Tauranga Restaurants
We’ve compiled the best of the best in Tauranga - browse our top choices for Restaurants during your stay.
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We’ve compiled the best of the best in Tauranga - browse our top choices for Restaurants during your stay.
There’s a vintage retro feel at this unassuming café that belies the amazing fresh-baked goods produced within. Cabinets are crammed with pastries, breads, cakes, panini and other sandwiches, and some truly fantastic cakes like the passionfruit curd cake. Salads and lots of vegetarian options are on the menu, the coffee is consistently good, and tea lovers can choose from a list of organic, loose-leaf flavors. The place is loved by the locals and if you eat in you’re likely to get to know them at the big communal tables.
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.
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.
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).
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.
At the base of Mauao and across the street from the beach, this bustling café is a great place for breakfast or lunch after a climb or swim. Grab a table (there are more outside than in) for a blueberry muffin, blue cheese scone, a falafel, a salad, or a dense chocolate brownie. Or get a huge sandwich and a smoothie to go, and head off to a quiet spot on the trail that rings The Mount.
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