King of Snake

The worst service I have ever had in any restaurant… ever. We were the second table of the night to be seated and watched as every other table filled up, had orders taken, and food delivered… all the while our menus remained in front of us. After 40 minutes we engaged a passing waiter to be told «this isn’t my section», a second waiter was stopped and we were told «sorry mate I’m busy». A trip up to the front desk to the greeter/​seater lady was ever less fruitful, begging to have our order taken I was dismissed with a rude, snide attitude… it was another 10 minutes before our table received any attention. The food is good, but not worth the price or putting up with rude treatment.

Really nice place with good design, warm atmosphere. Asian cousine, rather spicy.
Good choice of cocktails, tapas, wine etc.

A group of three of us had a meal here on a Monday night and it was packed. A very nice meal and great service combined to make this a memorable evening. Three small and three large plates and we struggled to finish and none of us are «Bird Like» eaters. Very nice.

Not a bad restaurant, food is pretty good (Asian inspired), but the wait staff (or at least the one I had) don’t really compliment the restaurant. Very slow at bringing water (or topping up an empty glass of water) and bringing drinks or asking if I would like another. Also no new glass with a new drink? It’s the little things…

Book ahead if you want to be guaranteed a table. Even on a tuesday night it is busy and we were given a two hour dining window. I hate dining windows but understand why a busy restaurant insists on them. I do give KoS credit for letting us know about it when making the reservation though — at two recent restaurants I have been to we were evicted from out seats with no warning before even getting to desserts!
I have to comment on the décor, which is amazing. The wallpapers are bright and vivd and really add to the ambience of the place. Food is asian fusion style. Definitely order the spinach leaf wrap things, they are one of my favourite things on the menu. Its an incredible mouthful of fresh bursting flavour. The dumplings in broth are disappointing and bland. Other dishes I enjoyed are the moong dal salad and the penang curry. I normally avoid ordering dessert at asian style restaurants but took a gamble on the mango tart tartin. It was pretty good if not mind-​blowing. There is an extensive cocktail menu and you are sure to find something you like. I do agree with a previous reviewer who said the signature King of Snake cocktail is not that good — I like ginger a lot but this was just completely overwhelming and almost undrinkable. The service is great and attentive, no issues here.

This is a decent restaurant with good but uninspired food. I had two appetizers and two cocktails, all of which were very one note. Their signature cocktail, the King of Snakes, has the overwhelming taste of ginger. Their coffee cocktail, recommended by the bartender, tasted like an overly sweet starbucks frappé. The two dishes I had, fried squid and pork belly, were uninteresting, but not necessarily poorly cooked. Overall, the experience at the restaurant was underwhelming but not bad. I would not look to go back, but I would also not complain if my friends wanted to go.

I would definitely classify this as more a restaurant than a bar. The food is really good, a tapas theme with Asian infusion but overall healthy food. The bar is very trendy and the bartenders are pro but the bar is relatively small so it’s more of a pre-​dinner drink bar or after work drinks maybe even pre-​drinks before hitting the town. Not a bar scene per-​se and they probably close around 11.

Food was really good, can recommend the lamb, duck strifry and the steak. What was really poor was the service. Booking was for 8.15pm but never managed to even get desert or coffee before 10pm.

King of Snake is an interesting environment and a welcome change from your run of the mill Thai restaurants. While the food was good, my experience was marred by the most unfriendly, rude hostess I have ever encountered.
Ionara (Brazilian by her accent) excelled in ensuring that my evening was unpleasant. I made the unfortunate error of enthusiastically ordering two entrees so that I could experience as much as possible. Unfortunately I was not informed that all meals are designed to be shared. As I was dining alone (on a business trip) it became apparent I would not be able to handle the two large entrees and a main. I politely requested that one of my untouched entrees be returned.
Ionara proceeded to inform me in no uncertain terms that as I had ordered the meal, my options were to pay for it and take it away or leave it and still pay for it. Her demeanour was rude and unapologetic.
I don’t think hospitality was a particularly prudent choice of career for this hostess and King of Snake would be well advised to take heed. I doubt whether I was the first customer to experience this treatment and I probably won’t be the last.

Service is excellent by any standard. Asian fusion food is excellent by Kiwi standard. Atmosphere is light and fun. Go for it.

We enjoyed both of our meals at King of Snake as we dined there on Friday and were back again on Thursday. I will start out by saying that the service was very good and the staff was more than accommodating. The seating arrangements are a little odd so make sure that you specify the table you want when making reservations. If you are going on a date you would need to specify that you would like a table for two inside the main dining area, otherwise you could wind up in the enclosed terrace area or at a shared table which always irks me. The food was good although my girlfriend was much more impressed than I was (thus the two nights in one week). The servers are fully knowledgable and are more than willing to assist you in deciding which main me be best suited to your tastes. It was east to see why this is the most talked about restaurant in Christchurch.

I like this place. I wouldn’t call it special, because I’ve been to some very special places… But it’s really good. Service was friendly and good, food was prepared very well. I’m only giving it 3 stars because, as I said… I didn’t feel like it was special…
Perhaps, I am being unfair, as I am comparing the restaurant to some of my more expensive experiences — That isn’t to detract from the quality of the restaurant, just comparing it to my expectations.
I did really like the ambience. And the wall paper was something quite unique.
I’d go back. Probably with more reasonable expectations.

We went to KOS on the recommendation of our hotel receptionist. Definitely come early and make reservations as they were fully booked at 6 pm. Service was very nice. They have a fairly short menu divided into meats (seafood, chicken, beef, pork) and vegetables. This place is definitely a bit pricey for the portion size. They tout that you can share the dishes which is true but you won’t have any left overs. Now having eaten all types of Asian food from various countries it takes a lot to impress me. The curry vegetable dish ($ 30) was really good, with a sweet savory flavor. The vegetables they chose for the curry (pumpkin, baby corn, green beans, asparagus) are fresh and blend well with the curry. The other dish we ordered was the sirloin which was very tender but I felt did not stand out compared to other Asian dishes I’ve had for the price you pay. ($ 26) Overall, a good choice for dinner although you will pay for it.

Asian fusion… your name is King of Snake! this place has officially taken over as the best asian fusion in my book from some very highly vaunted places. Modern, casual yet elegant is the definition of the interior. The oyster starters were just perfectly briny morsels that were contrasted well with the black pepper vinaigrette. This begged us to move on to the mandarin marinated tuna which in the hands of lesser cooks could be a textural disaster, but here it is firm yet infused well with the marinade, the pumpkin yellow curry was a wonderful amalgamation of thai flavors and a touch of Indianness with the cashews and the stir fried cumin lamb a fantastic meaty meal with bits of char on the lamb from the high heat stir fry working well with the toasty almost mild pungency of the cumin. This dish reminded me of a similar dish I had in Beijing and invoked a flood of memories of that trip, yet took me in a new direction. A nice wine list rounds off this place. I thought the Marlborough Gruner Vertliner to be a particularly good accompaniment to my food and quite well priced. Go go go to this place!

Great food. Great service. Great atmosphere. Prices seem to be going up but they’re competitive for value through quality!

King of Snake is amazing. Great staff, great food, great drinks, great atmosphere. There is only one catch… Everyone knows how great it is!
You MUST visit if you are in Christchurch. My tip is book ahead, or be relaxed and happy to have a few drinks in the bar area until a table comes up (this is not a bad option at all — they have some great local wines and craft beers, as we’ll as killer cocktails!). Even mid-​week, this place is PACKED.
Highlights are pippies in XO sauce, the tuna salad with coconut, the duck and lycée salad… Oh man it’s all good!

Um, yeah, insanely good. Usually a description of «Asian fusion» send me running in the other direction, but on a cold night in Christchurch I needed to get warm so in we went. Staff were fantastic, cocktails were amazing, food was delicious. We went two nights in a row because it was so great — everything we tried was excellent. Probably best to either book, or be patient because this place is SUPER busy!

Great and friendly service. The waitress gave us great recommendations. Better than any Asian fusion restaurant I have been to before. Try the sweet and sour pork, nothing like you have ever experienced!