Found ChCh,
eat & drink like a local.
A map-first guide to eating and drinking in Ōtautahi Christchurch — built for the people who live here. One map of the city's bars, cafés, restaurants and takeaways: 360-plus of them, every suburb, each picked by hand.
Why I built it
§ 01Walking around town one lunchtime, I got thinking about how far Christchurch has come. I've lived here all my life, and watching the city go through the earthquake and slowly rebuild itself has been a real journey. It put me in mind of the nineties — the physical gig guides you picked up every week, a mate telling you which bar to try or which fish and chip shop was worth the drive.
I went looking for the modern version of that, and couldn't get a straight answer. The choices were a review site nobody had maintained in a decade, or a search page ranked by whoever was paying. So I built the one I wanted: a map, everything on it, and an open-now status you can believe.
The map itself took a weekend. Keeping 360-odd venues accurate without a team behind me is where the work actually went, and it hasn't stopped — places close quietly, hours change and nobody tells anyone. Most of what's under the hood is just machinery for noticing.
What makes it different
§ 02It stays current
Every venue is checked weekly against live data. Closures get flagged within days and a human confirms each one before anything disappears. Hours, phone numbers and prices refresh monthly.
Nobody pays
No venue pays to be listed and none pays to rank. A “Locals' pick” badge means the site rates the place, nothing else — there is no advertising tier to buy your way into.
Its own writing
Every description is written fresh in one register — a knowledgeable local mate, not reprinted marketing — and reviews come from locals, never republished from other platforms.
Shortlists, not dumps
Alongside the map sit hand-written guides — late-night eats, dog-friendly spots, fish and chips, brunch — each a short, honest shortlist rather than a directory printed out.
Start here
§ 03 — the good bitsThe map
Every venue on one map, with open-now status computed live. Filter by what you're after, see what's walking distance, go.
Best late-night eats
Where to eat in Christchurch when the kitchens have mostly shut — the strongest of the hand-written guides.
Dog-friendly spots
Cafés and bars that actually welcome the dog rather than tolerating it. Consistently the best-performing guide on the site.
About & methodology
How venues get picked, how the data is checked, and why nothing on the site is for sale.
How it's built
§ 04 — the stackFound ChCh runs on Next.js, Supabase and MapLibre, with a data pipeline that keeps the venue set honest so the editorial can stay opinionated.
The interesting engineering isn't the map — it's everything feeding it. Open-now status is computed rather than stored, so daylight saving, public holidays and “kitchen closes an hour before the bar” all resolve correctly. A weekly job diffs every venue against live sources and raises a change for a human to confirm, which means the site can be 360-plus venues deep without quietly rotting.
It's independent and self-funded, and it's also the sharp end of how I work now: AI-assisted development used to do the volume — data reconciliation, draft passes, pipeline glue — with the judgement calls and the writing kept human. If you want that applied to something of your own, that's a conversation worth having.
Logo & blurb
§ 05 — for press & listingsWriting about Found ChCh, or listing it somewhere? Grab the logo and copy from here rather than screenshotting the site.
Found ChCh is a locals' guide to Christchurch's bars, cafés, restaurants and takeaways — 360+ hand-picked places on one map. See what's near you and what's actually open, from the long-running suburban chippy to the new wine bar. No pay-to-play, no reprinted reviews.
