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There are many dining options across the Coromandel and Bay of Plenty. You can buy everything from fruit from roadside orchard stalls and take-out fish-and-chips joints to cafés serving sandwiches and espresso coffee, right through to fine-dining affairs. Even when restaurants are formal in appearance, diners and hosts tend towa
There are many dining options across the Coromandel and Bay of Plenty. You can buy everything from fruit from roadside orchard stalls and take-out fish-and-chips joints to cafés serving sandwiches and espresso coffee, right through to fine-dining affairs. Even when rest
There are many dining options across the Coromandel and Bay of Plenty. You can buy everything from fruit from roadside o
There are many dining options across the Coromandel and Bay of Plenty. You can buy everything from fruit from roadside orchard stalls and take-out fish-and-chips joints to cafés serving sandwiches and espresso coffee, right through to fine-dining affairs. Even when restaurants are formal in appearance, diners and hosts tend toward a relaxed country-casualness. Restaurant owners make a point of using the region's abundant resources: the fish is likely to have been caught that morning from a nearby bay, and shellfish are from local mussel and scallop farms. A huge community of artists lives in the region and their work is likely to be for sale even though it adorns restaurant walls.
Dinner service begins about 6 pm in the winter and around 7 pm during the summer months, though many places have "all-day menus." In peak season most places keep serving until at least 9 pm. For many restaurants reservations are a good idea, especially in the summer around the Coromandel. In winter, phone ahead to check if the restaurant will stay open.
Recently reopened just to the south of Coromandel Town, this restaurant is well sign-posted but also easy to spot by the historical mussel barge at the main entrance. It sets the tone for a place that makes the local delicacy the star of the show, including delicious half-shell mussels or mussel pots served with bread. They come naturally, or you can have them flavored with garlic butter and white wine sauce or spiced up with a green curry. Seafood souvlaki is recommended and includes scallops and prawns skewered alongside the mussels. Fish-and-chips, steak, and a salad selection are among the other items on the menu.
20 309 Rd., Coromandel, Waikato, 3581, New Zealand
Mediterranean food and ambience are the focus at this quiet restaurant tucked away on the edge of town. The finest local produce, organic where possible, is matched with quality international and local craft beers and wines.
31 Orchard Rd., Waihi, Bay of Plenty, 3610, New Zealand
The Bayfair Shopping Centre may seem an unlikely place to find one of the area's most innovative restaurants, but this is well worth seeking out. Izakai combines Māori ingredients and cooking styles with Japanese cuisine, so you'll find hāngi-style pork belly and watercress with ramen (noodles); smoked kahawai with cabbage fritter, Tokoyaki sauce, and pickled red onion; and creamed paua (local shellfish) and prawn gyoza (dumplings). The centerpiece of the restaurant is a long curved bar, but you can also sit at high tables near the window or in a more intimate booth-like setting.
Fresh flavors right from Asia are blended with the best of local New Zealand meats, seafood, and vegetables at this popular-with-the-locals waterfront eatery. As with current restaurant trends, small plates are made for sharing, so you can enjoy a blast of flavors and just keep ordering until you're full. If the myriad choices look confusing, let the kitchen decide and order a banquet. There’s a lounge bar upstairs, open from 4 pm on, for relaxing into the evening.
59 The Strand, Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, 3110, New Zealand
Come to this indoor–outdoor bistro for casual evening dining loosely billed as Italian with pizza, pastas, and risotto on the menu. There's also a great range of Kiwi-modern mains that feature salmon, steak, pork, and the local fish catch. There's a good range of New Zealand wines and all kinds of beers.
711 Port Rd., Whangamata, Waikato, 3620, New Zealand
Just off the road but with a backdrop of fruit trees, this is a fitting place to stop for breakfast or lunch in an area known for its fresh produce. A tasty vegetarian choice is the "Figotten Shroom" (balsamic mushrooms on a potato rosti stack with spinach and a dollop of fig jam). Standard fare like loaded fries, nachos, and "fush and chups" (a gentle jibe at the Kiwi accent) can be found here too. Dine inside, or take advantage of the park surroundings and settle at an outdoor table.
Put a slightly upscale yet still casual restaurant in a popular local hotel, with a waterside location in a vacation town, and you've got this can't-miss dining spot. There is casual pub dining in the bars, but Salt, with its alfresco dining by the palm-edged marina, is the star. The menu changes with the seasons, sometimes offering free-range pork belly with prawn dumplings, lamb backstrap, or grass-fed eye fillet with béarnaise sauce. Bar snacks include lots of fresh seafood such as Coromandel mussels. Reservations are recommended in summer.
1 Blacksmith La., Whitianga, Waikato, 3510, New Zealand
Within one of the few hotels remaining from the gold rush days, you'll find classy pub grub in a convivial atmosphere. The Grahamstown Bar Diner (GBD) is the main restaurant bar, serving everything from breakfast and lunch to bar snacks and pizzas to evening main courses. On weekends, it gets pretty packed late night thanks to music gigs. Down the back is a more casual bar with pool tables; upstairs, there are some basic but clean and excellent-value accommodations.
700 Pollen St., Thames, Waikato, 3500, New Zealand
The 1876-built Talisman Hotel offers quality pub fare, with a focus on using local produce where possible. You’ll meet the locals here, be it over brunch, lunch, or dinner, where your meal could be anything from crammed-full burgers to confit duck leg. Suggested wine matches for the evening mains suggest more care than your standard pub grub.
7–9 Main Rd., Katikati, Bay of Plenty, 3129, New Zealand
This restaurant is "nautically themed" and really means it; the bar and kitchen are both housed in shipping containers. The atmosphere is casual to the extreme, so come in your swimwear if you feel comfortable doing so, and order some locally inspired pizzas. Burgers and salads are also available. Although there's seating inside, on a sunny day you are more likely to be seated outside under a shaded umbrella.
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