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There are many dining options across the Coromandel and Bay of Plenty. You can buy everything from fruit from roadside orchard stalls and take-out fish-and-chips joints to cafés serving sandwiches and espresso coffee, right through to fine-dining affairs. Even when restaurants are formal in appearance, diners and hosts tend toward a relaxed country-casualness. Restaurant owners make a point of using the region's abundant resources: the fish is likely to have been caught that morning from a nearby bay, and shellfish are from local mussel and scallop farms. A huge community of artists lives in the region and their work is likely to be for sale even though it adorns restaurant walls.
Dinner service begins about 6 pm in the winter and around 7 pm during the summer months, though many places have "all-day menus." In peak season most places keep serving until at least 9 pm. For many restaurants reservations are a good idea, especially in the summer around the Coromandel. In winter, phone ahead to check if the restaurant will stay open.
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.
A consistently good community café, Sola offers an all-vegetarian menu but it’s no health food bar. Counter food includes tasty risotto cakes, Florentines, and fresh fruit shortbreads. Try a breakfast of potato-and-fresh-herb frittata or pan-fried polenta with smoked field mushroom, spinach, and feta for lunch. They also cater to wheat and gluten-free diets. Local cheeses and chutneys from the deli counter make great picnic fixings.
A classic New Zealand take-out experience, this is the spot to get a quintessential Kiwi-style beachside lunch or dinner of fish, shellfish, chips (fries), and burgers. When the fish (battered or crumbed) and chips are done well, they’re not too greasy or fatty. You could even wash them down with a bottle of the very sweet Lemon & Paeroa (the iconic Kiwiana soda made not too far from the Coromandel).
The garden bar and restaurant within the 1876-built Talisman Hotel offers quality pub fare, with a focus on using local produce where possible. You’ll meet the locals here, be it over brunch, lunch, or dinner, where your meal could be anything from crammed-full burgers to summer seafood ceviche. Suggested wine matches for the evening mains suggest more care than your standard pub grub.
This restaurant is "nautically themed" and really means it; the bar and kitchen are both housed in shipping containers. The atmosphere is casual to the extreme, so come in your swimwear if you feel comfortable doing so, and order some locally inspired pizzas. Burgers and salads are also available. Although there's seating inside, on a sunny day you are more likely to be seated outside under a shaded umbrella.
The covered courtyard of this café is a great spot to enjoy a coffee and cake, or a made-to-order sandwich or roll (choose your own fillings). There's also a full breakfast and lunch menu if you'd like something more substantial.
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