Thursday, 28th March 2024 12:14
Home / Uncategorized / Queenstown Snowfest: Botswana Butchery – the best in town

Visitors to Queenstown rave about the culinary delights on offer, and after spending some time here, we can see why. Quite simply, we’ve yet to have a bad meal in Queenstown. Poker players are known for enjoying lavish meals and some are quite the food critic, but all reports so far have been glowing.

Winnies in the mall offers a fantastic range of enormous pizzas, while one of the most popular steakhouses is a place called Flame where a large group of poker players went the other night. Unfortunately we actually couldn’t get into Flame as it was so popular, so we ended up at a place called Brazz. We were attracted by the claim on the menu that they offered “Probably the best ribs you’ll ever have!”. Hmmm, “probably”? We gave it a go, and they were probably right.

But last night we enjoyed arguably the number one restaurant in town. Hidden inside a cute cottage, the humble Botswana Butchery is simply a must while you are here in Queenstown.

The setting is stunning, looking out onto Lake Wakatipu. The service is impeccable. And the food…oh the food.

Described as a “diverse menu with a strong focus on fine cut meats and locally sourced foods”, our party enjoyed everything from pork belly, oysters, duck breast, lambs fry, steak, and even duck mushroom soup. That was duck and mushroom soup, not a special type of duck-shaped mushroom as Danny McDonagh discovered.

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The highlight for me personally was that I got to share the 1.4kg lamb shoulder for two, which was slow cooked to perfection so that the tender pieces of meat fell off the bone with ease. The only problem was trying to share any food with Danny is a recipe for disaster.

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Although we were lucky to be enjoying it at all, as Danny had received a weird phone call earlier in the evening from the staff at Botswana Butchery. We’d just sat down, ordered some food and drinks when the call came in asking where Danny was and if he was going to show up for his booking.

“What do you mean? I’m already here!” exclaimed Danny.

“Ummm, you wouldn’t be in Queenstown, by any chance?” came the reply from the other end.

“Yes, of course?”

“Ah ok, you actually made the booking at the Wanaka restaurant!”

Thankfully the staff cleared up the confusion after Danny had made the booking at the wrong location, and we could enjoy a fun evening. (FYI, Botswana Butchey have also just opened up in Auckland as well!)

We weren’t the only ones enjoying the evening at Botswana Butchery as it seems most of the poker community have heard about how good it is. Aaron Benton, Ricky Kroesen, James Broom, Michael Kanaan, Jesse McKenzie, Didier Guerin and the Anunu family were all spotted enjoying themselves, with several commenting that it was arguably the best meal they’ve ever had. That’s big praise from the masterchefs of the poker community.

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So if you’ve yet to try out Botswana Butchery, we can give it the highest recommendation possible. Just make sure you book ahead to avoid disappointment. We’ll probably see you there!

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