Dining
The Kawarau Room and The Moonlight Bar — Central Otago produce, 140 labels, and a terrace that works when the wind is off the lake rather than down it.
01
The Kawarau Room
Named for the river that drains the lake and cuts the gorge east of here. The room faces west, which means that from about half past eight in December you eat with the light coming off the water and onto the ceiling, and from about half past four in June you eat in the dark and nobody minds.
The kitchen buys lamb from two farms in the Wakatipu Basin, stone fruit out of Cromwell and Roxburgh from December to March, salmon from the Clutha, and cheese from a maker at Gibbston who will not sell to supermarkets. The set menu is five courses and changes when the growers change it rather than on a schedule — which in practice means four or five times a year, and once memorably in the middle of a week when the apricots came early.
Dinner is bookable for non-residents and usually needs a day or two in February. Breakfast is included in every room rate, and starts at 6am rather than 6.30 if you tell us the night before that you are on a boat or a mountain.
02
The Moonlight Bar
Named for the track that goes over the saddle behind the town to the Shotover, walked by gold miners before it was walked by anyone else. The bar itself is a single run of Central Otago schist and recycled rimu, built in 2016 by a joiner from Arrowtown who told us at the time it would outlast the building.
140 labels on the list. 96 of them are Central Otago, because there is no honest reason to sell someone a Marlborough pinot with the Bendigo terraces forty-five minutes up the road. 21 by the glass, including four pinot noirs, because a bottle is a commitment when you are at 300 metres and driving nowhere.
The kitchen sends a shorter menu out here until 10pm — six or seven things, one of which is always the lamb, and one of which is always meat-free without making a performance of it.
The set menu
Written around whatever the growers have. Dietary requirements are handled properly if you tell us at booking rather than at the table — the kitchen is small and cannot improvise a fourth version at eight o’clock.
The private table
One long table in an alcove off the main room, with a door that closes on the noise but not on the view. Used for birthdays, for the odd wake, and every May for the ski patrol’s season dinner.
In your room
The full menu until 9.30pm and a short one after that. If you have come off the Rob Roy track at half past nine and want soup and a sandwich in a bath, that is a thing the kitchen understands and does not charge extra for.
Hours, in one place
| Breakfast | 6.30am–10.30am daily, in The Kawarau Room. From 6am on request the night before. |
|---|---|
| Lunch | Bar menu only, 11.30am–3pm, in The Moonlight Bar and on the deck. |
| Dinner | 6pm–9.30pm daily in The Kawarau Room. Last booking 8.45pm. |
| The Moonlight Bar | 11am–midnight daily. Kitchen until 10pm. |
| Room service | 6am–11pm. |
| The Ben Lomond Room | midday to 1am. Drinks are served there but food is not, and never after midnight. |
Booking
Residents can book at the desk or on +64 3 450 2740, any hour.
Non-residents are welcome in both rooms. Dinner in February and over the ski season usually needs a day or two’s notice.