8
- Rosemary ciabatta and butter/9
- Mushroom croquette, aioli/6 ea
- Beef croquette, onion caramel, hot mayonnaise/6 ea
- Salt cod croquette, preserved lemon mayonnaise/7 ea
- Chicken liver parfait cigar, quince paste, ash/8 ea
- French onion soup, gruyere crouton/16 small/23 large
- Earth board, selection of 3 cheeses, house chutney, walnut, croutons, ciabatta/36
Entrées:
- Deep fried baby back ribs, white bbq sauce, pickled red cabbage/26
- Seared swordfish, ginger ponzu, pickled mandarin, wasabi mayo, nori tapioca cracker/26
- Baked goats cheese, walnut crumb, marsala mayonnaise, roasted parsnip, peach chutney/24
Principals:
- 250g Peppered ribeye, creamy mash potatoes, black garlic jus/57
- Market fish, calamari, cauliflower purée & fried, curry, almonds/49
- Red Tussocks venison striploin, celeriac purée, red cabbage, sundried tomatoes, sunflower seeds/52
- Lumina lamb backstrap, romesco, garlic harissa dressing, aubergine purée, cashew, broccolini/52
- Salt-baked beetroot, whipped ricotta, smoked beetroot purée, aji verde, puffed rice/42
- 200g Angus reserve beef fillet, red onion relish, potato dauphines, café de paris butter, onion caramel/65
Accompagnements:
- Bistro’s signature truffle fries/15
- Creamy mash potatoes, chips/16
- Asparagus, fried egg mayonnaise, chorizo crumb/17
- Steamed brocoli, blue cheese sauce, pumpkin seeds/16
Desserts:
- Mini Bistro dessert /8
- Vanilla crème brûlée, peanut crumb, berry sorbet/20
- Fig cheesecake, poached pear and syrup, biscoff crumb/19
- Tiramisu parfait, mascarpone and amaretto espuma, savoyardi, cacao/20
- Dame Blanche, vanilla ice cream, hot chocolate ganache, nuts/18
- Selection of house-made ice cream and sorbet/17
- Affogato, vanilla ice cream, espresso, liqueur of choice /24
Bon appétit !
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Went to Bistro Gentil last night with friends to celebrate my husbands birthday and had a wonderful night. The staff were absolutely lovely and nothing was too much trouble, they... read more were very accommodating with the surprise cake I had made and did not charge cakeage...More
vanessaprentice266
July 6, 2019
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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.
Goodandsimple
May 22, 2021
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