Bunker, Queenstown

We landed in Christchurch yesterday, picked up our rental car, and drove straight to Queenstown. The drive was absolutely breath taking. It is quite undeveloped in the South Island, and it is crazy how you can drive for hours and not see a single soul except for the scores of sheep grazing the fields and mountains.

During our drive, we stopped a lot to take pictures. Practically everything you see is picture perfect.


After 7 hours of driving, we went straight to bed. Our first real day in New Zealand was spent in Queenstown, the adventure capital of the country. We had a thrilling day of paragliding, luging and jet boating. By the end of it, I was craving a good meal.

For ideas, we looked up places to eat in our Frommers New Zealand guide book. There were a few restaurants we liked, but we finally narrowed it down to a restaurant that was marked as a special find.

Hidden in a small, dark laneway is one of Queenstown's finest restaurants, Bunker. Not only is the laneway hard to find, but you really have to be keen to spot the place. The only indicator of this restaurant is a camoflouged sign on a wooden door, and a spray painted name on the stairs of the entrance.

The atmosphere is cozy and intimate. There are leather couches to lounge in, and a hot fireplace to keep warm from the cold weather.

For starters, I had the Fiordland crayfish gnocchi with chives in a creamy bisque. This had a fishy taste to it, but that didn't bother me at all.

For mains, we had the trio of hare and fish.

As the name implies, the trio of hare was hare prepared in three ways: braised leg on roast parsnip mash, confit shoulder & prosciutto with prunes, and seared loin with confit savoy cabbage. The pairing of the meats with the sides were perfect.

The fish was pan seared groper with a medley of New Zealand green lipped mussels, potato and leek with saffron foam.

Frommers said that this place would burn a hole through our wallet, but when you take the exchange rate into account, the price was quite reasonable.

We thought that the food and service was good; however, I did read some reviews on this place afterwards, and the reviews were definitely mixed. If you have been to Bunker, let me know what you think...I'm curious.