Mona Vale Kitchen & Events is a restaurant, café and events venue set in a beautifully restored 1899 homestead on the banks of the Avon River in Riccarton, Christchurch. Spread across 5.5 hectares of gardens, it's a place for a quick coffee and something from the cabinet, long lunches that drift into afternoon wine, and High Tea done properly — a favourite with locals and visitors alike since the homestead reopened in December 2016.
The building is a genuine piece of Christchurch history: designed by architect Joseph Clarkson Maddison, renamed Mona Vale in 1905 by Annie Quayle Townend, saved by public fundraising in the 1960s, and rebuilt and strengthened after earthquake damage in a two-year, $3.2m project. Today the gracious Victorian homestead and its gardens — mill pond, fernery and lily pond included — welcome diners every day, alongside weddings, functions, corporate gatherings and tour groups.
The restaurant is open Monday to Sunday, 9am to 4pm (closed Christmas Day), with walk-ins always welcome and bookings recommended on busier days. Entry is via Kilmarnock Street, and dogs are welcome in the gardens.
On the banks of the Avon River in Riccarton, five and a half hectares of gardens gather around one of Christchurch's most graceful Victorian buildings. Mona Vale — today trading as Mona Vale Kitchen & Events — is at once a restaurant, a wedding and events venue, and one of the Garden City's loveliest places to while away an afternoon. Whether it's a quick coffee and something from the cabinet, a long lunch that turns into afternoon wine, or High Tea done properly, there is always a reason to linger.
The land originally belonged to the Deans brothers, whose own homestead was Riccarton House, and later hosted William Derisley Wood's mill — the 19th-century weir he built on the Avon still forms the tranquil Mona Vale mill pond. In 1899 Frederick and Alice Waymouth purchased four acres here and commissioned architect Joseph Clarkson Maddison to design the homestead, completed in 1900.
In 1905 Annie Quayle Townend acquired the property, renamed it Mona Vale after her mother's house in Tasmania, and set about making it extraordinary: she added nine more acres and a gate house, and after the New Zealand International Exhibition she bought its entire fernery — plants and all — and had it reassembled on the grounds, later adding a bathhouse. In 1939 Tracy Gough engaged landscape architect Alfred Buxton to design the gardens, adding a lily pond, a swimming pool beside the Bath House, and plantings of rhododendrons, azaleas and exotic trees.
The twentieth century tested the place. When subdivision and demolition loomed in the 1960s, a public outcry and community fundraising saved Mona Vale; local councils bought it in 1969 as a public park, and from 1978 the homestead operated as a restaurant, café and function venue. The Canterbury earthquakes closed its doors in 2011, but a two-year, $3.2 million rebuild and strengthening project by the Christchurch City Council saw it reopen in December 2016, resplendent in its heritage best.
The restaurant runs daily from 9am to 4pm, and the rhythm is deliberately relaxed: coffee and cabinet food through the morning, brunch and lunch through the middle of the day, and a glass of something local as the afternoon stretches out. The famous drawcard is High Tea — done properly, in a homestead that seems built for it — enjoyed by locals and tourists alike since reopening.
Winter brings its own tradition in the Sunday Roast, which hibernates over the warmer months while the regular Sunday menu — lighter, fresher, perfectly suited to spring in the gardens — takes its place. Garden lunches are the constant, with tables spilling onto the terrace beside the river.
Part of Mona Vale's charm is that a meal here is only half the visit. The gardens change with the seasons: ivy creeping over old brick, gables that have watched generations come and go, the mill pond, the fernery, and corners where the only soundtrack is trickling water and birdsong. Dogs are welcome — bring the dog, settle in beside the river, and let the afternoon unfold at its own pace. Walk-ins are always welcome, with bookings recommended on busier days.
Mona Vale is also one of Christchurch's most cherished wedding and event settings. Ceremonies take place on Iris Lawn, while intimate weddings gather in the glass-walled Bath House, surrounded by greenery and the quiet of the gardens. Functions, milestone birthdays and corporate events unfold across the homestead and grounds, and the events team can add a champagne tower for a little theatre. Tour groups and international visitors are well catered for too, with morning tea, lunch or High Tea in the historic homestead and group dining options set out in a dedicated tourism trade manual.
Find Mona Vale at 40 Mona Vale Avenue, Riccarton — entering via Kilmarnock Street — open Monday to Sunday, 9am to 4pm, closed Christmas Day. Book a table online or call 03 341 7450; restaurant enquiries go to [email protected] and events to [email protected]. Gift cards, delivered instantly to the inbox, make the invitation easy to pass on. Come for lunch, stay for a wander — at Mona Vale, there's always time for one more.