The 10 closest restaurants to Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre

The short answer

Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre is at 188 Oxford Terrace, on the Avon River in the rebuilt central city. Eight restaurants sit within a five-minute walk, and the closest is under 150 metres away.

This is the single strongest practical argument for Christchurch as a conference city. Te Pae was deliberately sited in the middle of the hospitality district rather than on the edge of town, which means a delegate programme can put 1,000 people into dinner without a coach.

Ranked by measured distance:

1. Miro — 149 m, about 2 minutes. Oxford Terrace. 2. Twenty Seven Steps — 249 m, about 3 minutes. New Regent Street. 3. Casa Publica — 262 m, about 3 minutes. Rated 4.5 from 2,082 reviews. 4. Chiwahwah — 360 m, about 4 minutes. The Terrace. 5. Zodiac — 362 m, about 5 minutes. The Terrace. 6. Mumbaiwala — 374 m, about 5 minutes. BNZ Centre. 7. King of Snake — 403 m, about 5 minutes. Rated 4.7 from 2,904 reviews. 8. Fiddlesticks — 432 m, about 5 minutes. Rated 4.5 from 2,275 reviews. 9. Castro's Tapas & Bar — 473 m, about 6 minutes. Riverside Market. 10. Midnight Shanghai — 507 m, about 6 minutes. Oxford Terrace.

The river edge: under 300 metres

Miro is the closest at 149 metres, straight along Oxford Terrace. Twenty Seven Steps sits at 249 metres on New Regent Street — the restored pastel-fronted pedestrian strip that is one of the few pre-earthquake streetscapes left in the central city, and an easy recommendation for visiting delegates who want to see something distinctive.

Casa Publica on Armagh Street, at 262 metres and rated 4.5 across more than 2,000 reviews, is the strongest group option inside three minutes.

The Terrace: four to six minutes

The Terrace development on Oxford Terrace puts four restaurants in a single riverside row, all within about 500 metres of Te Pae. Chiwahwah, Zodiac and Midnight Shanghai sit essentially side by side, with King of Snake just behind on Cashel Street.

King of Snake carries the highest review volume of anything in this list — 4.7 from 2,904 reviews — and is the obvious choice for a conference dinner that needs to impress without a transfer. Fiddlesticks on Worcester Boulevard, at 4.5 from 2,275 reviews, is the other high-volume option at five minutes.

The practical value of The Terrace for an organiser is that four venues sit within a hundred metres of each other. A delegation of 200 can be split across three restaurants with a single walking instruction — no coach, no staggered departures, no weather plan beyond an umbrella.

Riverside Market and beyond

Castro's Tapas & Bar at 473 metres sits inside Riverside Market, which is worth flagging separately: it is a covered food market rather than a single restaurant, which makes it a strong option for a casual lunch where a large group needs to disperse and choose for themselves.

Push slightly further and Earl and Bessie on Lichfield and St Asaph Streets, both rated 4.6, come into range at around 600 to 800 metres.

How we measured this

Distances are straight-line, calculated from the coordinates MICE holds for each property, with walking times estimated at roughly 80 metres per minute. The central Christchurch grid is flat, so real walking times here track the estimates more closely than in Auckland or Wellington.

Two data notes. Several Christchurch restaurants have no Google rating recorded, so they are listed by distance without a rating rather than being ranked below rated venues. And Fiddlesticks and Twenty Seven Steps each currently appear under two records in the directory — in one case with a clearly incorrect coordinate — so each is listed once here, using the accurate record.

Next steps

Browse the full restaurant directory, see everything listed in Christchurch, compare rooms on the capacities page, or look at conference venues for 2,000 or more delegates in Christchurch if you are sizing a plenary.