Kaiser Brew Garden is a Bavarian-inspired bar and microbrewery upstairs at Riverside Market on Oxford Terrace in central Christchurch. Open since 2019 as the city's 'brew bar', it pairs an onsite microbrewery with a living, all-weather garden bar — a green, urban oasis above the busy market. In 2023 it was named best bar in New Zealand.
Behind the bar, beer flows brewery-fresh alongside quality wines, cocktails and specialty gin and tonics. The kitchen prepares everything from scratch, serving small plates, hand-stretched pizzas and salads designed to be shared, with a wide range of gluten-free dishes including gluten-free pizza bases. The Agria potato fries with their signature seasoning are a house legend.
The Kaiser family has been in hospitality for 150 years, and the welcome reflects it: relaxed, friendly and generous, with a vibrant atmosphere reviewers return for again and again. From the Kaiser family to yours — Prost!
Head up to Level 1 of Riverside Market on Oxford Terrace and you'll find Kaiser Brew Garden — part working microbrewery, part living garden bar, and since 2019 one of Christchurch's most talked-about places to eat and drink. The team describes what they do as Bavarian-inspired hospitality, and the setting makes the case for them: greenery climbing through an all-weather garden space, beer brewed on site, and a buzz that reviewers keep singling out as the reason to come back.
The Kaiser family has been in hospitality for 150 years, and that long game shows in how the place runs. Kaiser Brew Garden opened in 2019 as 'your brew bar', upstairs at Riverside Market in the heart of the central city, and it has grown into something of an urban oasis — a microbrewery and garden bar in one, big enough to surprise first-time visitors who didn't expect a venue of this scale tucked away above the market. In 2023 it was named best bar in New Zealand, an award the team is proud of but wears lightly; the welcome stays the same as it ever was — 'from our Kaiser family to yours', as they put it.
Reviews tell a similar story: friendly staff, gorgeous decor, and an atmosphere people describe as fantastic again and again. One first-timer wrote that they weren't expecting the size and vibe of the place, and that it was definitely worth a visit — advice echoed by plenty of returning regulars.
The kitchen's brief is simple: fresh, flavoursome food prepared from scratch and designed to be shared. Small plates cover a lot of ground — fried cauliflower with mango ambala and miso mayo, blackened broccoli, pork belly with maple chilli glaze, calamari, fried chicken with red curry mayo, and a generous antipasto board loaded with bratwurst, cured meats, cheeses and smoked salmon. Hand-stretched pizzas lean into the Bavarian theme with the Flammkuchen — crème fraîche, bacon jam and pulled pork — alongside margherita, spiced lamb and bratwurst and chorizo, with salads from garden to smoked salmon rounding things out.
Then there are the Agria potato fries with their signature seasoning, which the team says diners regularly declare the best in Christchurch. Kumara fries with maple chilli glaze are a repeat-order favourite too.
Dietary requirements are treated seriously here. The menu offers a wide range of gluten-free dishes, gluten-free pizza bases, and options across vegetarian and vegan diets — something gluten-free diners mention with real appreciation in their reviews.
Beer is the headline act: Kaiser brews on site, so what lands in your glass is brewery-fresh, and it sits alongside quality wines, cocktails and specialty gin and tonics. In summer, reviewers swear by a Pimms in the garden; the house lemonade has its devoted fans too. And because the living garden bar is all-weather, the greenery-and-beer combination works just as well on a bright Canterbury afternoon as it does on a cold mid-winter night at one of the venue's seasonal night markets.
Doors open at 11:30 daily. Closing time flexes through the week — 9pm on Mondays, Tuesdays and Sundays, 10pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and late on Fridays and Saturdays. Weekends get busy, so booking ahead is a smart move, especially if you're set on a garden spot. Functions are a specialty, with a dedicated function menu and spaces for groups, gift vouchers make an easy treat for friends or clients, and regulars get real value from the Kaiser Club loyalty app.
However you time it, the recipe is the one the Kaisers have been pouring for 150 years: good beer, generous food and a table where people are glad to gather. Prost!