I am keen to read the cafes/restaurants that others recommend, regardless of where they are as many of us travel.

With rowing season upon us I frequent Paddock in Cambridge regularly. Delicious salads, great coffee, interesting treats and the dinner menu looks fabulous. Hopefully we can get a table for dinner there this weekend, they don't take bookings.

Last week I went to Nanam Filipino restaurant in Royal Oak Auckland and will definitely be going back again. The food was full flavoured and absolutely delicious. I think it was about $50 each, I had one glass of wine and two courses.
The wagyu beef and lemongrass sausage wrapped in a small roti type pancake were spectacular as was the Pulled pork and octopus in curry sauce. The food actually was better than the menu read, if that makes sense.

Next on my list to try is Gemmayze St on K Road. It is Lebanese and apparently for $50 you get what the chef decides to give you and everything sounds great. Has anyone been there?

Have you got any favourites to share?

The recent TripAdvisor reviews of Paddock are pretty patchy. Interesting that your experiences have been so good.

[www.tripadvisor.co.nz]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/2017 02:48AM by TPANDAV.

We often go to Harbour Light Bistro and Urban Eatery in Nelson and Boat Shed Cafe and Jellyfish in Mapua, the latter being walking distance from home which is perfect!

We were in Auckland last month and had a delicious meal at Cafe Hanoi at Britomart.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/2017 04:06AM by Bev.

I've had the nourish bowl at Two Birds Eatery in Hamilton so if you like that sort of food then I can recommend that cafe. Also Cinnamon Cafe in Hamilton. Elm Tree Cafe in Palmerston North. Le Cafe Telephonique in Taihape better than others there. I can second Bev's Mapua recommendations.

Tpandav out of curiosity I went and read the reviews of Paddock on Trip Advisor and those that were critical tended to be on service rather than food or coffee quality. It is always busy when we go so there is a wait but that is to be expected.
The complaints on TA did seem vailid.
As an aside I hardly ever look at TA in relation to cafes/restaurants as find them less than credible if I am looking for an interesting dining experience particularly when travelling overseas. The restaurants that rank high tend to be frightening in their lack of local cuisine. I wonder if the majority of contributors are looking for food that they feel safe with as opposed to experiencing local....

In Hamilton for cafe lunches I like Cinnamon, Mavis on Order, Grey Street Kitchen, River Kitchen, Hayes Common...

Punnet in Tamahere is very very popular.

Friends of mine also like Paddock - I rarely get to Cambridge but had a good experience there once.

helen Wrote:
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> As an aside I hardly ever look at TA in relation
> to cafes/restaurants as find them less than
> credible if I am looking for an interesting dining
> experience particularly when travelling overseas.
> The restaurants that rank high tend to be
> frightening in their lack of local cuisine. I
> wonder if the majority of contributors are looking
> for food that they feel safe with as opposed to
> experiencing local....

I absolutely agree. I look at Tripadvisor reviews out of curiosity but I would never choose a restaurant purely on that basis. And when travelling there are so many aspects of choosing somewhere to eat, not all of them about the food. Some of the best food we've encountered in foreign countries has been pure luck, some of the worst has resulted from looking up popular spots which have turned out to be horrible tourist traps.

Sizzling Samurai is a new Japanese Teppanyaki restaurant that recently opened in Hamilton (Victoria Street). Prices are very comparable to Daikoku in Bryce St, but we actually enjoyed the meal more. None of the theatrics if that is what you are going for, but good food. As is the Japanese restaurant situated in the K Mart building in central Hamilton. No teppanyaki, but the food was wonderful - only thing lacking was a liquor license as they are fairly new, but that may have come through by now, as we were there in November. And the Szichuan restaurant in Collingwood Street in Hamilton - wow! Looks extremely basic from the road frontage, but amazing food.

Cafe food - Cinnamon is good. And on Saturday I went with Lynette to Jam in Queenwood - and they had Scotch Eggs! Had to indulge in those and they were great. Have never been disappointed at The District.

Back to the restaurant scene and I know everyone raves about Madam Woo. The food is lovely but I really think for Malaysian food it is very overpriced and you are paying for the name and reputation. We are waiting for a Malaysian restaurant to finally open in Victoria Street,Hamilton North... it isn't far away as the paper is off the windows (it has been saying opening soon for a good 6 months now). Can't wait to go there and indulge.

Ah Cheese Lover you are the second person to mention Punnet this week so I must go and try it.
We travel Auckland to Cambridge regularly over the summer rowing season and Tamahere is an easy stop and I also like to support small town businesses. May call in there this Saturday.

Punnet menu looks great,
Punnet Cafe



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/25/2017 02:40AM by helen.

i also use trip advisor or yelp to find something good) Just try

I find the photos of the food on Trip Advisor give me a much better idea than the reviews, of whether I'll like that restaurant/cafe's food or not.

Helen, or anyone else who is travelling either in NZ overseas, if you see a review for a restaurant or anything else by NZTraveller666 you can rely on it being honest and true as they're my reviews. I myself use TA a lot and have found most of the good reviews I actually relied on were also reasonably accurate, bearing in mind we all have different tastes and standards .

Went to a restaurant in Napier recently and was very impressed, it's called The Milk and Honey, the food was really good, different from the standard "everything with chips" menus often seen (although chips are available if you must!). I also really like that they have a coravin system which means you can sample a range some very nice wines by the glass, I had a beautiful vouvray which I'd never have been able to look at if sold by the bottle. (I know I know, the HB wines are amazing too, but I took the chance to try something different). The service was also good, and the view amazing. I wanted to go back for brunch the next day just to spend time looking at the cooking/wine books they had on display. All up for a wine, a whiskey, a bourbon (all special selections) two mains, one dessert and one "small sweet" was $150ish, which I thought wasn't bad at all.

themilkandhoney.co.nz

When we were in Napier late last year we went to Mister D for breakfast. Because of other commitments we could only manage to fit in breakfast there.
I had the bircher muesli and my husband had the eggs, he said they were cooked perfectly and were the best he had tasted at a restaurant.
I had seen it mentioned on this site a while ago and remembered the name. Thank you to whoever brought it to my attention. I would go back again tomorrow if it was possible.

Another Hamilton place...and not a restaurant...well maybe a dessert restaurant ...is the Duck Island ice cream shop, if you want to treat yourself to original, beautiful ice cream flavours [duckislandicecream.co.nz]

J1 Duck Island white chocolate and miso ice cream is the best ice cream I have ever had!
It was a Cuisine Artisan Award winner and rightly so!

I go out of my way to have a Duck Island ice cream every time I go to Hamilton. A very self-indulgent treat, but I deserve it!

Cinnamon is my local so good and they have opened a smaller one -Crudo at Braid rd a bit more upmarket but food was lovely. Stopped in Cambridge on our way back from Mangakino last Saturday and had a beautiful dinner at Alpha Kitchen - an old pub but the food was divine and the service amazing. It was a rowing day and heaps of people from the venue there so we were squeezed in a little table outside but it was a glorious evening and the food made up for it. Will definitely go back there again. Palate in Hamilton has upped its game and have had 3 beautiful meals there with friends. Punnet is a favourite weekend haunt when heading out of town which we will be doing now as the kids have bought a lake house at Mangakino and need some help with cleaning up ......

Went to Amano in Britomart
Great atmosphere - buzzy and lively and the food was exceptional
Its a restaurant that uses the whole animal, fish, and vegetable, nose to tail, root to leaf.

My pick was the

Pork, apricot & almond

Strawberry salad, radish & ricotta

Throughly recommend - 5 stars and some

Post Bank in the main street of Mt Maunganui - its a grown up restaurant with a French/Euro feel to it. The staff are often Brazillian/Euro and the food is delicious.
Its Auckland prices but a really nice chance to savour the food, not feel stuffed and have a proper adult experience.

A few other favs...

The Engine Room - Northcote Pt
SPQR - Ponsonby
Taka Beach cafe

Oh just thought of another one - The Long Room on the main road out of Tauranga on the left (heading to Auckland). A fabulous cafe with ALOT of charm and great food. Totally worth the stop even though you feel like you need to drive a bit more before stopping.

Vanessa

We had a fantastic meal at Baduzzi in Wynyard, AKL when we were visiting over the weekend. We will certainly go there again next time we are in AKL, so many things on the menu we wanted to try,

A couple of funny ones for the experience...

BOBBIES Fish n chip shop - on the wharf in Tauranga - a real kiwi experience, you can even take a line and fish off the wharf, I caught a small Kawhai on the kids line. ;-)

The Pokeno butchery - buy meat and they give you FREE cooked sausages - DELICIOUS!

Vanessa

Bev Wrote:
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> We had a fantastic meal at Baduzzi in Wynyard, AKL
> when we were visiting over the weekend. We will
> certainly go there again next time we are in AKL,
> so many things on the menu we wanted to try,

Baduzzi is great, our favourite Auckland restaurant and the only decent place in Wynyard Quarter. I always order the flatiron steak tagliata and my husband loves the maltagliati with duck.

We went to a fairly new Restaurant in St Marys Bay for lunch on the weekend call Augustus Bistro. Its been open since about November last year. French food and wine, we loved it.
Best restaurant I've been to in ages, we sat in a lovely outdoor courtyard. Definitely worth a return visit.

If you want high end Auckland dining, I'd suggest you can't go past Sidart.
We tried Pasture which reviewers seem to rave about but I didn't really love the actual food. Concept is cool, novelty factor very high..
We eat out a fair bit, and in general would look at a cross section of places with reviews before deciding. I won't touch much under a 4 these days with such choice.