Sugarloaf restaurant at Flockhill - farm to fork

Flockhill's fine dining restaurant, Sugarloaf in Canterbury, is the shortest journey from farm to fork

Sugarloaf is the restaurant at Flockhill, the Canterbury high-county lodge named by Time magazine as one of the World’s Greatest Places 2026.

The restaurant is both impressive in scale, with sweeping views and a roomy open kitchen designed by chef Taylor Cullen, yet intimate as it primarily serves as the dining room for a maximum of 36 lodge guests.

Sugarloaf is also the locals’ window into one of the country’s top lodges, giving visiting diners access behind the gates for tasting menu lunches and dinners Friday through Sunday.

The restaurant is founded on farm-to-fork principles, but this philosophy is super-sized when the farm is 36,000 acres and the kitchen garden has a full-time gardener.

Where food transport is measured in metres, not miles

The Canterbury high country is a stunning landscape of snow-capped mountains and wide-open skies, and Sugarloaf makes the most of its pristine alpine setting in the Craigieburn Valley, about 90 minutes from Christchurch, with huge windows showcasing the restaurant’s namesake peak.

Flockhill is a working sheep station (Kiwi for a very big farm), guaranteeing lamb at its freshest, but that’s just the start of their farm-to-fork story. The garden is designed around companion planting; pairing crops that naturally support one another to enrich the soil, deter pests, and enhance flavour, creating a thriving, chemical-free ecosystem. In a series of raised beds, glasshouses and tunnel houses, Flockhill grows more than 30 varieties of fruits, vegetables, herbs and edible flowers, ensuring a steady supply of vibrant, seasonal produce.

As well as Flockhill lamb, beef from the neighbours, spear-caught fish, and pasture-raised chicken are regularly on the menu. Chef Taylor works closely with gardener Seth as together they explore what is possible to grow in a high-country environment that can have snow on the surrounding peaks for five months of the year. Their goal is to make Flockhill self-sustainable for food within two years, which includes feeding their guests and the 70+ staff from food grown on the station.

How Chef Taylor translates flavours from the land onto the plate

Our chef’s table lunch at Flockhill was in late April, which Taylor said was “a really interesting time of the year for menu-planning, with late summer fruits still in the greenhouses but outdoors turning into autumnal and wintry flavours.” We were gathered around a large counter overlooking the kitchen, with a wood-fueled cooking fire in prime position. Our 11-course meal was shaped by three key elements: ingredients from the dry-ager fridge, the gardens and the preserving/fermentation room.

We started simply with the end-of-summer harvest from the garden, with heirloom cherry tomatoes paired with lemon and Genovese basil. Then it was snapper tartare that had been scraped from the bones, which is sweeter than fillet flesh and because Taylor doesn’t want to waste food. The delicate fish sat on a wasabi leaf along with fresh wasabi, pickled green coriander seeds and seaweed paste. The wasabi came from Canterbury’s Coppersfolly, and Taylor has developed a wasabi habitat at Flockhill for future harvests. As for the seaweed paste, Taylor is a keen surfer who loves to forage for wakame and other ocean greens whenever he’s at the beach.

During the meal, Taylor displayed his collection of house-made oils, including lavender, shiitake, yeast, blackcurrant wood, raspberry wood and rhubarb root. He uses these, and many others, along with house-made vinegars and preserves such as fermented plum juice, vermouth vinegar and apple vinegar to build layers of flavour.

“All these different little things help layer that flavour profile on the dish, so our food doesn't taste like anybody else’s. It's unapologetically ours, and it’s all from the land here, which is the goal.”

One dish with ten ingredients foraged from Flockhill

That ethos was beautifully displayed in a dish Taylor called Flockhill preserves, adding that in summer, it would be a Flockhill garden plate. This was a plate of tastes arranged like a clock. At high noon was an herb called salad Burnet, which Taylor encouraged us to eat first as its flavour is subtle. It tasted of cucumber and watermelon and served to prime our palates for more assertive flavours as we ate our way around the clock, from green sea succulents to a pickled onion with a green strawberry marmalade to a gooseberry that had been preserved in honey for two years.

A highlight was a native kawakawa leaf that had been marinating in sugar syrup for three years, which had toned down the mouth-numbing properties of the traditional Māori medicinal plant to reveal delicate floral notes.

Taylor, who trained at fine-dining restaurants in New Zealand and Europe and was the head chef at Sydney’s farm-to-table restaurant Chiswick, is passionate about using his dishes to tell the story of the seasons and the land surrounding Sugarloaf.

“When we were opening the restaurant, we focused on technique and ingredients rather than dishes. We focused on the fire and dry-aging process, and what would be fresh or preserved. The goal was to showcase the flavour of what you can achieve when you grow things yourself.”

Flockhill’s wider goal is not just to showcase the products of the land but also to restore it, with 2.5% of the revenue devoted to removing exotic invading species such as gorse and wilding pines from the station.

It is all part of a cycle of storytelling and renewal that showcases a stunning high-country setting in an intimate and hand-crafted way, and one that rewards seekers of culinary adventure and authenticity.

Your questions from this article answered:

When is Sugarloaf at Flockhill open to non-lodge guests?

While Flockhill Lodge guests have daily access, the Sugarloaf restaurant is open to the public for lunch and dinner reservations from Friday through Sunday.

Because of its intimate size and high demand, booking in advance is highly recommended.

What is the dining format and price at Sugarloaf restaurant?

Sugarloaf operates on a premium, seasonal set tasting menu format that celebrates estate-grown and foraged Canterbury ingredients cooked over an open fire.

Public lunch reservations are priced at $225 per person, while the signature dinner tasting menu is $295 per person.

How far is Sugarloaf restaurant from Christchurch?

Sugarloaf is located inside Flockhill Lodge along the Great Alpine Highway (SH73), roughly a 90-minute scenic drive (1.5 hours) from Christchurch International Airport.

It sits nestled in the Craigieburn Valley between Springfield and Arthur’s Pass, making it a popular destination culinary stop for those traversing the South Island.

Can you book the Chef’s Table experience at Sugarloaf if you aren't staying overnight?

No, the exclusive Chef's Table dining experience — a front-row seat at the fire kitchen bench featuring an unwritten, curated tasting menu — is a private activity strictly reserved for overnight lodge guests.

Casual diners visiting for the day can book standard table seating in the main alpine dining room for lunch or dinner

Can you buy Coppersfolly products?

Yes, you can! Coppersfolly is famous for producing authentic, premium purewasabi right here in Canterbury.

Unlike most commercial green pastes — which are actually just horseradish, mustard, and green food colouring — Coppersfolly grows genuine Wasabia japonica rhizomes (the stem) and uses them to create a true, high-quality wasabi paste.