Flip Grater's Christchurch

I’m the co-owner of Grater Goods Deli, as well as a musician, cookbook author, blogger and activist. My husband and I moved to Christchurch from Paris five years ago, and live with our daughter Anaïs in Welles St in the central city. Food and music have always been my passions, and I toured worldwide and released music for many years. After my daughter was born, I finally found myself with a domestic life - something I’d been missing on tour - and used the opportunity to really explore vegan cooking and food. It was super fun to deep dive into nouveau plant food, and teach the tiny tastebuds of Anaïs as she learned to cook and eat!

Taste and shop The Welder

20-26 Welles Street, Christchurch Central

This urban oasis of healthy food and sustainable shops is in our ‘hood’ and where we spend most of our time when not at work. We’ll grab some coffee and a bite of bread from Grizzly, or pop to Bottle & Stone for some natural tap wine in the sun, Bar Yoku for a sushi taco or our neighbours’s gorgeous wee bar Salut Salut to try some amazing wines. There’s also Sollos artisan homeware and Good For groceries and treats. Definitely worth a visit!

Inside The Welder.

Authentic szechuan at Miss Peppercorns

32 Nayland Street, Sumner, Christchurch

This is my favourite restaurant in Christchurch. Nicole and John are awesome. Nicole has started bringing in some very specific spices and chili varieties to make that authentic szechuan taste.  No one else is doing that and nothing else compares in this genre. My picks are the vegan dan dan noodles, the mapo tofu and the pickles.

Giant noodles at Miss Peppercorn.

Sumner Village flavours

15 Wakefield Avenue, Sumner, Christchurch

Over the hill from Lyttelton is Sumner village. First stop has to be Utopia Ice for a dairy-free ice cream. I'm obsessed with their Black Sesame ice cream and if you've got space for two scoops, it pairs awesomely with the Dark Chocolate & Sea Salt sorbet. We lived in Sumner before we moved into the city. The beach is beautiful and the only place in Christchurch that you can have a glass of wine and fries literally on the beach at Beach Bar.

People eating ice cream at Utopia Ice.

French patisseries from Sweet Soul

126 Cashel Street, Christchurch Central

A super cute wee spot in the city with a selection of gorgeous treats, including some dairy free and vegan options. I recently took Anais here for a very important homeschooling lesson where she learned the French words related to patisserie while eating it!

A flatlay of patisseries on a table.

Explore Sydenham

105 Orbell Street, Sydenham, Christchurch

Sydenham was traditionally an industrial area on the edge of the city centre. Now there are pockets of life. If you're lucky enough to be in town on a Nifty Market weekend - bonus! A visit to Junk & Disorderly is necessary! An antique shop which is home to two secondhand clothing vendors for gorgeous clothes and shoes. The Spirits Workshop is just down the road. They run tours and tastings of gin, whiskey and rum.

Inside the Junk and Disorderly store.

Plant-based charcuterie

105 Orbell Street, Sydenham, Christchurch

Next door to Junk & Disorderly is our place, Grater Goods. The weekends are a great time to ask for tastings, do some shopping for gourmet treats and taste some French and Canterbury wines. We do plant-based charcuterie and cheese boards, and the best vegan burgers in town... followed by cheesecake or deconstructed tiramisu. Our KFT (fried tofu) is frighteningly good. I always get a house salad with KFT, ‘cause green leaves plus fried food equals balance!

A customer being served at Grater Goods.

New Brighton Beach reset

New Brighton, Christchurch

My other favourite place in Christchurch is New Brighton beach, where I grew up and where most of my family live. A place of nostalgia for me and also a place to be calm and reset. It’s a huge expanse of beach with no one else on it - there’s really nowhere like it. As far as seaside spots go, this one is super under-rated.

People heading to the surf at New Brighton beach.

Vegan ramen at Samurai Bowl

Shop 5/574 Colombo Street, Christchurch Central

This place is an institution. It’s completely unpretentious and the vegan spicy miso ramen is ridiculous. Xinchen took it over a few years ago and she’s just introduced a full vegan menu. She uses some of our products to make a vegan ramen and katsu, which is delicious.  Open long hours everyday of the week, it’s a quick easy place that you know you can always go to. We eat there at least once a week!

A plate of food on a table at Samuari Bowl.

Shopping in Cashel Square

120 Hereford Street, Christchurch Central

Living centrally means we can wander around and explore new pockets of the city as they develop. Cashel Square off Colombo and Cashel Street is one of those little hidden lanes with two of our favourite shops. Maurz Tane’s Hapa is a perfectly curated space that showcases a lot of local designers, plus homewares, jewellery and books in Te Reo. The city’s favourite bookshop, Scorpio Books, is just down the lane. Anaïs and I love to wander around the lanes - a stop at Hapa for me and then the craft and kid’s book section at Scorpio for her.

People walking around the BNZ Centre.

Italian-Indonesian street fusion

London Street, Lyttelton, Christchurch

I love the Lyttelton Market! I like to grab a couple of tempeh fritters from Indo Tempeh and stuff them into a Vic’s baguette with a sprig of fresh coriander from Streamside Organics. It's like a Southern Italian-Indonesian fusion sandwich and easy to eat on the run. Anaïs knows all the vendors and they’ve seen her grow from the bump in my stomach to a 5-year-old chatting and tasting everything! Many of her first taste experiences happened at this market. 

A family shopping at Lyttelton Market.