The Optical Shop at 6A Straven Road in Riccarton is a family-owned optical shop, with stores in Christchurch and Whangārei. The website says it has an in-house optical lab, and customers say glasses are made in the shop's own workshop. It offers one of the biggest frame ranges in New Zealand, with stylists to help with try-ons, and lenses customised to each prescription. The website says visitors can bring their prescription and the team will help find the right lenses, and that glasses are collected at the end of the visit.
Customers say the team is knowledgeable, and that the service is not like the sales at other shops. One says they have recommended the shop to all their friends. Another, whose overseas glasses had badly scratched lenses, says the shop was a big saving. A third says the staff pulled out all the stops to have new glasses ready before an overseas trip, even though staff were on holiday. Within a kilometre there are four other optometrists, and of the two nearby with 10 or more reviews, none rates higher than this one. Specsavers at Riccarton Westfield is 0.4 km away. Our pick in Riccarton for glasses with lenses made on site.