Most restaurants that put paella on the menu treat it as one dish among thirty. Casa Paella has built the whole place around rice, which is unusual anywhere outside Spain and very unusual in New Zealand. It sits inside Orton Bradley Park at Charteris Bay, on Banks Peninsula across the harbour from Christchurch.
Its own listing describes it as the only authentic arroceria in the Pacific. That is the restaurant's claim rather than ours, but the menu backs up the ambition.
What an arroceria actually is
In Valencia and Alicante an arroceria is a rice specialist. The kitchen is built around wide flat pans and deep pots, the stock is made in quantity because everything depends on it, and the rice list is the long part of the menu rather than a single line under mains. We wrote about the wider family of Spanish rices in our guide to the dishes beyond paella.
Casa Paella lists 12 rices. Its record names arroz a banda, arroz del senyoret, paella de bogavante, bullit de peix and fideua de Gandia among them. Those five are a decent tour of the Spanish Mediterranean on their own:
- Arroz a banda is rice cooked in fish stock and served on its own, with the fish that made the stock brought out separately, or not at all.
- Arroz del senyoret means the little gentleman's rice. Everything in it is peeled and boned so nobody has to work at their food.
- Paella de bogavante is the lobster version, split down the middle and laid across the top.
- Bullit de peix is Ibizan rather than Valencian. Fish and potatoes are poached first, then the broth goes into a second course of rice.
- Fideua swaps rice for short toasted noodles and is associated with Gandia, on the coast south of Valencia.
The Sueca connection
Sueca is a rice town on the edge of the Albufera wetlands south of Valencia, and it hosts the long-running Concurs Internacional de Paella Valenciana. Casa Paella's listing says its paella valenciana follows Sueca's official recipe and that its methods were taught by Valencian cooks.
The listing also credits founder and chef Edrick Corban-Banks with the honorary title of Paeller d'Honor, one of four given each year by the Sueca competition, and says he sits on its judging committee as its first non-Valencian member, and acts as Sueca's paella ambassador for the Pacific. We are repeating the restaurant's own account here, not verifying it independently.
Either way, the practical effect shows up on the plate. Classic paella valenciana, the dish the Sueca contest is built around, is a short list: rice, chicken, rabbit, flat green beans, garrofo beans, tomato, olive oil, saffron, salt and water, with sweet paprika and rosemary as common additions. No chorizo, no prawns, no peas. If a kitchen is willing to hold that line, it usually holds the other lines too.
Going, and what to know first
The address is Orton Bradley Park, 500 Marine Drive, Charteris Bay, Banks Peninsula. That is a country park rather than a restaurant strip, so it is a drive, and it is worth checking hours and booking before you set out. The kitchen uses both New Zealand produce and imported Spanish ingredients, and pours Spanish regional wines alongside them.
One practical note about rice anywhere, not just here. A pan of rice is cooked to order and it cannot be rushed, so expect to wait, and expect the group to eat the same thing. That is the format.
The rest of Spanish New Zealand
Our directory has two other New Zealand listings, both a long way from Christchurch.
- Casita Miro on Waiheke Island, Auckland. Its listing describes Spanish and wider Mediterranean cooking built around shared dining, with tapas, raciones and sherry.
- La Rumbla in Arrowtown, near Queenstown. Led by Sam Gruar and Penelope Johnson, it works on shared plates, and its listing says the wine list changes nearly every day across New Zealand, Australia and Spain.
Three listings is a small scene. But a rice specialist with a Valencian title running out of a park on Banks Peninsula is a stranger and better thing to find than another tapas bar.
