On our recent road trip to Queenstown, the trip revolved around food. It really was non-stop food for us. We asked some friends for some recommendations beforehand, and armed with these we made sure our tummies made the most of our short trip. I’m sure we came back fatter!
Salmon, Salmon, Salmon!
We bookended our Queenstown gastronomic extravaganza with some beautiful salmon at the High Country Salmon Farm, located just past the small town of Twizel and the main route between Christchurch and Queenstown. The salmon here is very fresh and tasty. And they have a great shop so you can enjoy the salmon for weeks to come. The cafe is small and busy — it’s fairly basic, but the star here is the salmon. Here’s a sample.
Fergburger — More than just burgers!
When you’re in Queenstown it’s against the rules to not have at least one burger from this famous establishment. This is a case of getting what you pay for. At Fergburger, the burgers are big, fresh and tasty — always. Hence the constant huge throng of people milling inside and outside at all hours. The place is never quiet. So, here’s a tip — just call and phone your order through. They issue your order number and their website tracks the orders. So just wait in a quiet place for your number to come up and then pick it up from the little pick-up window on the left.
Fergburger has become an emporium, as they have expanded into one shop and then another to include a bakery, a gelateria and a bar as well. We also enjoyed a tiramisu gelato — they have a big range of interesting flavours, and they have two gelato stores in Queenstown. We also enjoyed some treats from their bakery. They have really high standards for their products.
Yes, you pay a bit of a premium, but they deserve their success and all their food is consistently enjoyable and top notch. The Fergburger emporium is located on the main drag — Shotover Street. Just look for the crowd on the footpath and you’ve found it.
Farelli’s — Old Style Italian Eatery
Farelli’s was a recommendation from Kess’ boss. It’s located down at the wharf — a bit of a strange place with no real clear entrance, but once you find your way inside you are immediately greeted with typical Italian friendliness and hospitality. Whenever I go to a half decent Italian eatery, I’ve always noticed they have plenty of staff who are very good with the customers. That was no exception here. The restaurant itself isn’t fancy inside. It’s family friendly, warm and casual and the staff were very attentive. At first I didn’t expect much because the place seemed quite basic. But holy moly the food was incredible! We had a salad to start — typical Italian. Just a few simple ingredients, but combined beautifully and got us off to a surprisingly good start. We followed it up with Gnocchi and Ravioli for our mains.
The gnocchi was probably the best we ever had. Perfect flavour and very light with a beautiful texture and sauce. The same went for the ravioli — not stodgy at all and the flavour of the meat inside was wonderful. It’s clear that they have perfected the art of making delicious Italian sauces. I walked out thinking “bloody hell, that was way better than I thought it would be”! I couldn’t recommend it more if you just want a relatively cheap, cheerful and delicious meal.
Bespoke Kitchen – Let the good food roll
We went to the Bespoke Kitchen for our first Queenstown breakfast, just a short walk from the centre of town up the hill towards the Gondola. The cafe was spacious and nicely presented. Behind the glass counter were lots of fresh and lovely offerings. Kess went for something simple and light — a Chia Pot. This was really nicely put together with lots of fresh ingredients and a little bit different with nice seasonal ingredients. It was a healthy, light but tasty dish. I went for the scrambled eggs which were fluffy and nice. It was a really great breakfast washed down with a hot beverage which was good too. The chia pot was seriously good.
Eichardt’s Grille – Stylish and Intimate
Another recommendation from a friend. What a winner! The location is great — right on the lake-front. Eichardt’s Grille is a top quality restaurant and the decor and ambience in the restaurant is lovely. It was very quiet, spacious and comfortable and the service was first class. We really felt we were eating somewhere special. Because we told them ahead of time that it was our anniversary, they presented us with a complimentary glass of bubbles. I’m not even sure what it was, but it was lovely. We also ordered a couple of drinks. Fellas, you can’t go wrong having a romantic dinner here. Unless it’s with your mistress and your sister in law happens to be eating there as well!
Kess decided to be good and again had a salad for entree. It was fresh and nicely presented. I went for the French Onion soup. I don’t think I’ve ever ordered this before in a restaurant — my French Onion experiences have been limited to Maggi instant packets! This was some of the best soup I ever had. Taste was great, and just the right “lid” of gruyere on top with some beautiful bread in the soup. I’m still raving weeks later about that soup. I’ll always remember it.
For mains Kess went for the Venison and I had the Beef Bourguignon with pasta. We also had a side of “Duck Fat” potatoes. The venison was definitely the pick here. Beautifully cooked and presented and the potatoes complimented well. The potatoes were very crispy, fluffy and flavoursome.
The deserts look very nice too, but we elected to take a walk and “search” for some desert as we wanted to thy things from lots of different places.
Patagonia Chocolates
On another recommendation, we took a short stroll after dinner to Patagonia Chocolates. Despite being quite late already, the place was pretty packed. It was a bit chaotic and busy after eating at Eichardt’s. We ordered some hand made chocolates to take back to Christchurch as a gift and of course we sampled some ourselves too. We were kind of full and there were some queues, so we elected to just stick with the chocolate. Next time we will get a desert here — they looked very nice. They were very big so you could easily share between the two of you. Just pick the right time to go here!
Vudu Cafe
Our next breakfast stop was the Vudu Cafe. There are so many cafe’s, bars and restaurants in Queenstown that I don’t think you can go wrong at any of them. This was also recommended to us, so we gave it a try. Kess opted for the salmon bagel and I went for something light with some banana bread washed down with our respective long black and English Breakfast tea. The cafe is in a good spot near the lake-front. Quite small, so make sure you get here early. Once again everything was very nice.
Bathhouse Cafe
After our light breakfast we went for a stroll and did a little shopping and generally poked around. On our way we passed the Bathhouse Cafe. This is such an idyllic cafe and you couldn’t put something in a better spot. It is perched right on the beach of the lake. The black board out the front caught our eye — Bailey’s Hot Chocolate. Before you could say “that’s good craic”, we were in there and ordered one, as well as a slab of carrot cake. Both were delicious and everything tastes better eating it in such a cosy and cute cafe.
It was a shame to leave after such a short time. But we look forward to going back to Queenstown to try some of the other places we missed out on. Be sure to check out more of our adventures at Cheeky Cockatoo.