Kaikoura best restaurants

Kaikoura best restaurants

Kai stands for food or meal whereas kōura refers to crayfish. Put it together, Kaikoura symbolizes crayfish and it is a heaven for crayfish lovers! Kaikoura’s specialty also includes all types of other seafood such as Cod, grouper, mussels, abalone, oysters and scallops.

Cods & Crayfish

81 Beach Road Kaikoura 7300

For tourists who are more financially prudent, you can perhaps select this as one of your dining options. However, this is more like a fish market. Its business is mostly made up of takeaways or sale of raw fresh seafood. Hence, they do not have indoor eating space. They only have a few long benches at the outside. May not be very comfortable for some, but the warm sunlight managed to make us feel better. So, if you intend to eat there, do prepare some thick clothing.

Another thing to note, most of the restaurants close early by 6pm, this is one of them. However, this shop opens on all days, Monday to Sunday.

There is quite a variety of seafood you can select, from different types of fish, to abalone, scallops to a range of smoked fish. Wide selections, affordable great prices. If you like, you can opt for your preferred cooking options (grilled or battered) for your seafood and they would prepare for you on the spot.

Crayfish is a must-try in Kaikoura! You are not here if you have not tried it.

We tried the crayfish from Cods & Crayfish. Their crayfish was rather fresh. It was lightly seasoned, retaining its own original sweet taste. However, due to the rather cold weather, the crayfish was cooled really fast and it was rather cold. I am not sure was it supposed to be like that. My personal preference is a warmer crayfish though.

The fries or chips were thickly cut, rather crispy and tasty with the generous salt applied.

I love cod fish! It does not just tastes good but is packed with lots of omega as well. Hence, I made it a point to eat as much cod fish as I could when I was in New Zealand. I know it sounds really crazy.

This grilled cod fish, to me, is quite bland and tasteless. But, it is soft in texture and healthy in general. My travel pal expressed that he likes it this way as it retains cod fish’s own natural flavors.

 

I prefer this battered cod fish & chips instead. The batter is not too thick. Its very crunchy and quite delicious.

Overall, taking into account of the price, the food, the ambiance, I give this eatery 6.7/10 stars. It offers fresh authentic seafood in a very reasonable, affordable and competitive price.

Beach House Cafe

39 Beach Road Kaikoura

A cosy comfortable place to hangout and laze in, while enjoying the wonderful food.

These fluffy soft pancakes is an excellent choice for breakfast. Besides its good texture, I like the flavourful cinnamon and banana taste.

This Cesar salad is very refreshing. The smoked salmon is tasty and fresh, the lettuce and pitta are crunchy, the egg benedicts are nicely done. Perfect combination.

This seafood chowder is one of the best we have tasted in new zealand. It is rich and creamy, generous in their seafood ingredients (mussels, prawns, salmons, scallops etc) and absolutely tasty.

Beach House Cafe is a restaurant which offers decent food at an average price with a cosy environment.

My rating: 7/10

The Whaler

W End, Kaikoura 7300, New Zealand

This is one of the very few options left for dinner after 7pm.

I really like the beer battered blue cod & chips! As you bite on the crunchy fish, it lets out a subtle nice beer taste. The chips are very crispy and the salads are refreshing!

Price is slightly above average compensated by the generous portion. The meal is very filling and satisfying though, service is also above average.

My overall rating: 7.5/10

Hiplops cafe

33 Beach Rd, Kaikoura, New Zealand

 

Appetizing

 

The seafood chowder at Hislops Cafe is very thick and generous in its servings of ingredients too. I like the nice shallots garnishing at the top which adds extra flavor to the soup.

Seafood is fresh and naturally sweet. Pasta cooked to al dente in a sweet and sour tomato base.

That’s definitely a sweet ending for a meal. The crepe is unlike other crepe, its very moist, chewy and chocolaty, wrapped with vanilla ice-cream, served with carmalised sweet bananas and strawberries.

Above average price but decent food, good service and great ambiance.

My overall rating: 7/10

Shop beside Poppy’s Real Home Made Ice Cream

This shop may not be famous for its icecream and is in fact just next to the very famous Poppy’s Real Homemade Icecream. Its ice cream is surprisingly good. The ice cream is rich in its taste, taste very natural and is not overly sweet. The texture is like gelato, firm but smooth. We chanced upon this shop and after ordering the ice cream, we noticed that the famous ice cream shop is just next door. So, we didnt manage to try the Poppy’s ice cream. Despite so, I am happy with this ice cream standards, given that I dont have a sweet tooth.

We tried the banana chocolate and raspberry flavours,

My overall rating: 6.9/10