Fleurs Place

A meal at Fleurs Place at Moeraki Village has been on my “Bucket List” for such a long time and now I can finally tick it off.  Together with a visit to the Moeraki Boulders, lunch at Fleurs were both reasons to stay in Moeraki Village for a couple of nights.  Fleurs Place is a restaurant, café and bar right on the waterfront at the old jetty, specialising in serving fresh fish straight from Moeraki Bay fishing boats. The restaurant was established on an early whaling station site in 2002 and was built from gathered collectables and demolition materials from all over New Zealand.

Fleurs Place

Inside the quaint building the place was buzzing, with customers enjoying their meals, or perusing the menu, while the staff were busily seeing to everyone’s needs. We were seated upstairs and checked out the menu.  While we were waiting for our meals to arrive, I had a look around.  This is the view from the top deck, looking over the bay.  There were plenty of outdoor tables available, both upstairs and downstairs, but the wind was a little cool for dining out side.

View from the upstairs deck

One of the quirky things we noticed about the restaurant was the fact that the interior woodwork is covered with messages from happy customers.  Among the thousands of names written on walls, cabinets, and the framing we noticed that the Topp Twins had added their  good wishes, and there are sure to be messages from  other well known patrons as well.

Our meals arrived, and as expected, tasted superb. My choice was blue cod wrapped in bacon, cockles cooked in the shell, served with a delicious creamy sauce and vegetables.  Robin chose lamb shanks, mash and vegetables.

Two happy customers

Next was the big question about dessert – shall we or shan’t we?  Why not, we decided, it is an occasion, after all.  The beautifully presented desserts duly arrived, Crème Brule for me, and Meringue Ice-cream Cake for Robin, wit coffee to follow.

So pretty, and they tasted wonderful too

When British television chef and restaurateur Rick Stein was told he could choose to go anywhere in the world to write an article for the Daily Mail, he chose Fleurs Place.  He explained that he had heard stories of the restaurant time and time again, it kept cropping up in conversation whenever there was a gathering of foodies.  As well as photos of notable customers on the wall, there are also numerous awards on display.

Dotted around the restaurant grounds were several interesting stone carvings of whales, reflecting on the coastal setting.

And we got an excellent close up view of the now derelict iron screw pile jetty which was 

erected in 1872.

The old iron jetty

After lunch we set off on a mission to find the Katiki Point Lighthouse, and walked up and down the steep hillside track to see the seals.  My goodness – that was hard going.  Note to selves – no more climbing hills after a big lunch out at an award winning restaurant,  better to indulge in a Nana Nap instead!