Odeon is a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant on Gloucester Street in central Christchurch, just around the corner from New Regent Street. It pairs a monthly curated menu of shared plates built on local, seasonal produce with a wine list focused on organic and biodynamic bottles, all set in a beautiful, comfortable dining room. In 2026 the restaurant was awarded a Bib Gourmand in the Michelin Guide.
The menu reads as a journey: bites like focaccia with charred eggplant hummus and lamb pincho, medium share plates such as kingfish curado and chargrilled broccolini, and larger dishes for the table including beef short rib, lamb roulade and a daily market fish, before sweets like limoncello tart. Diners who would rather not choose can opt for the 'Just Feed Me' feast — a rolling selection of shared dishes, some from the menu and some created just for the night. Gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian and plant-based dishes are marked throughout.
Wine is half the story here: dry sherry by the 60ml glass, Champagne, skin-contact whites, Old World and New Zealand reds, plus late-harvest pours, liqueurs and spirits. Beyond dinner, Odeon offers versatile event spaces for up to 80 guests with customisable, sharing-style menus for corporate lunches, private parties, weddings and special occasions. It opens for dinner every day from 5pm until late, and reservations can be made online.
Step off Gloucester Street, just around the corner from New Regent Street, and you'll find Odeon — a Mediterranean-inspired dining room built around a simple, generous idea: plates made to be shared, poured alongside organic and biodynamic wine. The kitchen describes its cooking as joining the old world and the new, and the room follows suit — beautiful and comfortable, with botanical illustrations and an unhurried feel. In 2026 that approach earned Odeon a Bib Gourmand in the Michelin Guide, a nod to cooking that is both high quality and good value.
Odeon doesn't sit still. The kitchen runs a monthly curated menu of shared dishes showing off the best of local, seasonal produce, so the list you read one month may not be the one you read the next. What stays constant is the shape of the meal.
Dinner begins with bites: warm focaccia with charred eggplant hummus, chicken shish with tomato zaalouk, lamb pincho with spiced labneh and chermoula, or potato skins with herb toum. For bigger appetites there's lamb pastrami with Three Boys mustard and Odeon pickles, oyster mushroom with cannellini and pickled coral tooth, or beef neck and manchego croquettes with paprika aioli.
Then come the medium plates, designed to share — kingfish curado with rhubarb, compressed cucumber and caviar; chargrilled broccolini with burnt hollandaise and almond dukkah; beetroot with whipped goat cheese and pistachio; beef manti with hung yoghurt and salsa macha; and Jerusalem artichokes with creamed leeks and artichoke crisps.
Large plates anchor the table. Lamb roulade arrives with celeriac and burnt onion jus; beef short rib with chimichurri and salsa criolla; ricotta gnudi with kale emulsion and pangrattato; Bostock chicken adobo with romesco; and a market fish with lemon caper tarator and fennel, priced to the day's catch. Dessert keeps the Mediterranean thread — limoncello tart with meringue, or dark chocolate crémeux with corn bread, grilled summer fruit and plum sorbet.
If choosing feels like too much work, hand the evening over with 'Just Feed Me', a feasting option that sends a rolling selection of shared dishes — some from the menu and some created just for the night. Dietary needs are well flagged across the whole menu, with gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian and plant-based dishes marked in every section.
Wine is half the story at Odeon, and the list rewards wandering. It leans organic and biodynamic, and it roams: dry sherry poured in 60ml measures, from Fernando de Castilla fino to La Gitana en rama manzanilla and a palo cortado from Delgado Zuleta. Sparkling runs from playful Penedès cava to an Alsace crémant and Perrier-Jouët Grand Brut Champagne.
The whites stretch from crisp Picpoul de Pinet and Albariño to Marlborough sauvignon blanc, a 2016 aged-release riesling from Pegasus Bay, and a Central Otago chenin blanc from Sato. A dedicated skin-contact section includes a Georgian chinuri from Pheasant's Tears, while the reds travel from Beaujolais gamay and Sardinian cannonau to Waipara pinot noir, Waiheke syrah and Douro touriga nacional.
Then there's the back of the list: late-harvest wines, sweet sherry and port, calvados, armagnac, grappa, pisco, mezcal and single malt whiskies from Cardrona to the Isle of Raasay. Staff are happy to help you navigate it.
Odeon also opens its doors for occasions. The venue offers versatile event spaces for up to 80 guests, with customisable menus for corporate lunches, private parties, weddings and special celebrations — all in the same seasonal, sharing style as the nightly menu.
Dinner service runs every night, Monday through Sunday, from 5pm until late. Reservations can be booked online, and gift vouchers are available for anyone wanting to pass the experience on. Whether it's a long table of friends working through the large plates or a glass of sherry and a plate of potato skins at the end of the day, Odeon's promise is the same: generous Mediterranean cooking, a wine list with a sense of adventure, and a room you won't be rushed out of.