The Forge Restaurant is a restaurant at 139 High Street in the Tararua town of Dannevirke, holding a 4.3 rating on Google. Good country-town restaurants tend to do double duty: they feed locals through the week and host the district's birthdays, engagements and end-of-season dinners. Menus in farming country usually lean on what's grown and grazed nearby, so it pays to ask what is local or what the kitchen is proud of that day. With fewer tables than the city, weekend evenings book out early, and regulars know to phone ahead rather than chance it. Another tell is where the shearers and farm families choose to eat — a busy midweek dining room says more than any signboard. For a sit-down meal in the middle of town, The Forge Restaurant makes a natural stop on High Street, for locals and travellers passing through on State Highway 2.