Sherwood

Sherwood is the chef-driven sustainable dining room of chef Chris Scott — opened in 2014 along Frankton Road, on the edge of Lake Wakatipu about 3.5 kilometres south of the Queenstown CBD — and is the village's most reliable hyper-local sustainable programme. The restaurant is built into a small alpine boutique hotel; all of the produce comes from the organic kitchen garden, local growers and producers, and 100 per cent of the organic waste is returned to the kitchen garden.

The cuisine is contemporary New Zealand with hyper-local sourcing — the kitchen builds simple dishes that change far too regularly for signatures, constantly evolving its offerings based on the hyperlocal approach due to Queenstown's shorter growing seasons. Typical signatures include a hand-cut Otago lamb tartare with kitchen-garden herbs; a slow-cooked Otago venison with juniper; a wood-fired Stewart Island salmon with kitchen-garden vegetables.

The wine list runs to 250 references with deep Central Otago Pinot Noir coverage and a respectable Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc section. Glass pours start at NZ$15.

The dining room and outdoor terrace together hold sixty covers — the kitchen garden is visible from the western dining-room window. Service is family-run.

Sherwood is the easy-first-date room in Queenstown — quieter than Rātā, less formal than Amisfield, and the kitchen-garden setting is genuinely conversation-worthy. Book the corner two-top by the western kitchen-garden window.