Eating in New Zealand was akin to Australia; it’s a melting pot of cultures for cuisine. Spoilt for choice as always with half of the world’s offerings at my fingertips, I elected to eat from three different cultures... adventurous. As for pricing, it’s in the same vein but with an added bonus of saving a couple bucks thanks to our marginally higher dollar.
We started our food pilgrimage at Kohan , a Japanese establishment with a gorgeous view of Lake Tekapo. Not that I'd know since we only ate there during the evening. Our Kohan experience occurred over two contrasting occasions, dining in and takeaway. Dining in, the space was fairly large and the furniture was basic but well maintained and clean. On that night, I was able to secure a table for two quite easily. However, on the second night there, the restaurant was completely packed with many on the waiting list (and thus the takeaway). This meteoric rise in attendance even came as a surprise to the workers! Speaking of, the staff were a pleasure – super kind and incredibly attentive. The way they went about ensuring Carolyn (vegan) have her best meal was something we didn’t see or get often.
Let's get on with the food. For the first night, I went with the day’s special of soboro don joined by miso soup and pickled vegetables, for a steep $17NZ. Soboro don - a bowl of rice topped with minced chicken and a sprinkling of greens - it was aight. Though simple in construction, the flavours were anything but. The sweet and salty chicken in combination with the greens and rice made for yummy spoonfuls. The sides were nothing special - just your usual fare.
No pics for this next meal, unfortunately. As mentioned, the restaurant was packed during our second visit. On the menu, I had seen their bento box options along with their prices to keep me well and truly clear. While my wallet cried no, my brain cheered out YOLO. Just like that, I was debited $39NZ for a tempura bento box. In it, I had: a block of Japanese omelette, a small offering of beef and vegetables, some sashimi pieces, bit of teriyaki chicken with salad, some makizushi and a fair bit of tempura (in the form of vegetables, prawn and fish). As filling and good as that was, it didn't quite hit the mark I was expecting.
Continuing our journey, we landed ourselves at Thai Tekapo, a Thai and Korean restaurant. In terms of space and décor, it was quite similar to Kohan. The lone staff we interacted with was nice. As for the food, it was alright. I had the beef Pad Thai for $17.50NZ. At first glance, there didn't seem to be much food to the plate but there's a substantial amount to leave you full. A solid meal but nothing I haven't had before. Pricing left a lot to be desired.
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In for a quick bite, I visited Doughboys Bakery and Café. An okay place with decently priced items across the board except for the breakfast selection. Overpriced as heck, e.g. $8.50NZ for cereal & toast. I had the cheeseburger for $6.50NZ and have no complaints or compliments.
Just a couple metres down was The Greedy Cow, a newly opened café. Nhehh... The range of food didn’t appeal to me and the (over)price tags didn’t help make my choice. Settling on the day’s special of potato and leek soup for $14/15NZ, I was served a decently sized bowl with some bread and butter on the side. Soup was creamy and had a good body of flavour. Still not worth, especially for soup.
Half an hour out from Lake Tekapo was the Fairlie Bakehouse, my #1 pick from the whole trip. Everything was absolutely delicious. I can't recall the exact breakdown but I paid $18NZ for a scotch egg pie, a slice of brownie and a big helping of an apple slice (not pictured). In my eyes, you can have all the high price tags you want BUT you better be sure as hell that it's worth the price you pay. Here, it was 100% worth every dollar amount spent.
My favourite from the bunch: the Scotch egg pie. Wrapping the boiled egg was a delicious meat ball, coated with a tomato based sauce which is then enveloped with the best pastry I have ever had; an absolute flavour bomb. Biting into the pie, I instantly fell in love with the buttery flakiness of the pastry. As my teeth sunk in further, the sauce started to seep out. The taste buds were already tingling in joy as the sweet and tangy sauce oozed in but they were dancing in euphoria when the perfectly seasoned Scotch egg came into the mix. Love it.
Even the shop-ready pies were fantastic. That pastry is so.damn.good. For about $4NZ, I was able to gorge on these delectable treats.
So they can do savoury really well, but how about the sweets? Obviously, they're really nice too but... they didn't quite have the same impact as the savoury selection. Having saved the brownie for later, I was able to warm it up and have it with milk. This slice of pure, rich decadence was heeaavy. There to break up the monotony of the choc fudge were exceptionally smooth, tart bits of baked cheesecake. It was like eating a slice from dessert heaven.
Indulging another piece from dessert heaven, we had the apple slice. The filling was a perfect balance of sweet and tart and the apple pieces had a nice soft, but not mushy, chew. And that pastry... you had the crumbly, buttery top layer and the thick bottom layer that's soaked up all the apple-y goodness. Just delicious.
Definitely a place you should visit if you're in New Zealand. We went in the late afternoon, but I would say to go in early while stocks last.
Rounding out our Lake Tekapo eats, we have the Tin Plate Kitchen & Bar. My experience here was... decent. Space here was on the smaller side and had a fair amount of reservations. As a result, we had to wait a bit. Not the worst. What was the worst, however, was being denied entry into the bar because you didn't have your passport as ID but had ID that CLEARLY showed your DATE OF BIRTH. Noooooo, can't accept that.
For $24NZ, I got the 12" Maso - a tomato based pizza topped with pastrami, salami and chorizo. Now, I usually won't comment or care for wait times because that's par for the course. However, this was unusually long... for pizza. Not exactly cooking a beef welly or anything.
As it's commonly known, it's hard to come by bad pizza. It's either good or it's gooood. This was the former. My only criticism is that the base was too soggy; the only crispiness came from the crust. Pricing needs to be knocked down a peg (or five) to make it worthwhile.
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Driving into Lake Wanaka's township for the first time, I immediately spotted the Japanese restaurant - Sasonoki. Eagerly waiting on the doorstep for start of service, we managed to snag the only available table for the unreserved. This place was tiny; it probably seated twenty max. Staff were lovely and kind. Unfortunately, I was let down by the food. I ordered the shoyu chashu ramen & mini-don set (a rice bowl with choice meat) for $27.50NZ. Any anticipation I had disintegrated the moment it was brought to the table.
The bowl just looked so plain with its non runny yolk and tiny pieces of pork. Eating it was no different. Everything was just sub-par, so forgettable. The mini-don was able to bring back some joy into the meal with a flavour profile, at the very least. While the restaurant wasn't a complete write-off, I wouldn't be keen to try their noodle dishes again - especially for the price.
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Big Fig reminded me of a school canteen or soup kitchen. You paid for a small, medium or large plate for $10NZ, $18NZ and $25NZ respectively (the veg only is cheaper). Shuffling along the line, you picked your meat and/or vegetables like a Subway. I copped the medium plate with lamb meatballs and chose a random assortment of salads and roasted veg. Since there wasn't a set food menu, I would presume that it gets cycled out every now and then.
The value factor here is variable. Fill your plate with all possible veg options with choice meat? Course. Anything else is moot. I'll admit that I was apprehensive about eating here so I had a little to eat beforehand (and as a result, didn't maximise value of meal). Much to my surprise, the food was quite good. The lamb was succulent and full of aroma from the herbs, the lightly dressed salads were a refreshing balance, and the roast veg were roast veg (delish).
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Looking for a small bite, I stumbled upon The Doughbin Wanaka, another bakery but not on the same level as Fairlie. That's not to say that they aren't good, but the bar has been set and it is very high up. Collectively spending $10NZ for a steak pie and custard tart, I'd say you get quite the bang for your buck. In terms of how good the pie was, I'd say it's comparable to that of Vili's. As for the tart, it was your typical pastry you can find anywhere.
Bringing it back to full meals, we have Red Star Burger Bar, a quaint little spot with some tasty burgers. My choice for the evening was the $13NZ BBQ burger with beef, swiss cheese, grilled pineapple and bbq sauce. Accompanying that, a large basket of Cajun spiced chips for $6NZ. The chips were fried in animal fat, so that was muy bueno. Not so bueno, the Cajun spicing... my curious ass should've stuck with the regular salting. The Cajun-ness was just too overpowering; you lost all the other flavour profiles.
No thanks to me, the chips were a swing and a miss. Would it be two for two with this thirteen dollar burger? ish... It was a good burger. Sweet and salty is my favourite combination and this handled it well for my tastes - leaning towards savoury with subtle sweet notes. The picture doesn't look it, but the burgers are quite big. Together with the chips, I was sickly full.
Our last meal in the Wanaka area was at Shinaburo Korean Eating House. Funnily, all of our evening meals came from this allotment of land. Sasonoki, Red Star and now here. Coming in, I was a little weary. All I saw were non-Asian staff... Going ahead with my order, I set my expectations low. A breakdown of the meal is as follows: $8NZ for a pancake side dish, $xNZ for fried chicken and $21(?)NZ for a two topping bibimbap.
As time went on, I did see an Asian lady pop out the kitchen so that was a small sigh of relief. In regards to the food, it was alright. Just another case of the price not matching the experience.
Going from Tekapo to Wanaka, the food offerings increased quite dramatically. Going from Wanaka to Queenstown, the leap was monumental. There was so much at our fingertips but my little tummy can only handle so many full meals a day.
Starting our Queenstown eats was Bespoke Kitchen, a café with one massive con. That they're lying sacks of shi- Okay, slightly hyperbolic. It's more a pet peeve over a misnomer. The suspect in question, their "twice cooked house fries" ($9.50NZ).
“fries” in question
Clearly... clearly... they're WEDGES! And twice cooked? I have my gripes about that too. Saying that they're twice cooked masked which method, conveniently... They were so soggy and had no crispness to them. Not to mention, they were poorly shaped. I had too many wedges that were disproportionately big. Eating those potato pillars get boring real quick, so having sub-par ones was a bigger chore to eat. At no price point would I recommend getting these.
Fortunately, the other items didn't trigger me so much. Just their prices. For $21NZ, I got the eggs benedict and for $23NZ, a salmon Scotch egg. Off the bat, they're not worth their respective prices. In saying that, I did enjoy the benedict. Flavours were balanced, it had a good amount of fattiness to it and the mix of varying textures gave a good mouth feel. The salmon Scotch egg was just ehhh. The fish was way too salty and the veg too heavy with the dressing.
Being the way I am, I knew I had a special place in Hell. Who'd a thought that it was a pizza joint in Queenstown? (and many other locales because, as it turns out, Hell is a chain)
Half empty bottle... crusts and a slice... why... why even bother eating
I'm not exactly sure what I ordered because I wanted the Gluttony, but the guy said something along the lines of BBQ and I didn't quite catch what he said, and I'm too much of a recluse to question it, so I decided to just wait for the best. It wasn't a Gluttony.
It was good. I found it to be similar to the pizzas at Domino's. At $19.50NZ though, this 12" roof burning pizza would've been better if it was my correct order reduced by a couple bucks.
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Next up, we have Fergbaker and a small feature from Mrs Ferg Gelateria/69 Beach St (practically the same). Sister stores to the ever popular Fergburger, these shops are great for not wanting to wait in line at the Fergburg.
Seeing as it was up there, I had to try their pie ($6.40NZ for the Ferg steak). Aaaand it was really good. I still rate Fairlie higher but ever so marginally. For the same reasons I loved Fairlie, the same sentiments are shared here.
The only other item I got from the bakery was their Boston (but not really because where is the chocolate, but it's okay since you don't call wedges fries) cream doughnut ($4.50NZ)... four nights in a row. With a simple construction of whipped cream inside the soft doughy shell, I was pleasantly surprised how light it was. Not sickly sweet or overfilled with cream, I could easily down the doughnut without feeling gross.
Had a bit of mango, lime, lychee and Vietnamese (represeeent) mint sorbet. S'aight.
Surprise, surprise, we have more Japanese food. Here, we ate at Tanoshi, self-described as a teppan and sake bar. From the outside, it looked quite promising. The thought didn't last. My order was as follows: $3NZ for a decently sized bowl of rice, $10NZ for this potato cheese crêpe and $15NZ for the tonkatsu. Racking up quite the hefty bill, I was keen for the slab of crumbed pork and curious as to how the crêpe would turn out.
Ah, the mistake of having expectations. Setting aside the terrible portion sizing for a moment, I'll share my thoughts. The potato cheese crêpe was nice with the slight crispness of the batter adding a nice texture to the soft pillow-y potato and cheese mix. It was a good blend without one ingredient overpowering the other. The tonkatsu was average. The coating was nice and crunchy but the meat was a tad too dry and lacked any oomph. I feel as though it shouldn't rely heavily on the sauce to find its flavour.
To say that I was disappointed is an understatement. As the plates appeared before me, my eyes were drawn in for all the wrong reasons. Fifteen dollars. The tonkatsu was fifteen dollars. Five puny medallions and a bit of greens costed me fifteen dollars. While my meal was questionable, everything else was great. A cosy space with warm and welcoming staff.
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The long awaited Fergburger. We often forewent the Fergburg because of the lines but as daunting as it can get, it's not always like that. During peak times, lines were long with hour+ waits but if you go in the off hours like we did, you'll be free from exasperation. What I like about Fergburger is its crazy long opening hours, allowing you to head out in the dead of night and grab a snack. Not that I did - was bloody cold out.
Since there was quite a bit of hype surrounding the place, I wanted to make sure I had a decent sample size to form my opinion.
The beef burgers were more or less the same, so I went with the Ferg Deluxe for $14.90NZ. Scanning the rest of the menu, I looked for something unique. What I got was the Chief Wiggum for $14.90NZ and the Sweet Bambi for $13.90NZ. Rounding out this mega meal were onion rings and fries for $6.90NZ and $4.50NZ, respectively.
With our order at the ready, I eagerly reached into the large bag and pulled out a burger. After snapping a quick pic and taking a huge bite out of it, I sensed something was amiss. It was Carolyn's Bun Laden, a falafel patty burger. Yeah, strong pass on that one. Meanwhile, the (proper) fries and onion rings were average. It was my first time seeing onion rings not shaped like calamari though, so that was neat.
Getting down to real business, I picked out one of my burgers. Starting with the Ferg Deluxe, I was in love from the first bite. It was just bursting with flavour from the smoky patty, the crisp fatty bacon and melted cheese. Cutting through the fats - the fresh veg and acidic pickles. All sandwiched between half toasted buns, it easily became one of the best burgers I've ever had.
The Chief Wiggum stuck out to me with its roasted pork belly and inclusion of hash brown. Biting into it, I couldn't really detect the hash brown but flavours were reminiscent of Asia (the pork belly like that in Vietrolls). Now this would've been a great burger if it wasn't for the apricot seeded mustard. The bitterness was strong and off-putting. Even after scraping it off, it still lingered. If it had a chutney like the burger I'll talk about now, it would've been so good.
Sweet Bambi was an exotic choice with its wild Fiordland deer, brie cheese and boysenberry & caramelised onion chutney. Having never tried deer, I didn't know what to expect from this burger. It was good. The sweet chutney complimented the meat well. The flavour of deer didn't have any standout characteristics separating it from other meats. Having said that, this probably wasn't the best representation to really say.
Not every burger knocked it out of the park, but very few places made me think what I paid was worth it. Fergburger was every bit worth it.
Lastly - Farelli's Trattoria, an Italian restaurant (if the name wasn't obvious enough). As with all popular and packed places, we had to wait for a spot. During that wait, we had a lovely conversation with the maître d' and what I believed to be the manager. Great staff? Check.
As much as I love Italian, I hate how overpriced it always is. To date, none of the meals I've had reflected its high cost. Unfortunately, Farelli's kept this record going. Remember, nothing wrong with a high price tag IF you can back it up.
Starting with the antipasto, I shared a vegan version of the cauliflower risotto for $18NZ. While I did want the cheesed up version, this wasn't too bad. The cauliflower pieces and pangrattato added some bite to the dish, because the rice sure as heck didn't. It was practically congee.
For my main, I had the gnocchi carbonara for $28NZ. Another swing and a miss. While decent, I had more negatives than positives. Starting with the positives, everything about the gnocchi was nice and they were able to make me not hate the mushrooms. The not so good... There wasn't nearly enough gnocchi. It was drowning in sauce and I was eating the accompaniments by itself way too often. Which leads to the next point, it was so salty (another thing my Italian experiences have been guilty of). A high price to pay for average.
With that our food journey comes to an en- but wait! There's more! While not your typical eateries, I would like to present this appreciation segment for the grocery stores. As much as I ate in restaurants and cafés, I ate an equal amount from these lovely establishments.
Perhaps it was being in a foreign land but I found the grocery stores to be so magical and alluring. There weren't big differences between here and there but when I did find something new, my mind would go abuzz. There was just so much I wanted to try... to discover.
Over the two weeks, we found ourselves at Four Square, New World, FreshChoice, Countdown and Pak'nSave. Before we start, I would like to say I love the fact these stores open until late. Clear from crowds of people, yes please.
Kicking us off, we have Four Square in Tekapo, the smallest and priciest of the bunch. Fresh produce was ehh but the range was surprisingly good. Like the Asian 7-Elevens, they had ready-to-go meals that you could get for cheap. For the price paid, it really wasn't all that bad. I particularly liked their pork rib roll ($3.99NZ). It's also where I got the Fairlie pies.
For Wanaka, we moved onto New World. It was bigger and cheaper than Four Square, and even some of the stores here in Adelaide. Other than that, not much else going on.
FreshChoice was interesting. The whole store had digital tags instead of paper. Everything else was quite average (store size, pricing etc.).
Countdown (read Woolies) in Queenstown was biiig. But other than the sheer size, everything else was quite normal. Didn't stop me from spending a lot of time here though.
Lastly, we have Pak'nSave, the biggest and (in certain categories) cheapest of them all. It was like a better Costco minus the non-food items, bulk buying and shit membership. Like the Four Square and New World, the ready-to-go meals returned with the biggest range of them all.
Generally, pricing was the same as Australia (some cases cheaper) and that's before currency conversion. For one brand, no price was going to dissuade me from getting my hands on it. That brand? Lewis Road Creamery, a dairy company and my favourite one at that. Finding anything and everything Lewis Road related under the sun, it was easily the highlight of my trip. In these two weeks, I probably consumed no less than ten litres of dairy (not exclusive to Lewis Road). Not a day went by without me inducing lactose complications but boy was it worth it.
Each new grocery meant a chance to discover more products in their repertoire. If I could, I would've downed their bottles of cream or blocks of butter. So what's the big deal with this brand? It's just really delicious milk. Of course I tried another brand to solidify my claim. Stepping up to the plate were Puhoi Valley's offering of chocolate milk and yoghurt. They were good, but they weren't Lewis Road good. The combination with Whittaker's (also another thing I absolutely went nuts for) just made Lewis Road's chocolate milk god tier.
I paid the full twelve for that 750mL tub of ice cream... I think I have a problem
Truly the end of the journey now, I hope you've enjoyed this special food entry. Thank you for reading and join me next time as I delve into the New Zealand Sights.