Joyful Day Out
Waitaki porterhouse
A thick cut done over embers and finished with bone-marrow butter. We bring it out rested and sliced; the table argues over the end piece.
Kitchen Wed–Sun · 5pm–10:30pm
Dinner at
Dinner at
Joyful Day Out
This is the grill side of the house. Waitaki beef and lamb over coals, vegetables from that morning's market, a wine list we drink from ourselves. And when the plates are cleared there's poker upstairs, Thursday to Saturday.
2019 grain store
Thames St
Thames St
01 / The menu
A short menu, all of it through the fire
Six things we cook well, reprinted when the market changes its mind. No prices here because the cuts change; ask what's on when you book, or trust the chalkboard.
chalked up daily, gone when it's gone
Ember lamb rack
Rosemary, charred lemon, mint from the planter out back. Pink in the middle, caramelised where the fire got at it.
Whole fish, grill basket
Bought whole when the catch is good. Lemon, herbs, and a char you can't get from a pan. Ask what's swimming.
Grill-basket vegetables
Whatever looked best that week, roasted with smoked salt and herb oil. Vegans eat properly here, tell us when you book.
Whitestone cheese
The blue and the brie come from our neighbours across town. Grilled bread, quince paste, and a warning that it fills the gap before steak.
Stout chocolate pudding
Dark stout off the bar tap, baked into a warm pudding. Two spoons. It goes suspiciously well with a poker win upstairs.
02 / The kitchen
The fire decides the timing
When we took over this grain store in 2019 the first thing we built was the coal grill. It sits in the dining-room wall where everyone can see it, because half the point of the place is watching your dinner take its time. Our cook has run it since week two and treats the coals like a colleague with moods.
There's a gas stove for sauces and a fryer we barely touch. Everything else waits its turn on the grill, which is why the menu stays short and why a steak here takes as long as a steak takes.
- Waitaki beef and lamb bought whole-cut, butchered to the week
- Market vegetables cooked in the same fire as the steaks
- Bread and pudding made in the morning, sold till they run out
- If it won't take smoke and char, it doesn't make the board
The crew behind all this is on the about page, aprons and all.
mid-service, mid-argument about the coals
"Buy the best Waitaki meat you can afford, then get out of its way. The coals do the persuading."
03 / The bar
Waitaki wines, a rotating tap, and the dark stout
The list is short on purpose too. Limestone-country pinot, local whites, beer from brewers we know, and a stout that shows up in the pudding and at the taps.
bar till
late
late
The wine shelf
Pinot noir off limestone soils half an hour inland, aromatic whites, a rosé when summer behaves. Most bottles come from producers we can drive to before lunch.
Beer and the stout
Three taps, mostly South Island brewers, plus our house dark stout. It ends up in the chocolate pudding, which is the best review a beer can get.
Whisky and slow drinks
A small whisky shelf, a decent old fashioned, hot coffee and plenty of water for anyone heading up to the poker tables after dinner.
Kitchen closes at 10:30. The bar keeps going till late, Wednesdays to Sundays.
04 / From the pass
What dinner looks like around here
drag it sideways, there's more
photos by whoever remembered their phone
05 / Groups
Long tables, birthdays, work dos
The dining room handles groups well because the menu already leans towards sharing. Tell us the occasion and the headcount, we'll build the evening around the grill.
1
Tell us who's coming
A dozen at the long table, or the whole room for a big family do. Numbers first, fuss later.
2
We write a set menu around the fire
Sharing cuts, grill bread, vegetables and pudding. Vegetarians and allergies get their own line on the board.
3
Dinner, then whatever the night wants
Speeches, whisky, or a held poker table upstairs for the over-18s in the party.
the long table, dressed for twelve
Dad's sixtieth, fourteen of us. The lamb shoulder was meant to feed ten and we finished it anyway.
Nessa K.family dinner, autumn
06 / After dessert
Dinner's over. Upstairs, the poker starts.
Thursday to Saturday the card room opens at 7pm. Social poker, dealt in person: a caller running the table, chips on the house, a room full of people reading each other's faces.
- First-timers get walked through the early hands
- Most diners who go up for one hand stay for three
- Kitchen's closed by then; the bar isn't
upstairs, a few hands in
18+ card
room
room
7pm Thu–Sat
upstairs
upstairs
House rules: the restaurant floor is for everyone, the card room is strictly 18+. Every poker game in this building is played in person around a felt table. We're not an online casino, and there's nothing to bet on through this website.
07 / Hours & bookings
When to come, and how to grab a table
Five nights a week the grill's lit. Weekends go first, so a heads-up helps.
84 thames street, oamaru
Hours
- Kitchen: Wednesday to Sunday, 5pm till 10:30pm
- Bar: Wednesday to Sunday, till late
- Poker room: Thursday to Saturday, from 7pm (18+)
- Monday and Tuesday the coals go cold, and so do we
grill's lit wed–sun
Book dinner, stay for poker
Ring +64 3 366 2941, write to joyfuldayout@gmail.com, or hit the booking button and we'll confirm by text or email. We're at 84 Thames Street, Oamaru 9400, in the old grain store with the warm windows.
Walking in works too, though Thursday to Saturday the dining room fills early with the poker crowd's first seating.