Rustic Eating House
Reviews · · · ·Rating: 3
We ate lunch here in October 2023.
Polenta chips
Chicken burger
Roast vegetable salad
Rustic Eating House is pretty pleased with itself. They are very excited about being a quality restaurant on the side of SH1 where you wouldn’t expect to find such a place. A while they’re not bad by any stretch, they aren’t quite living up to their own hype.
The polenta chips themselves were hot and fresh but a bit thinner than ideal. They came with an excellent sauce - a lemony aioli with pesto in it. The chicken burger was quite special, it was a bit spicy and had some interesting seasoning going on. The chips were chunky and well sized.
The roast vegetable salad was a disappointment. The vegetables were all cooked, but not well coloured or crispy, and it just didn’t have a lot going, although we appreciate the addition of seeds.
A note on the Rustic Eating House (Waiouru) versus the Rustic Steak House (Taihape). They are part of the same group, having different but overlapping menus and refer to themselves as ‘brother’ restaurants. As such, we’ve reviewed them separately.