Boulder Bank Kitchen
Ground floor, on the water side, with the deck out over the wall. Named for the 13-kilometre spit of grey stones that shelters this harbour and gives Nelson its quiet water.
The menu is short and rewritten every fortnight, because it follows what is landed and what is ripe rather than what reads well. Tasman Bay scallops when the season is open. Golden Bay snapper. Whole flounder in spring. Motueka apples in autumn, Takaka goat curd most of the year, and lamb off the Waimea plains. Nelson grows more hops than anywhere else in the country, which shows up in the beer list more than in the food.
| Breakfast | 6:30 — 10:30 daily. NZ$32 a head, or à la carte. Included in most packages. |
|---|---|
| Dinner | 5:30 — 9:30, last orders at nine. Three courses run about NZ$78 without wine. |
| Mondays | Closed for dinner outside December and January — the fish market is shut and we would rather say so. |
| Seats | 84 inside, 26 on the deck. Four tables held back each night for walk-ins. |
| Children | Welcome at any hour. There are six high chairs and a proper small menu, not a fried one. |
| Dietary | Tell us when you book. Gluten-free and vegetarian are cooked, not assembled from the sides. |
02 — The bar
The Chart Room
The harbour board kept its charts in this room, and two of the original drawer cabinets are still against the north wall — flat, shallow drawers, the depth of a rolled map. We kept them because they are better joinery than anything we could have put there.
Thirty-eight seats. One hundred and twelve wines by the list, of which 74 are from Nelson and Tasman — the Moutere clays and the Waimea gravels are twenty-five minutes away, and it would be odd to pour anything else by default. Fourteen by the glass. A short cocktail list built around what is actually made in this region, which turns out to mean gin, and a tap wall of eight, six of them Nelson brewed.
Open from eleven until late, seven days. Nobody is asked to leave at a set hour if the room is still pleasant, though the kitchen behind it stops at nine.
03 — Private and in-room
Eating somewhere other than the dining room
The private room is off the back of Boulder Bank Kitchen: eighteen at one long table, twenty-two if we split it. It has its own door to the courtyard, which is useful for a speech nobody else needs to hear. Set menus from NZ$92 a head; no room charge if the table takes ten or more.
Room service runs 6:30am to 10pm from a list of nine dishes — the ones that survive a lift ride, which is not all of them. After ten the night porter can still find you a sandwich, soup and a pot of tea.
Events are catered from the same kitchen: The Sail Loft for 80 at dinner, Anchorage Room for 24, Boardroom No. 4 for fourteen. Ask about a date →