Bracken Restaurant

Bracken Restaurant in Dunedin offers a remarkable dining experience, considering the size of our charming city. It's a gem that brings the delightful essence of Scotland to our local culinary scene. The dishes are not only beautifully presented but also feature a harmonious blend of complementary flavors on every plate. The courses flow seamlessly, creating a delightful symphony of tastes on your palate. The ambiance in the lounge is equally enjoyable, adding to the overall experience. Everything was perfect and I totally recommend - best restaurant in Dunedin.

The place, people and presentation were top notch. I was hungry, so went for the 8 course. It was all very beautiful to look at, but missed the super yum melt in your mouthness, I expect from these types of menus. The pork belly/ Chop was super tough, but the black pudding scone was super flavorful. My venison was cooked nice but still super chewy. I loved the consumé w the fish but the fish was a tad dry Maybe that's how those meats are supposed to be. I love a good creme brulee, but their oatie version seemed a bit dry. Again, everyone was lovely and I wanted to love it, but didn't.

Our little Dunedin has some outstanding dining options for the size of our population. This is another one of those fine dining place with a Scottish flavours. Very well presented food with multiple complimentary flavours on each plate. The courses keep rolling and the flavours keep dancing on your palate. Love the lounge as well. Wish had more people in the restaurant to justify what this couple can deliver from their culinary repertoire

Overall experience was fairly average. Food was underwhelming, service was okay and despite saying we had a peanut allergy I still managed to be served peanut brittle for dessert. We tried to come from the George Street entrance (in June) and it was closed and we had there was no indication to go around!? Once we found the restaurant we were taken from the main area into a sitting room with not much indication of what was going on. It was uncomfortably odd. We came for the set-menu as advertised on the website but were told in restaurant that they forgot to update that they weren't doing that as per the current situation. Once seated in the main dining room, the lack of sound buffers made a mostly empty room rather jarring. The vegetarian entree was a mess, the mains looked nice but lacked basic seasoning and portion sizes weren't exactly filling. Dessert served up peanuts despite saying we had an allergy, but easy enough to recognize it stairing back at me. Meringue overly eggy and the panna cotta was just not working at all. Probably not going to go back for the set-menu when it's back. The hosts were lovely though, putting it down to some miscommunication and an off night.

Visiting from across the ditch and local friends took us out to Bracken for the 7 course degustation, with matching wine/whisky. Beautiful atmosphere and terrific grub. Rating says it s as LL.

Based on my experience from 2017: One of the best degustation restaurants i have visited. Staff were very welcoming and friendly. Service was superb and on time. Food was super delicious and we loved the experience. Our family from India enjoyed their 1st degustation with the best in town. You girls are doing a fantastic job. Keep it up and good luck!

We decided to go for the seven course set menu and was very impressed by it. The orange cake dessert at the end was the best.

A first class dining experience at Bracken. From the moment we walked in the door the service was fantastic. Outstanding food, we had the 7 courses with matching wines, and the wine matchings were all an excellent choice. Jacqueline and David have a brilliant restaurant, fine dining but relaxed, and in a wonderful setting. A fabulous food experience. If this is what you’re looking for I highly recommend you go to Bracken. You will not be disappointed.

We went to Bracken for a family celebratory dinner and were very disappointed. On our arrival the restaurant was cold and we had to ask for the heating to be turned on. We were the only people dining there on a Friday night in summer and there was no atmosphere at all. The five course meal was underwhelming and tiny, tiny portions! We enjoy nouvelle cuisine, but it's a bit much when, after paying $80 per person for a meal, you have to make your family a snack when you get home.. Overall, we felt Bracken was very overpriced (especially for Dunedin) and over-rated. The chef did little to cater for vegetarians - our main course was essentially three spears of asparagus! Previously we have had the non-vegetarian set menu and this was better, but the restaurant was empty that night too - not really a surprise perhaps?

This is great value for a degustation. Dunedin is really lucky to have this restaurant, much better and more in tune with modern food than 2 chefs (which is fine, this place is much better though). All dishes were excellent the course grouping are really well thought through. We live InMelbourne and eat out at least twice a week. This place stacks up with Andrew McConnell restaurants in Melbourne, cumulus, cumulus up and supernormal. If there was a criticism they could pick up the standard of glassware also we don't like the nz obsession with making people get up and pay at the till. Excellent dunedinpeople need to support the restaurant

Ken O'Connell is an Irish chef who relocated to New Zealand in 2007, and since then he has become something of a celebrity, having won the "Chef of the Year" title twice (most recently in 2013). He has just opened his own restaurant in Dunedin, in a lovely old house near the centre that he has renovated and turned into a beautiful dining establishment. Ken is a gifted chef, adept at creating innovative combinations of flavours and turning them into astonishing dishes. We enjoyed a six-course degustation menu as part of a special event, with each course paired with a special wine. Each course was extraordinary in its own way, with outstanding presentation, impeccable taste and creating a logical progression from the beginning through to the end. (This sort of degustation menu is not normally available, but many of the dishes we enjoyed are from the à la carte menu.) If I have any nits to pick, it would be that the degustation menu did not include a vegetarian course--all the courses aside from dessert involved a meat or fish item, which may have been what the organisers had requested, but had it been up to me, I'd have had one or two courses with a non-meat focus. Still, the meal was not overly heavy, so it's a minor point. All of us who dined with me left with a great desire to return to Bracken for a "regular" meal, which I suppose is as high praise as you could ask for. We'll definitely be back.

We had a confirmed reservation for a special set dinner on Valentine's Day. The morning of our dinner, we were told the restaurant had to cancel the time of our reservation because the chef would not arrive to begin cooking until half an hour after our reservation. They thought we might be finished an hour and half after the chef arrived, which makes me question the quality, as a six course meal usually takes more than an hour and half to both prepare and eat. Sounds a bit suspicious. We couldn't postpone to later in the evening because we had date plans later in the evening. Their last minute cancellation left us without an alternative -- everywhere was booked already for that evening. Perhaps in the future we will try again and be able to amend the review.