GIANTS Restaurant & Bar is a beloved gathering spot in the heart of Frankton, Queenstown, located at Holiday Inn Queenstown Remarkables Park at the foot of the Remarkables. Locals and visitors come together here for exceptional food and drink — whether setting out to explore the nearby mountains or winding down after a day on Lake Wakatipu.
The menus celebrate the rich bounty of Otago, featuring fresh, seasonal dishes crafted from ingredients sourced from local farms and producers just beyond Frankton's doorstep. In the evening, an à la carte dinner menu showcases dishes inspired by Executive Chef Cindy Gonzalez, whose cooking blends the bold, earthy flavours of Latin America with fresh New Zealand ingredients.
It is a family-friendly, community-spirited venue, open seven days a week to everyone — hotel guests and locals alike. Kids have their own menu, free for ages 12 and under, the bar serves drinks and snacks from midday until 10pm, and Happy Hour runs daily from 4pm to 6pm with a refreshing line-up of drink specials.
Some restaurants chase trends. GIANTS Restaurant & Bar is busy doing something simpler and, arguably, harder — being the place Frankton gathers. Located at Holiday Inn Queenstown Remarkables Park, at the foot of the Remarkables, it has become a beloved meeting spot where locals and visitors sit side by side: hikers gearing up for the trails, families back from the lake, travellers checking in and neighbours catching up. The mood is warm and unpretentious, with cosy nooks for recharging, room for kids to play nearby, and a bar that hums from midday until 10pm.
The name is a fitting one: dining here, you really are among giants, with the Remarkables framing the neighbourhood and the day's adventures never far away.
The menus at GIANTS celebrate the rich bounty of Otago. Dishes are fresh and seasonal, crafted from ingredients sourced from local farms and producers just beyond Frankton's doorstep, so what lands on the plate reflects what is growing in the region right now.
Breakfast is a hearty buffet designed to fuel Queenstown adventures, served every day from 6am — and, mercifully for late risers, it runs until 10:30am on weekends. Lunch brings fresh, flavour-packed favourites from midday until 4pm. From 5pm, the à la carte dinner menu takes over with comforting classics and bold, seasonal flavours, and there is a sweet finish too: desserts and a cheeseboard are served from 5:30pm each evening.
Behind the dinner menu is Executive Chef Cindy Gonzalez, a Chilean-born cook with more than 15 years of international experience. She began her career in South America, inspired by its food traditions, and developed her commitment to local ingredients and sustainable cooking early on, working at Hotel Altiplánico on Easter Island.
Cindy has spent the past decade in New Zealand, including seven years in some of Wellington's most respected hotel kitchens — among them the Amora Hotel and InterContinental Wellington — creating menus for high-end events and international guests. A move to Auckland followed, joining the culinary team at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, where she led with creativity and precision.
Now based in Queenstown and leading the team at GIANTS, she blends the bold, earthy flavours of Latin America with fresh New Zealand ingredients. The result is food that is both innovative and grounded in tradition — a fitting match for a dining room that celebrates its own backyard.
GIANTS Bar is a destination in its own right. Open daily from midday to 10pm, it pours a relaxed atmosphere alongside great drinks and bar snacks. The daily Happy Hour from 4pm to 6pm is the sweet spot: a refreshing line-up of drink specials covering house spirits, house wine, large tap beers and cocktails. It is the ideal window for sharing stories of the day's adventures over something cold, whether that day involved the slopes, the trails or simply the shops.
One of GIANTS' defining traits is openness. The restaurant is open seven days a week to everyone, and you do not need to be a hotel guest to pull up a chair. It is a genuinely family-friendly room: the kids' menu, full of tasty bites and refreshing drinks, is free for little guests aged 12 and under, and the atmosphere reflects the community spirit of Frankton. It is the kind of place where a quick lunch can stretch into Happy Hour and then into dinner — and no one minds.
Whether you are settling in for a long dinner, ducking in for a bar snack, or fueling up with the breakfast buffet before a day in the mountains, the welcome is the same. Tables can be booked easily online, and finding the place is simple — the main entrance faces Market Street, just off Red Oaks Drive.
As the team themselves put it, at GIANTS you are not just dining — you are experiencing the heart and soul of Frankton's vibrant community. Big on taste, big on place, and open daily: that is the recipe.