I wouldn't bother with going to this restaurant, as the senior service person is so rude. When one wants to go out for a meal, one wants to have a pleasant experience. My wife and I had just moved to Russell, and were looking forward to going to the Locals Thursday dinner. Had we had better service we would probably have been going to this restaurant at least once a week. We will never go there again. Their loss, as we can spend our money in the other, much more deserving restaurants in the town. I suggest you do that too.

We reserved a table for two for dinner, and were assured, if we arrived early, we would get the table by the window. We arrived just as the restaurant was opening; we were in fact the first guests. We were led to a table with a partial view over the water, instead of the table we had reserved. When we complained, we were told, quite unpleasantly, and contrary to prior information, that that table was kept back in case a group of three people showed up. After some insistence, we were given the table we had booked. As my husband sat down, a leg of his chair went through the floorboard. This, in itself, was not a problem for us, and we were ready to continue. At this point the woman who had shown us to our table swooped in, and most unpleasantly, with the words "well that settles it", demanded that we move to the partial-view table, saying that the first table was not going to be given out that evening. Needless to say, after such insulting, officious behaviour, we decided not to stay.

We had an awesome meal at Gables but felt from the time we sat down at our 7:30pm booking we were rushed. 5 minutes after sitting down, we were asked what we wanted from the menu. We did have to remind them we would like a drink first! Hadn't even finished entree when waiter came to take dishes away! Tables all around us were getting set up for the next day/night. A shame when it is a top restaurant in Russell and we were out within an hour!

We thoroughly enjoyed our dinner here. Delicious food - standouts were the fish which was a perfectly cooked piece of blue nose, the duck and the starter of cured trevally.
Service was very good and they have a good wine selection with plenty of local wines to choose from.
On the night we were there, it was raining so we had to sit inside, but it would be nice on a warm summer night to sit outside... the views are stunning.

Beautifully presented, exceptional food with inspiring choice of flavours and excellent service. If you like fine food, don't miss out on a taste extravaganza at Gables!