Sean Smith, who owns two Wānaka restaurants, believes his town should supersede Queenstown as Central Otago’s culinary hub because, in general, our eateries are "very expensive for what you get", he’s reported saying in last week’s Wānaka Sun.
"I think [Queenstown restaurateurs] know that they’re going to have unlimited guests every single day, and they are going to have rotating customers and they can do whatever they want and let people down, and still charge them.
"There will be less repercussions for them."
Vaughan Mabee, award-winning executive chef at Lake Hayes’ Amisfield, says Smith — who started his hospo career at Queenstown’s former Surreal — "must be talking about a specific place he has a problem with".
From his experience of the local dining scene, "everyone is trying to create an amazing experience for all the international visitors".
"It’s no one’s intent to do something in a way that is just being cheap, or, you know, ‘they’ll never come back’.
"We have a bunch of great eateries here, and yes, they do cater for a lot of the tourism because we’re one of New Zealand’s biggest tourist hubs, but there’s a lot of restaurants that locals love going to, as well. And, you know, it’s thriving and it’s growing and it’s getting better and better every year I’ve been here.
"In my world, we try our hardest to create an experience people love and remember as an amazing part of their trip to NZ."
As a result of Amisfield being on many ‘world’s best’ lists, Mabee says "we have a lot of people that are actually coming to NZ for the the first time just to eat at the restaurant, and then having a holiday around that".
"We create something special and unique for the guests — just explosions of the beautiful land of Otago and the wine we make at Pisa Range — and it’s our intent to give the guests one of the most fabulous experiences of their life. We have some of the best products in the world we can give to guests."
Hayden Davison, co-owner of Toast & Oak, which opened last June, says of Smith’s comments, "that’s very brutal and I would say unjustified".
"We want to look after locals and tourists alike and make sure we can deliver a really exquisite high-end product at a very approachable sort of a price.
"I think we deliver something that’s pretty special and unique for Queenstown and even for the South Island or NZ for that matter, like we try to be at the forefront of a lot of things and try to present some really cool techniques and cool cuisine.
"And also providing a really extensive wine list I mean nowhere in Queenstown or Wānaka could really compete with."
Davison says for Queenstown’s comparatively small population, "it’s pretty unique to have the amount and also the quality of restaurants we have, and there’s some pretty unique offerings".
