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It might be way out in the bush, but this restaurant could stand proud in any big city. Dine inside or out, beneath the trees, and watch the chefs in the open kitchen adding wood to the pizza oven or creating contemporary cuisine with organic-farmed beef and lamb and vegetables straight from the garden. For flavor and innovation, try the chef’s choice of three seasonal tasters. This is a great option for family dining---there’s so much space and a little playground---and it’s actually only about 10 minutes away from either town, Waihi or Paeroa. Accommodation is available too, from $180 per night.
25 Waitawheta Rd., Waikato, 3682, New Zealand
Known For
- Spicy chicken pizza (and other pizzas)
- Sharing platters
- Vegetarian salads
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed Mon. and Tues. Apr.--Oct. (approximately)
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$$$$ | Flaxmill Bay |
In addition to great food, this restaurant has a community-hub feel thanks to live music sessions, poetry readings, film nights, and a summer sculpture symposium. The dinner menu reaches beyond standard café fare, and there's also a great range of classic breakfasts and fresh baked goods. Be sure to check the on-site shop Eggstras for quality deli items to take on your journey. The café is about 1 km (0.6 mile) from the Whitianga ferry landing, with a free pick-up service if you don't fancy the 10-minute walk.
1049 Purangi Rd., Whitianga, Waikato, 3591, New Zealand
Known For
- Scallops, chowders, and other seafood
- Tasty desserts
- Community art and music
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed Mon. and May–Sept.
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Like many places to eat on the peninsula, this casual café does a roaring trade with mussels and seafood. But lots of Kiwi café foods are also here, like full breakfasts, salads, and pies, while the dinner menu serves all the classics. Quiches, cakes, and sandwiches are handmade every day, and the coffee is fair-trade. You can enjoy your food and drinks indoors or alfresco. Nothing is deep-fried.
22 Wharf Rd., Coromandel, Waikato, 3506, New Zealand
Known For
- Fish and mussel chowders
- House-baked cakes
- Fair-trade coffee
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A delightful blend of cuisines can be found here, from authentic curries from Sri Lanka and India to modern New Zealand classics, including seafood specialties and quality steaks. There’s also a breakfast menu, and local and imported beers and wines from the bar.
62 The Strand, Bay of Plenty, 3120, New Zealand
Known For
- <PRO>refreshing mango lassi</PRO>
- <PRO>relaxed ambience</PRO>
- <PRO>house-baked desserts</PRO>
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed 2--5
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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
Known For
- House-made ice cream
- Angus beef cheeks
- Mediterranean-style risottos
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed Mon. No lunch Tues.
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Recommended Fodor’s Video
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This café’s small shared plates feature an eclectic fusion of Asian and classic European flavors with a strong Kiwi touch. Try the tea leaf salad, Burmese-style, with roasted soy beans, peanuts, kawakawa (a pepper-flavored native plant), cabbage, and tomato; ostrich and beef cheek; or the braised octopus with nectarines. Sit inside in candlelight or under the trees in the buzzy garden with the locals.
19 Captain Cook Rd., Waikato, 3591, New Zealand
Known For
- Great pizzas
- Selection of fusion dishes
- Dessert platters
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed Tues. and Wed.
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The food and the view will vie for your attention here, as you dine on contemporary New Zealand cuisine. The menu is created largely from local artisan products, and you can admire Tauranga Harbour from the stunning waterfront location. The quite pricey à la carte menu encompasses starters or starters to share as well as light meals that can be appetizers depending on the size of your appetite, mains, and desserts. From the grill, meats come with a choice of butters and sauces. Reservations are recommended, particularly if you want a spot on the over-water balcony.
150 The Strand, Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, 3110, New Zealand
Known For
- Excellent harbor views
- Grill menu of local, organic cuts
- Several duck dishes
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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.
19 Girven Rd., New Zealand
Known For
- Some tables left available for walk-ins
- Fig and manuka honey ice cream
- Interesting cocktail selection
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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
Known For
- Crying tiger grilled beef sirloin
- Steamed buns, spring rolls, and dumplings
- Banquet-style menu options
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This spacious, centrally located café–restaurant can get busy with both visitors and locals. Breakfast kicks off at 9 am with all the standard Kiwi options. Salads, burgers, and fish-and-chips come on the menu for lunch; dinner is still casual but with slightly more upmarket fare with a good range of lamb, steak, salmon, pork, and vegetable dishes on offer. If you arrive during the day, pop into the adjacent Manaia Gallery, which sells jewelry, art, and crafts.
228 Main Rd., Tairua, Waikato, 3508, New Zealand
Known For
- Woodfire pizzas
- Breakfast waffles
- Art and craft store next-door
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The high prices set this restaurant apart from other local options, but then again so does the food: in the open-plan kitchen, nationally renowned chef Stephen Barry fuses quality indigenous meats, seafood, and produce with Pacific Rim flavors. À la carte menu choices range from small tapas to share and appetizers (which can also be requested in a slightly larger portion size) to full main courses. For those who inevitably want a taste of all the desserts, there's a tasting platter. The street-side restaurant looks out onto Mauao (Mt. Maunganui).
6 Adams Ave., Mount Maunganui, Bay of Plenty, 3116, New Zealand
Known For
- Signature flambé seafood dish
- Multicourse degustation menu
- Dessert tasting platter
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed Mon. No lunch
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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
Known For
- Pizzas
- Thai curries
- Wine menu with a focus on New Zealand wines
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed Mon. and Tues. No lunch
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The standout restaurant in town showcases local produce, shellfish, fish, lamb, and beef. Lunch easily segues into dinner in the sheltered courtyard or in front of the fire, depending on the season. Service is swish and prices are up there, but you get what you pay for. All-day brunches and light lunches are also served.
31 Kapanga Rd., Coromandel, Waikato, 3506, New Zealand
Known For
- Mussels (steamed or in chowder)
- Other Coromandel shellfish like oysters and scallops
- Signature prime rib steak
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The existence in a small seaside town of such a high-quality French fusion eatery pleasantly surprises many visitors. French chef Samuel Goslin remains true to classical French cuisine, at the same time allowing for the Kiwi taste for less salt and less fat. His wife Severine guides the front of house with a sophisticated yet relaxed ambience, whether inside or out in the cottage garden. Seasonal and local produce features options like Ora King salmon and Coromandel scallops.
2 Mill Rd., Whitianga, Waikato, 3510, New Zealand
Known For
- <PRO>French classics like garlic snails</PRO>
- <PRO>dish presentation that is more like art</PRO>
- <PRO>two- or three-course degustation menus</PRO>
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed Sun. and Mon.
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The modern fusion menu has chapter-like descriptions, a nod to the quiet, library theme of this stylish eatery in the historic Postbank building. In what is undoubtedly one of the resort town’s premier dining experiences, the dishes blend Mediterranean and Asian influences with top New Zealand produce. Dine in the vintage dining room or enclosed courtyard.
82 Maunganui Rd., Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, 3116, New Zealand
Known For
- Good wine list
- Marinated Ora king salmon
- Reservations required
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed Sun. No lunch Sat.–Thurs.
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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
Known For
- Great raw bar with oysters and ceviche
- Steamed mussels
- Slow-roasted lamb sharing plate
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed Mon. and Tues. No lunch
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A classic New Zealand takeout experience, this is the spot to get a quintessential Kiwi-style beachside lunch or dinner of fish, shellfish, chips (fries), and burgers. When the fish (battered or crumbed) and chips are done well, they’re not too greasy or fatty. You could even wash them down with a bottle of the very sweet Lemon & Paeroa (the iconic Kiwiana soda made not too far from the Coromandel).
Shop 7, Main Rd., Tairua, Waikato, 3508, New Zealand
Known For
- Classic New Zealand fish-and-chips
- Kūmara (sweet potato) fries
- Battered Coromandel oysters
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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
Known For
- Decent burgers and fish-and-chips
- Great tapas menu
- Late night music on weekends
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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
Known For
- Wood-fire pizzas
- Twice cooked ribs in sticky sauce
- Impressive wine pairings
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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.
35b Captain Cook Rd., Waikato, New Zealand
Known For
- Kahawai Keeper, which is topped with smoked fish, capers, red onion, and few other goodies
- Good burgers and salads
- Plenty of outdoor seating for sunny days
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed May--Sept.
