We went to Flax earlier today for lunch for Maya's birthday. Flax is located in Mapua (30 kms south of Nelson) near the wharf and the smokehouse. We had a sampling of various items from the menu. The kids had the nachos which was surprisingly very good with a great roasted tomato sauce and awesome sour cream (yes, the sour cream was very tasty, not sure how exactly they did make it). Mari, Cecile and I shared the oyster and mushroom soup with toasted ciabatta bread. The soup was a bit tart for me, but mari and cecile liked it quite a bit. We also had the market fish (grouper) on a roasted potato cake and greens. This was quite good, but personally I dont think grouper is a very tasty fish to be used in this setting. We also got the chicken liver parfait with pita chips and a variety of jams and pickles. The jams and pickles were most excellent, the pita chips ok, the parfait was a bit too livery (according to Mari and Cecile). Definitely not as good as the version at Hopgoods. Overall, I thought we had a pretty decent lunch and we'll probably go back for a more relaxing dinner. I'd give it a 7/10
On the way to Mapua we stopped at Rimu Grove Winery. Rimu Grove is a small winery (20 acres or 7 hectares) run by a couple who are expats from the Bay Area. Barbara Stowe took care of us and we had a good conversation with her about things that we miss from the Bay Area (mexican food!). We tasted the Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and the Pinot Noir. We ended up buying a few bottles of each and we'll review them later (when we actually drink them). The winemakers are The winery has a picnic area which overlooks the mapua estuary. I suspect we will go back there with some other visitors in the near future. Definitely worth a visit if you are in the nelson area.
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