Kaikoura Restaurants

Dined at craypot on saturday 16/03/13. Paid $33 for Ribeye steak ordered medium rare, the place was almost empty save for one other table of diners and I was dining alone, It took 50 minutes for me to get my meal, what turned up was not ribeye but a thick cut of sirloin, first cut of the meat and it was apparent something was off, I believe this cheaper cut of meat was frozen and then too quickly defrosted hense the disgustingly long wait, needless to say the steak was ruined, tough, not cooked as I had requested (medium rare, this was rare at best) and the meal not worth even a fraction of what was charged.
Do not dine here.
Worst dining experience I have ever had.

When we were at The Craypot in Kaikoura we had such bad service that we wondered if we should leave without having had our meal, instead my husband took notes and passed them on to the manager who apologised and assured us that 98% of the costumers were happy, but they would try to improve and make the remaining 2% of costumers happy, too.

It was peak season in January, and the restaurant was busy. But judge yourselves if this justifies this embarrassing service by obviously totally unexperienced and helpless seasonal staff:

Order only taken from 3 of 4 people at our table. We had to call the waitress back to give her the last order. Water glasses supplied were of different sizes, one was dirty and had to be returned. Unordered drinks were delivered to our table not once, but twice. A glass of wine was delivered instead of the bottle we had ordered - and then we got the wrong wine! After having enjoyed the good meal we had to chase up the bill and it took 10 minutes until it was delivered. Finally someone else's credit card was returned to us...

We also observed diners serving themselves with plates left on the bar due to the absence of waitresses. The party sitting next to us waited an hour for their main course and ended up leaving before it was delivered.

The manager confirmed that such waiting times can happen on a busy night. So better get fast-food if you are very hungry ;-)

The restaurant itself is very nice, the food is of good standard. Freshly caught crayfish is the speciality - but also very expensive. But very nice and good choice of fish.

The Mussel Boys is a great restaurant, one of my world favourites in fact.

As the name suggests, they specialise in mussell dishes, and thats pretty much it, but you'd be amazed at the number of ways they manage to do that! This is a great place to enjoy New Zealands large and succulent green-lip mussell. The name comes from the edging of green around the edge of the shell.

At Mussell Boys the surroundings are simple, the food is fantastic and the service is friendly. And they have a great selection of wines too ;-)

Favorite Dish: Mussels, obviously! Great big plump juicy greenshell mussels, not the smaller black shell type I'm used to from my native England.

My favourite version are steamed open with coconut milk and coriander ~ just mouthwatering! Enjoy with a chilled glass of crisp Chardonnay or maybe a cold beer.

Honestly, you're gonna love 'em!

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great feel about the place, you can sit inside or al fresco..very friendly staff, they know what they doing..good place, great coffee too..and the plate cleaning is for free :-))
oh yes...take away is possible too

Favorite Dish: Crayfish
but Chicken, Pasta and Steak also
vegetarien on request!
I had the Mussel Chowder which was yummy

La langosta es la especialidad de Kaikorua , la puedes comer en los chiringuitos que hay por la calle o irte a restaurantes todo lo sofisticados que quieras
Si puedes date el capricho

Lobster is the specialty of Kaikorua, you can eat it in the bars there are in the street or go to restaurants as sophisticated as you want
If you can indulge yourself

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This café is also a Fudge Factory and famous for the latter. They produce 30 flavours of fudge on site, and you can free sample it. If you order a coffee, a little piece of fudge is served with it as a treat. As I am no big fudge fan this is enough for me.

So the fudge surely is not the reason why we always go back to this café for lunch on our weekend day trips, or just for coffee. (Unfortunately you cannot go there for dinner as it is only open until 4.30pm.) And it is not only for the friendly and fast service.

The food is just fabulous. Last time we were there on a Sunday, I had pan-seared fish with chips and green salads, and it was delicious. And you do not get such nice fish everywhere, as NZ is the land of the deep fried fish - and chips ;-) (Can't remember what hubby had, as it often takes me quite a while until I write my tips...)

The selection of divine cakes at the cabinet is wonderful, the cakes are mouthwatering, and the coffees are great.

Hubby discovered this café when he once had work to do nearby, and did not want to walk or drive back to the Esplanade. Since then it has become our first choice for lunch.

The location right on SH 1 surely is not perfect but do not have to imagine SH 1 as a highway where trucks would be thundering up and down incessantly. So it is no problem to sit in the outdoor area adjacent to the footpath. You have no sea view but a great view of the Kaikoura Ranges.

BTW More and more cafés and restaurants have been opening in the past few years along SH 1 (Beach Road), catering for the ever-growing number of tourists. What a sleepy place Kaikoura was when I was here the first time in 1991!

Open daily 7.30am – 4.30pm
Breakfast Menu from 8am to 12noon

Directions:

If you come from the north, it is on the left between Henry’s (bottle shop) and Harcourts (Real Estate Company), shortly before the BP petrol station.

From the south: Past the town centre turn-off on the right after the BP petrol station.

You easily recognise the café by the décor on the roof: a fishtail, a boat and attached crayfish basket.

Photo 2 shows the pan-seared fish with chips and salads.

On photo 3 you see a beautifully decorated cappuccino.

Kaikoura Seafood BBQ is one of those business ventures typically featured in Lonely Planet that attract tourists like moths to a flame. An unpretentious stall situated roadside on Fyffe Quay, menus scribbled in chalk on blackboards, simple timber tables and chairs beneath umbrellas, seagulls cawing in the background, seafood sizzling on the barbie. What more can you ask for?

We decided to indulge our taste buds and ordered garlic mussels ($7), garlic scallops ($8), a whitebait fritter ($8) and crayfish fritter ($9) coming to a total of $32 without soft drinks. Rather disappointingly, the staff member put the hard sell on us to order their speciality - a whole cray - which we thought a bit pricey and declined.

We tucked into the scallops, which were delicious, and the six mussels, which was tasty. The seafood was presented on a modest bed of rice garnished perfunctorily with a lettuce leaf and sprig of parsley. The crayfish fritter was so-so and the whitebait fritter was quite tasteless.

We initially intended returning for dinner, but having parted with almost $40 for a quick snack-lunch, which only half satisfied, we decided to refrain and try somewhere else.

Favorite Dish: Garlic scallops

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When we arrived in Kaikoura, we really wanted to have lunch somewhere with an ocean view. Sonic On The Rocks was just what we had in mind. A cute restaurant with outdoor seating. They specialize in salads, seafood, and some gourment pizza's.

Favorite Dish: My friend loved her seafood salad!

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Hislops has a nice range of food and does a really good breakfast with organic coffee. The range of beer and wine is also really good. When here last (Nov 2006) I had a bowl of seafood chowder and Angie had Minestrone soup. Both were okay and rated at 6 out of 10. The bread that came with the soups was a real 10 out of 10!!

Service is initially slow as the place is very busy but, as Hislops have gone Hi-Tech with there ordering system once you have ordered & your waitress/waiter has got things into their PDA your food comes out very quickly. This system makes getting your bill easy as well - just the push of a button & you're done.

Hislops are down the busy end of Beach Rd so parking can be a little more tricky.

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This is a famous local place with stores in Havelock (tiny town near to Picton) & Paraparaumu (north of Wellington) amongst others. This place has a good menu with their mussels the item giving them the name and the fame. It's a not to miss place!

The decore is mainly wood & natural looking. The restauant looks like a home and that's how you are welcomed. I really recommend this place for a feed.

Prices are all fairly resonable - I think my mussels were $15 & given the size of the dish - good value.

Favorite Dish: The more simple the better I say. As you can see from the photo a plate of steaming mussels looks very good indeed.