We dined at this restaurant last night. It was fantastic. the best Thai food we have ever had. Great service, wonderful cocktails and sublime food.
Thoroughly recommend

Have never had such delicious Thai food. Dined with a group, and we ordered lots of dishes to share, the ones that stood out for me were the beef cheeks and pork hocks, cooked so well the meat fell apart in my mouth. It disappoints me that people can be so rude about this obviously amazing restaurant! I agree, must be Christchurch syndrome. Thank you Chinwag for delicious food, efficient service and a cosy atmosphere on a cold Friday night!

Loved the decor. Felt like being back in an up market restaurant in Phuket. Service was very slow, had to continuously ask for extra drinks and water. All mains were large servings. I had Red Curry Duck, which was really tasty but the duck was quite tough. As others have said, great cocktail and wine list. The Wild Thang is a must have.

Awesome food, we went as a group and the guy looking after us ordered a whole lot of dishes whcih meant we could try lots! There were no bad dishes, the only criticism would be that with so many different things we couldn’t all try them – may be better to have 2 of fewer dishes to prevent food envy!

Fantastic cocktail list and the Barman was very informative. Duty Manager was lovely but really stressed,I do agree the staff are under par as previous reviews have stated. We asked the waitress for her advice to match our one main ordered and did not receive any advice or help. Than over ordered for us! Apart from that I recommend the Beef Cheeks and Duck Curry…soooooo good!!

We were recommended Chinwag from a friend who visited there last year, and we were just as pleased. The maitre d’ made our experience at the bar alot of fun and he managed to get us a table rather quickly even though the placed looked full. We had Rice Paper Rolls with Duck to start with, very fresh and the dipping sauce was really tasty! For a main we shared a Mango Salad with Pork and Wok Fried Prawns recommended by our lovely waitress. We will be recommending others from home in Sydney to visit when they’re in Christchurch.

Just come in from this superb inner city restaurant. Want to tell you this is a restaurant you must try in your life time. The food, service and atmosphere could not be faulted. Recommend the fresh juices and salads. I noticed chinwag is nominated for New Zealand restaurant of the year, they must go close….Yum!!

Dined here twice and although most of the food is good the service is very poor, and the staff can’t handle a busy restaurant and crumble under pressure.

This is the second time I’ve dined and there won’t be a third after a tray of beer and wine was dropped over my silk tunic by the Duty Manager and an appalling response and lack of recovery by her and then by the owner after I contacted him. I will certainly be warning friends and advising they dine elsewhere should they mention the Ch Ch restaurant.

Bathrooms are poorly lit….perhaps that is designed to hide the shocking state of them and filthy surrounds! They should provide a torch and gumboots to wear upon entering the toilet area!!

My partner has a complimentary voucher through his business that we won’t use out of principle!

OVER RATED!!!!

Excellent! My wife and I regularly eat at great restaurants in Melbourne and were thrilled when we stumbled across this little gem via our friendly motel hostess. From the minute you walk into this restaurant you get a definite sense of quality, the wooden finishings create a modern cavernous feel complimented with decorative red table lights to warm the ambience. All that said.. the food was to die for and the $$ very reasonable. Make sure you order the pork hock and greens… Yummm

We visited this restaurant on recommendation from the bell boy at Hotel grand Chancellor, and we were very impressed. We thought a restaurant with so many awards would be pricey but the food was really cheep and tasted fantastic! (the wok fried duck was amazing) it was also a treat to be able to purchase a bottle of Moet for $90. great value and food, and the staff were most helpful and fun. thanks Chinwag Eathai.

The most amazing entrees and food! Very good atmosphere and service also. Great for a family night out or cocktails with the girls.

There are Thai restaurants and then there is Chinwag Eathai!
Wow, what can I say. Outstanding, delicious…. Dined there last week and the food was divine and the service excellent. Recommend the whole fish, duck curry, tuna salad and crispy fried banana’s for dessert. Have to agree with a fellow reviewer this place is real value for money. As we left the manager was saying they have been nominated as a finalist for New Zealand restaurant of the year. Go Chinwag, you deserve to win!!

Strange that such a great restaurant gets such lame complaints on here but I guess that’s just the Christchurch syndrome. As far as I’m concerned this restaurant is hands down the best for fun service and a selection of incredible dishes and flavours. I feel a little strange writing praise for the place when anyone that’s been there knows how great it is but after reading the strange reviews I had to write something. Maybe that’s why this site is called menu’mania’.

I have eaten here twice now and been very dissapointed on both occassions, we were told to wait in the bar whilst a table was getting prepared!!! Both times the Restaurant only had a couple of tables eating and setting the table takes two minutes. The prices are well above what you would expect to pay for Thai food.

Over rated!!!

as a group of 6 we pre-booked to eat at 8pm and arrived on time.We were seated at 8.20pm but not served our main courses until 9.50pm.We shared a simple entree (wontons).Other tables who arrived after us were served before us. When the senior waitress was told of our concerns we were treated very dismissively. We were given a complimentary tasting desert platter to ease our frustrations.We will not eat there again. Shame because the food is very good.

Me and my friends have been big fans of Chinwag since it opened, which is why it amazes me to see people give it bad reviews on MenuMania??? My experience of the girls that work there has always been friendly and helpful, that and the food is why we keep going back. For the best experience I suggest getting together a ‘bigger’ group because it is great fun sharing the meals and joining in on the ruckus downstairs. We always order the green curry, best in town, hands down.

Beware trying to dine here using one of their ‘child eats free’ vouchers. Although we arrived at Chinwag before 6pm, we were then made to wait downstairs for several minutes, once seated we were not given a child’s menu and again left to wait. When the wait staff person finally returned and we asked for a child’s menu and said we would be using their voucher we were promptly told it was now 6.03pm and therefore TOO LATE to use the voucher as we had to order by 6pm. Note this was a slow Monday night with only 3 tables in use in the whole restaurant. When we complained and stated that we had actually arrived before 6pm and had been held up by their staff they were completely unresponsive. I would there not recommend this restaurant for their arrogant and disinterested customer service attitude.

We are on Chinwags monthly email out with their latest promotions. Last month was a 3 course dinner for $20 so we decided to give it a go. To receive the promo you must dine between 5-6pm, that suited us fine and half of Chch going on how busy the place was .
To our surprise all dishes were from the main menu(although not prawns and duck etc) . I had the roasted coconut leaf,chicken larb with fried rice balls and the palm sugar custard for dessert. All were fresh and tasted divine as all Chinwag food does.
We were truly blown away that one of NZ’s top restaurants could offer such value for money with fantastic service to boot.
Keep it up Chinwag!!!

After hearing all the hype about this place I gathered up my friends and headed to Chinwag. Very impressive layout but first impressions of staff was disappointing. I think they call it ‘cold shoulder’ as we were not felt welcome. We were placed on a large table with others which was very off-putting. The place was noisy, food nice but small portions, service was ‘missing in action’ clearly understaffed. The overall price was high and experience low. We certainly will not be back.

My wife and I had a lovely meal at Chinwag on a Tuesday night, which to our surprise was a very busy night, that was, until we had tasted our meals. The flavours were balanced, though the duck was fairly rich and we couldn’t finish it all. Overall, though, the experience was great, the fit-out was impressive, and the service was a mixed bag of helpfulness and friendliness.

Having read first class reviews on Chinwag(online) and then some average to good ones on MenuMania I was left scratching my head as to what to expect.
Anyway we ventured in for my 25th birthday on a Tuesday night with a group of 17.
The food and service were faultless. Our waitress was so friendly and smiley . The food for such a large group seem to appear effortlessly when expected(and they were full) . Eveyone on the table were singing the restaurants praises. We ordered a mixed selection of curries, salad and other unusual dishes not normally seen in the hole in the wall Thai restaurants.The crispy fried banana with coconut ice-cream was just the bomb.
Highly recommend this baby. Trying to twist the bosses arm to have our Xmas do there . 4 stars

My man took me to dinner at chinwag on one of our first dates and we’ve been back another 3 times since. I just had to write something because the last time we went was for a friend’s birthday and the service was so incredible, and fun. The waitress was sooo funny. The food was amazing as always (Brian loves the pork hock, gets it every time. I recommend the salmon on a spinach leaf and the tuna salad, hmmmm) and the cocktails were a treat for a little something different. Chinwag is the shizzle.

I have now been to this fantastic restaurant a number of times.I don’t know what planet some of the other reviewers are from but Chinwag would have to ChCh’s best non occasional restaurant(by far). Any one who has ventured out side of NZ to dine would know this is no ordinary eating establishment. Perhaps to cutting edge for some locals?
Any way the modern Thai food served here is always fresh, tasty and most importantly consistent. It is certainly up there (if noy better)with Longrain and Jimmy liks in Sydney and prices half the price. Service is unobtrusive, knowledgeable and friendly although the waiters certainly seem to be have been well trained with their sales pitch(which isn’t necessarily a bad thing).The environment is very unique, hip Thai? The only negative I’ve found is the bar area can get to packed with people waiting for tables as it has been full every time we have been. Although this hasn’t been the case when we have been earlier with the children . Speaking of which the kids menu is fantastic value ($11-12 I think)and very healthy.Highly recommend the duck curry, crispy pork, little starters(delicious) and much more.

Great food, loved the whole experience. I’ll be back again and again

Felt the entire night was all about the waitress trying to get us to order more drinks or side dishes. And don’t make the mistake of asking for any wine recommendations – any monkey can tell you which is the most expensive wine and recommend that. I don’t mind paying for good food and service but don’t expect to have my pocket pinched!

While the flavours, the diversity, the texture and the presentation of the food was excellent, the meal was seriously let down by very slow service, cold dishes (that weren’t supposed to be), and the impression that we were ‘punters’ as opposed to customers.

We arrived at 6:30Pm, had entrees just after 7, then waited until 8:10 for our mains.

We also felt pressured to order more drinks when what we really wanted to have was our food.

Worse, a group that arrived while we were eating our entree, had nearly finished their main before we saw ours… on the table right next to us!

Not how to stay in business long!

We had this restaurant recommended to us, but hesitated after reading the reviews here. However, we found the food absolutely delicious,with ample portions. Flavours reminded us of our recent trip to Thailand. Fab surroundings, and cosy.
The pumpkin curry was especially tasty.
Do try the yellow fin tuna too !!

I booked this restaurant on the basis of a recommendation. I looked on line for the menu and read the reviews, which lowered my expectations as 3 out of 4 were poor.
But the experience for me was great. It is stylish and if you like flavour this restaurant has a lot to offer. I had no issues with the service, all staff were friendly and attentive. You are encouraged to share dishes to experience the different flavours and this worked for us. Two issues, we ended up paying for antipodes water, but we are happy with Christchurch tap water thanks. The signs on the toilet doors are open to interpretation,and as a result the ladies toilets were not clean.

This restaurant is stylish but marred by poor lighting and annoying overhead fans. The food is good but the shocking service far outweighs any positive impression made by the kitchen. The maitre’d was arrogant and unwelcoming; the table setting and service was woeful. If you like your meal with a side order of attitude, dine here.

Service was arrogant and slow. Food was bland and stir fry vegetables were tasteless. Beware you could be placed on the large table with other diners without consultation.

I can only comment on the takeaways we experienced. The duck was very good while the panang curry was more like a satay and used far too much oil. It is way over the top to charge dine in prices for takeaways,($57 for two dishes), and the unwelcoming service didn’t impress.

I highly recommend this restaurant – it has a warm, vibrant feel that welcomes and invites.
Food was amazing – the yellow fin tuna is gorgeous and the crispy chicken devine.

Definately worth a try!