Wai Restaurant

Wai Restaurant has a breaktaking view from Steamer's Wharf right on the waterfront for Lake Wakatipu and out over the Remarkables. The Remarkables are the range of mountains featured in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and are beautiful jagged snowcapped granite peaks. The scenery here is unreal.

Wai specializes in local seafood, local produce and local wines. They have wonderful oysters, a rack of lamb that is superb, and a bountiful variety of seafood. On a nice night, it is wonderful to sit outside on their patio and enjoy your meal with the amazing views.

My entree was a potato crust basket with banana prawns and sausages that was very tasty. One nice touch here was the use of sorbets made in the restaurant for cleansing the palate between courses. We had three different sorbets: avocado with basil (ugh), pinot noir with strawberries (amazing), and lemongrass melon (my favorite). For dinner, I had a grouper wrapped in proscuitto. Others in my party had local salmon and a rack of lamb. All of our mains were excellent. For dessert, we tried the white chocolate mousse.

The wines were great. The only item that failed the taste test (besides the avocado basil sorbet) was the decaf coffee at the end of the meal. It was some the most bitter coffee ever. Guess that is why I normally stick with port!