Went here for dinner on Good Friday to celebrate the start of our Nelson holiday.

We were blown away with the views from our table – watching the sunset was spectacular.

The food was also good:
- Entrees were great. I had an Asian pork salad and my partner had a chicken & tamarind crepe. Excellent flavours although they were rather on the large side

- Mains were ok – neither great nor terrible. I had an oven baked chicken breast served with chorizo and pea risotto. While the chicken was perfectly flavoured and cooked well the risotto was slightly overcooked and under flavoured but the biggest issue with it was that it was way too cheesy.

My partner had the eye fillet with hand cut fries. Again, the steak was cooked really well but the fries were not crispy at all and a little raw in the middle.

- Desert was simply superb – We shared the smoked apple and white chocolate cheesecake which was the best cheesecake we had both ever eaten. Delicious!

I took my team to relish as a reward – wait staff don’t have product knowledge on menu or wine matches. A bit of a shame as ambience is good, open kitchen good, chef wandering about the place, good. View great. Menu – sounds amazing and really leaps off the page but dosnt deliver 100%. I had the chicken crepe- pretty big portion for entre but why the mountain if lettuce? Chicken quite dry and tamarind not working with crepe for me. Main was pork belly – cooked well, nice size and veg cooked perfectly. Coffee to end was burnt and extremely bitter – didn’t finish. This place could be amazing and a real icon if wait staff sharpen up and menu delivers more on promise.

These guys are nothing short of amazing!!! We approached them to host our wedding reception, and all we heard was “yes! we can do that!”. Stu and Claire’s relaxed attitude and helpfulness made this such an easy and pleasant reception to organise. And what’s more, the prices were so reasonable the bride’s father nearly fell off his chair when we told him the total cost! On the day, the food was incredible (as usual!) and we are almost sick of hearing about it from all our friends and family The staff were friendly, efficient and went way beyond the call to help us out. No-one waited for their meals, and everyone went away with full tummies and smiles! Couldn’t recommend enough! We are now regulars, and have just come back today from a beautiful brunch this morning.

I found Relish to be absolutely delightful! I have been there a number of times and have really enjoyed the menu changes this winter. My partner and I really enjoy dining at Relish and being able to try a selection of beautifully cooked foods, and I found the pork belly to be delicious! I have a friend who raves about the seafood chowder and will often take out-of-town friends to try it for themselves.
I am very excited to be attending the Winemakers dinner in July, we are looking forward to seeing what Relish has to offer!

This place seems to attract extreme views. I am definitely a fan and have eaten here 3 times. The food has always been fantastic , plentiful and tasty. I also like that the menu changes. I haven’t tried the seafood chowder, but my partner did more on that later . I have had the cheesecake and agree it’s the best I’ve ever tasted. My last visit was a couple of days ago, New Years Eve in fact, the place was packed. I had the goats cheese entree and the duck main, and can recommend both. My partner had the seafood chowder it was thick and creamy with tons of seafood he definitely recommends this dish, he says he just had enough room for his main course of salmon. The staff are friendly and helpful. The setting is stunning, great water and mountain views and the inside nicely laid out where you’ll be comfortable casual or smart. I’ll be back on my next trip through Nelson.

Fantastic view, shame I can’t say the same about the food. Highly disappointing on all fronts – ingredients scarce, serving portions unacceptably small and flavour not as expected from the menu description. I took some family out for a treat and expected to be treated by the restaurant to a taste bud treat. Unfortunately it was money wasted. I won’t visit again, and I’d say the serving staff were used to complaints as the waitress didn’t even ask how the meals were when I paid. She obviously didn’t want any more criticism. Just a post script – isn’t it coincidental how someone has always just had a favourable experience after a negative one is posted – especially eating the same dish.

Hubby wanted seafood chowder and the menu promised a tasty one with calamari and mussels. My understanding of chowder is a thick creamy soup. What we got served was a watery vegetable offering with some seafood waved over it – maybe. OK, I exaggerate, there was indeed a small piece of calamari and 4 small pieces of mussel, that if joined back together may have formed a complete mussel. Totally disappointing, and at $15 for the plate, totally ripped off. I ordered the light lunch of scallop souffle. Well, it tasted good, but LIGHT was the operative word. We all stopped for food on the way home as our tummies failed to recognise we’d actually put any food into them yet. So, just a warning to those who want to eat good food – don’t visit Relish the Rip off merchants in Nelson. Save your hard earned dollars for a restaurant that’s worth it.

So… How on earth the previous review only scored Relish a 1 is an absolute mystery to me?!

However, I am not normally one to comment or review on websites but felt compelled to having stumbled across this site while finding the restaurant website on google to send to a relative.

I have eaten at Relish on four or five occasions now both for lunch and dinner and each time have loved it. It is a stunning setting and the relaxed but smart layout of the restaurant is perfect for what we use as a “it’s a Thursday night and instead of cooking let’s eat out” venue. IE: if people want to dress up they can but if not, you can comfortably sit there in shorts and t-shirt.

I have experienced the pork salad and thought it was very nice, the pork was well cooked and as with all the dishes I’ve tried at Relish, a real mix of flavours…

…And I guess that’s one of the main appeals of this place, there’s something different in the way the meals are put together. I had the King Prawns the other day and they came served on a mini tortilla filled with guacamole and a sauce that was so intriguing I just had to ask the chef what was in it! It was described on the menu as a sweet chili sauce but it was so much more – Turns out garlic butter and a some spices are used to add an extra dimension to what would normally be expected (and experienced in other restaurants) a predictable sweet chili sauce. Another example would be the simple matter of asking for a side order of veges to go with a main meal (I must admit I am normally very predictable in ordering the steak-it just tastes so good!), instead of the often over boiled/steamed mix of the usual suspects like Mr Broccoli, you get a real interesting mix including fresh sweetcorn, beans and baby carrots that also seem to have been cooked in a way to add an extra flavour to them (and each time we’ve eaten there the selection has been different).

And then there’s the desserts…. As far as I’m concerned, THE best cheesecake I have ever tasted is served here. It’s a white chocolate with smoked apple cheesecake and you just have to try it… And this is from someone who normally opts for a starter over a pudding! My wife would also strongly recommend the panacotta although I don’t like coconut so I’ll have to trust her on that one.

Would we recommend Relish to friends? We already do. We will continue to support this new restaurant as are pleased to see somewhere that we can go pretty regularly due to the pricing and get to sit looking at the stunning view of the haven and the mountains in the background.

The food is yummy, the setting is stunning, there’s a good selection of local wines and the service has always been first rate.

Shame the previous reviewer felt so strongly against the place as it would be a travesty for people not to go and experience the restaurant for themselves because I think they’d be missing out!

Sermon over. Please return to your lives…!

Relish was never locally advertised (I can see why now)but we saw the signs going up when going into Nelson and thought we must give it a go; the previous restaurant on this site, Venice Cove, was excellent and we hoped this new venture would come somewhere near. WRONG!!!
We went for lunch one day, no starter just a mains and a bottle of wine between us. The menu had a few unusual names on the descriptions so we asked the waitress who didn’t have a clue. Anyway in the end my wife ordered the duck salad and I thought I’d go for a good old simple standard, the ubiquitous fish and chips. This we ordered. The waitress came back within a few minutes to advise us that the duck salad was off but that my wife could have pork instead and anyway it tastes the same (clearly she should get out more). It was a ‘fait accompli’ so she settled for the pork. The chef/owner did come out a little later to apologise (fair enough) but he then went on to involve us in a conversation as though we were all long lost mates, which we weren’t. After the food arrived we understood the taste comment for the stringy matter on my wife’s plate could have been anything (perhaps better not to ask), the salad was a collection of some green leaves. My fish and chips left a lot to be desired with the fish being so greasy that it was difficult to decide whether there was more fish or grease. Grudgingly the chips were O.K.
So not a good experience and we took a view, as we do, we didn’t see ourselves coming back soon.
A couple of weeks later some friends (yes, we do have friends!)who live in Tahuna invited us to brunch one Saturday at Relish. We did hesitate but had no wish to be churlish and you never know perhaps we previosly caught the restaurant on a bad day. We went with our daughter and they, theirs. Being brunch we ordered the breakfast.
What came would have been a good excuse for charcoal and little on the plate was recognisable, in fact even the chef/owner came across and enquired if it was a little well done for our taste. Of course we, being polite (a euphemism for total cowards) and of anglo-saxon origin to boot, said it was O.K. we’ll manage.
Why have I given Relsih even one star? Well, that’s a concession for the harbour view.