New Zealand - Dux de Lux

Cnr Hereford and Montreal Sts, Christchurch


Dux de Lux comes highly recommended – it’s the ‘author’s choice’ of places to go in the NZ Lonely Planet. It’s a big operation, comprising multiple bars and indoor and outdoor seating areas. It reminded me of the Breakfast Creek Hotel in Brisbane, with one rather significant difference – there’s no red meat on the menu! Dux de Lux serves a large range of vegetarian and seafood dishes, as well as pizzas. They also have a brewery on site and sell a range of half a dozen or so of their own beers. If you like the taste of their drop, check this out as a convenient way to avoid having to queue at the bar: The main meals come with salad and a daily vegetable selection. We both had pan-fried fish of the day cooked in garlic and lemon, with honey soy veg and basil potatoes (about $NZ20 each, and the cheapest seafood option). The food was quite bland all round – there wasn’t any hint of honey or soy on the vegetables and the fish, while perfectly edible, was let down by the absence of fresh herbs. Fortunately we’d ordered a half plate of buffalo wedges to go with it, which at $NZ6 were definitely the best value on the table.

On a sunny Saturday in early March, it seemed most of Christcurch passed through the joint. For the atmosphere and the beer, I can see why, but the budget end of the menu was a bit disappointing.

New Zealand - Cafe Neve and Cock Saddle Cafe

Both on Main Street, Fox Glacier

Fox is a very manageable town, with the vast majority of eateries situated along a couple-of-hundred-metre stretch of Main Street. With our penchant for pizza, the choice for our first night was Café Neve. They do pizzas in three sizes, and the large size can be half and half for an extra two dollars. That made the large $NZ31, and since the mediums were $NZ19 each, we decided to split a large into half chicken satay and half lamb.

The pizza was huge (though one chap at the adjoining table managed to work his way through a large on his own – he’d obviously done the full-day glacier trek, rather than the half-day like us!) We were fortunately divided on preference – mine was for the lamb, with thyme and kumara. SG went for the chicken satay, which wasn’t very peanuty, but couldn’t work for me as it had pineapple on it, an ingredient choice I found rather odd.

The waitstaff at Café Neve seemed fairly new – our guy didn’t know much about the drinks selection, and although we specifically asked for half glasses of beer we got ‘handles’ (fortunately only a dollar more). Our dessert order was also forgotten, and a group who had made a reservation for five people couldn’t be accommodated at one table when they arrived at about 8:30pm.

The restaurant also did various specials and mains, with an average price in the high $NZ20’s.

The Cock Saddle was a bit more laidback, with some quality C&W pumping out (bit of Billy Ray, plenty of Shania, you know the stuff!) It has more of a Texas steakhouse type menu, with huge fish, beef or chicken burgers for $NZ18.50, a couple of Mexican selections and BBQ sauce ribs for $NZ23.00. Its lengthy drinks menu featured a range of bottled and draught New Zealand beers, as well as listing out all the liquors and spirits on offer.

The waitstaff here were very friendly and attentive – introducing themselves before taking your order, and they were happy for me to hold on to the menu after not ordering when SG did, since the leftover Café Neve pizza from last night was still adequately filling me up! A good option for families staying in Fox.

New Zealand - Craypot

70 West End, Kaikoura; (NZ) 03 319 6027

When in Kaikoura, it’s all about the crayfish (the town’s name actually means ‘to eat crayfish’ in Maori). Every guidebook mentions it and nearly all the restaurants have their crayfish options, normally half or full serve, prominently displayed on the menu. So how to be sure you’re getting a good one and not just paying for the tourist gimmick?

Well first, there’s the price issue. Without knowing much about crayfish, it’s hard to settle on paying $NZ50 or more for half a crustacean before even sitting down in the restaurant. The accompaniments might help – some come as part of a seafood platter, others with roasted potatoes. We settled on the Craypot, which wasn’t the cheapest crayfish option in town at $NZ40 per half serve, but then again I was happy in this instance not to settle for cheapest!

Definitely a venue for seafood lovers, the Craypot menu featured both fish and chips and fish of the day, as well as salmon, crayfish, and a seafood platter for two, as mains. Non-seafood options were more abundant in the starters, with three salads and Moroccan Kofta on offer.

As pre-determined before we even left the hostel, I went for the Half Crayfish Thermidor, served with orzetto and green salad. SG went the fish and chips. And what a meal his was. Four huge battered pieces of fish on a mound of thick cut, beer battered crispy chips. The fish batter was almost like crusty bread, and the fish pieces themselves were very flavoursome. I was glad his serving was so enormous, as my half crayfish did little to satisfy a traveller’s appetite. The crayfish meat was like calamari in texture, but had a very mild taste – nothing that you’d be naming a town after! The orzetto (rice like pasta) was too bland an accompaniment to such a delicate dish – I would much have preferred some herbed potatoes as so many other restaurants were offering.

After a slightly disappointing main I was happy to go with a dessert, and we ordered the passionfruit cheesecake from our rather dispirited waitress. That provided an amusing aside – we waited sometime for our dessert to arrive, and then enquired of the manager, who promptly returned to ask if that was the ‘two passionfruit cheesecakes’ – which we interpreted as a sneaky way of confirming an otherwise missing order!

New Zealand - Poppy Thai

31 Scott St, Blenheim; (NZ) 03 579 4496

This was a dining highlight. After wandering the few main streets of Blenheim, looking at two or three recommended places that had dispiritingly similar menus (in price - $NZ20-30 mains - and content), we made one last turn down Scott Street and espied Poppy Thai from afar. After plenty of mod-Australasian and Mediterranean dishes thus far on the trip some Asian sounded just the go.

The décor was entirely suitable – fake flowers, over-the-top tablecloths and placemats, elephants everywhere. One touch I did like were the info sheets on each table about the medicinal benefits of the most common Thai herbs, produced by the Thailand Tourism Board. Our waiter was about 14, and didn’t talk much, but did all the right things.

My meal was the Pad Bai Krapraow: stir fired basil, babycorn, peppers, chillies and veg with chicken ($NZ15 and note, we found in NZ Asian restaurants often included rice in the price of the meal). The dish was fantastic – all the ingredients were fresh as, and the sauce too held the just-picked basil taste, the mintiness of which balanced wonderfully against the chilli heat. SG went with his standard of stir-fry with oyster sauce ($NZ14.50 with pork, inc rice), which delivered a similar taste hit.

New Zealand - Figaro

8 Scott St, Blenheim

Figaro was noted in the Lonely Planet for its ‘superb coffee’. It was superb, not only in taste, but strength too. Served in the traditional Kiwi latte ‘bowl’, I later discovered it had three full shots – no wonder I went on a small head trip afterwards.

Figaro is a light-filled place, with cream walls and dark wood furniture, and its fully glassed frontage lets in plenty of sun – a perfect breakfast setting. I always find it hard to go past French toast, so ordered theirs with bacon, banana and maple syrup (berry compote and yoghurt is the other option, both $NZ13). Two thick cut, eggy pieces of sourdough were accompanied by a generous bacon serve and, banana that had been halved and grilled in its peel.

Not a big breakfast eater, SG picked up one of the muffins from the counter – fruit and muesli. It was light enough to not sit too heavily on the belly so early in the day, and the muesli gave it great texture, some roughage that made it seem more like a meal and an oaty taste.

The brief breakfast menu works around the egg and bacon staples, with muesli (with fruit and yoghurt, $NZ10) the only non-cooked option.

Mi Corazon

462 Lygon St, Brunswick East; 03 9384 6153

New Year, new restaurant. Mi Corazon opened on New Year’s Eve at the very northern end of Lygon St. It specialises in a range of tequilas and cocktails, as well as offering a selection of snacks and meals, cooked in traditional South American style. The venue has been completely renovated from its former incarnation as Cafe Banter. The front area is expansive, with seating options at tables, cushioned benches, or bar stools. A small, semi-shaded outdoor courtyard is accessed through a cosmic blue brick-lined walkway at the back. The makeover has been tastefully done - the stone floor brings to mind walking into a cool Mexican cantina from the heat of siesta time. The walls are warm oranges and reds, and the Mexican touches - piñata, saintly statues - are not kitsch.

The drinks menu is extensive, with eight types of tequila, priced from $7.50-$16 a shot. There's no draught beer, but the fridge features several appropriate imports, including Sol, San Miguel and Dos Equis, most priced around $7.50. Bottles of local beer are priced from $5.50. The bar list also includes a range of cocktails, and the eager bar staff are happy to talk about selections.
A simple food menu offers snacks and mains. We had a beef taco, served as a soft folded tortilla, fried and filled with minced beef and potatoes ($12). The dish came with a generous green salad with salty dressing and a hot peppery dip. The menu reads as standard South American fare - quesadillas, enchiladas, nachos (served as a plate of corn chips with bowls of guac, sour cream and salsa), with snacks ranging in price from $8-$12 and meal options of fajitas or enchiladas for $16. However care is put into the food to make sure it's flavour and spice that stand out, rather than oil dominating, as is often the case with Mexican food.

Mi Corazon is a new addition to the Brunswick section of Lygon Street that enhances the range of quality, international culinary destinations on offer.

Thaila Thai

82 Lygon St, Brunswick East; 03 9387 0659

Busy, cheap, and very good, that’s Thaila Thai. A table here on a Friday night, even with outdoor seating, is no guarantee. We snagged the one by the kitchen, which meant probably about 400 people checked out our meals as they waited for takeaway or a coveted seat.

Why so popular? If you’re eating in, the Thaila Thai menu reads more like a sandwich deli. All main courses are available with any meat, each at a set price. You then pick the kind of seasoning for a stir fry (eg basil leaves and chilli, or oyster sauce), a type of curry (red, green, yellow, peanut), or noodles. Extras, rather than avocado or mayonnaise, include cashew nuts for 0.50, or prawns for 3.00. And the value spreads to both sides of the menu. Rice is $2.00 a serve, corkage 0.50c a person, and an entree of six satay skewers only $5.50.

We went for the mixed (chicken and beef) skewers. The peanut sauce was creamy, with a breath of heat, which unfortunately was more than could be said for our meat. We’d also waited about 15 minutes, and had to request a couple of times, for our BYO wine to be brought back to the table corked. All forgotten when the mains arrived. The green curry was incredible (as attested to by multiple people in the endless line waiting for tables!) The vegies reflected the colour of the curry - zucchini, green capsicum, bay leaves and, surprisingly, asparagus. The curry sauce hit with coconut creaminess first, with all the spice in your throat. In between was a mix of mint, sweet, and a definite lingering taste of the bay leaves. A lot of flavour for under $11.50, including the rice. In the spirit of make-your-own, SG went for pork with wide ribbon rice noodles with veg and blackbean sauce. The thinly sliced pork was tender, contrasting with crispy vegetables.

Starter, two mains bigger than we could finish off and corkage came to $29. It did take us almost 15 minutes of queuing just to be able to pay, given one person was handling take away orders and diners settling their bill (one per table, cash only). An upside was it gave us ample time to watch what must be one of the hottest kitchens in Melbourne, with every hob on the go boiling rice, flash frying veg and flaming sauces. The food is excellent, the price unbelievable, but go during the week, and hold out for a seat at the back.

Singhs

55-57 Lygon St, Brunswick East; 03 9387 0066

Singhs is not an intimate eatery. It’s an expansive, tavern-style restaurant, brightly lit, with a large kitchen and bar in the middle. The menu is similarly extensive, covering all the Indian staple curries and side dishes. Their wine selection is of the bottle-shop variety, which means good prices by the glass, and some bottles for just $16.

SG is not a spice lover, and despite the option on the menu to tailor their dishes to your own level of spice, he neglected to ask and hence struggled a bit through his chicken masala (with onions, tomato and capsicum). My more accustomed tastebuds weren’t too assaulted, and found the spice lingered rather than attacked. My dish of choice was the eggplant pashwari - eggplant pieces in cashew nut paste and yoghurt sauce with garlic, ginger and spices. The yoghurt and cashew sauce was well balanced between acidity and nuttiness. The eggplant pieces were disappointing, adding little of their own flavour to the dish - perhaps over-salted or overripe?

Singhs has been around for 20 years, so their black clad waiters and fake flower arrangements make up parts of a tested formula. They deliver the quality of food that their pricing suggests - decent, spicy indian, without breaking any flavour boundaries.