Restaurants Overview

The top of the South Island is where you'll find some of the country's best seafood, fruit, and wine. In Marlborough check out at least one winery restaurant -- there's no better way to ensure that your meal suits what you're drinking. Salmon and Greenshell mussels are both farmed in the pristine Marlborough Sounds, and local crops -- besides grapes -- include cherries, wasabi, and garlic. In Kaikoura try crayfish. The region is named after the delicacy (kai means food in Maori; koura means lobster), and you'll find it not only in restaurants but occasionally sold in makeshift vans or roadside sheds. On the West Coast, try whitebait fritters -- a sort of omelet starring masses of baby fish.

Many restaurants in this area close down in winter (June through August). Others may only open on weekends, or curtail their weekday hours. In summer, all doors are open but you may find that there are too many people for the number of eateries. The Christmas and January holiday season is particularly busy, so it's best to make reservations whenever possible. Also, keep in mind that if a restaurant is open on a major holiday, it will likely add a surcharge to your bill to cover the higher rates it must pay its staff.

Year-round, the restaurants and cafés around the glaciers can be quick to close their doors at night. Be there by 8:30, or you might go hungry. Some of the smallest towns, including Punakaiki, settlements in the Marlborough Sounds, and parts of Golden Bay, have few cafés and no general stores, so you may need to bring your own supplies.