When friends and I browsed our first dish for Eat.Taste.Central., we all chose the same as our ‘go to’ destination.  

The Waipiata Country Hotel is indeed a destination venue, but well worth the journey.

The hotel won three people’s awards in 2018 (judging was suspended last year) and a judges’ award for their burger last year.

As there were three of us we chose the Rough Ridge Duo Platter and the Kakanui Merino Lamb Oyster Shoulder.

Our host, Mark Button, thought we were over enthusiastic, and he was right. But damn, it was good.

Mark’s chef’s hail from India, Bangladesh, and Jordan, and the pub has an international night every Thursday.

The Platter is a fusion of flavours from the middle east, including samosas, paratha, kebeh, and chicken skewers.

The chicken skewers were succulent and delicious, chargrilled with red and yellow capsicum.

Then came the main, and we realised Mark had been right to warn us of overindulging. 

The Kakanui Merino Lamb Oyster Shoulder literally fell off the bone, and the red wine jus was a perfect complement. Add rosemary roast potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli and broccolini, green beans, asparagus, and field mushrooms and this is definitely a dish to travel to. 

Although the menu said the Lamb Shoulder was for two, we agreed that it could easily have fed four, especially after having sampled everything on the Platter.

The wine match for this was the Dunbar Estates 2018 Pinot Noir, a robust choice to accompany our meat and veg, and I was not surprised on researching its history to find the winemaker was Matt Connell. 

As with most of Matt’s wines, this reasonably young Pinot was ready for drinking now and can only improve with a few years if one has a cellar.

I hadn’t eaten breakfast but even my empty tummy couldn’t manage all we ordered.

No review is complete without dessert, but we only had space to order one Hawkdun Berry Tart between the three of us.

The delicate tart had a sweet pastry, set off by a very slight acidity of locally grown raspberries and homemade Crème Fraiche.

Hawkdun Berry Tart

This too had a wine match, and the Thyme Hill 2015 Merlot with its red fruits and hint of spice was the perfect complement to an exceptional meal.

We travelled home with the heady aroma of the lamb in the takeout box at my feet.

Mark and his partner have been the affable hosts of the Waipiata Country Hotel for six-and-a-half years, and also run the four-star Tussock Lodge just down the road.