\u201cI\u2019m lucky to have found my way home after years of storytelling for other places and brands,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd now I make a habit of learning and sharing all of ours.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here is Evans\u2019 wee list of some of the tastiest things to get your hands on in Invercargill.<\/p>\n
Three words that sum up the food in Invercargill: Generous. Grounded. Evolving.<\/p>\n
My most controversial food opinion about Invercargill: Cheese rolls, or \u201cSouthland\u2019s Sushi\u201d, aren\u2019t supposed to be fancy. They\u2019re fundraiser food. Baked with love (or obligation) by teams of volunteers in cold community halls, mixing tonnes of cheese in buckets with power drills. Slightly freezer-burnt, toasted at home, dunked into vegetable soup and dripping with butter. Making them artisan with herbs and gourmet fillings feels a bit performative.<\/p>\n
Everyone has a dining out pet peeve. Mine is: Menus that haven\u2019t been edited. Too many dishes, too many pages and too many spelling mistakes. If produce changes with the seasons, the menu should too. Invest in a blackboard.<\/p>\n
The local dish I crave most: Creamy p\u0101ua wontons at The Anchorage in Bluff.<\/p>\n
The best restaurant in Invercargill is: I don\u2019t think Invercargill has a \u201cbest\u201d restaurant any more. The meals I get most excited for aren\u2019t in restaurants. They\u2019re found at the one-off events where Southland chefs seem to come alive.<\/p>\n
A perfect example was Bon Appet\u012bt\u012b, a celebration of the t\u012bt\u012b, at The Batch last year. It was storytelling from people whose wh\u0101nau have been birding for generations, watching a muttonbird be deboned between courses, and leaving with t\u012bt\u012b butter. Other events like the H\u0101kari at The Anchorage and Feast Matariki Awarua layered stories of the past, culture, and hope for the future onto the plate. The Bluff Oyster Festival reminds everyone that Bluff is about far more than oysters, thankfully, with kina, crayfish and adorable cocktail p\u0101ua all getting their moment. And Southern Field Days isn\u2019t just about tractors or stock feed but also one of the best food events of the year, with local chefs cooking for the region\u2019s biggest agricultural brands.<\/p>\n
Stand-out dishes from those events: Half-and-half oyster by chef Ethan Flack. Crispy on one side, melt-in-your-mouth raw on the other. Hunter\/gatherer Dan Tarrant\u2019s filleted in-front-of-you ceviche. P\u0101ua relish by chef Hayz (Haylee-Chanel Simeon). T\u0101tia sauce from Uncle\u2019s Food Truck.<\/p>\n
When I\u2019m craving something cheap and cheerful I head to: Luisteambuns.<\/p>\n
The most underrated local gem is: A\u2019s Cafe in Windsor. The Filipino food scene has become one of the most exciting things happening in Southland food. It\u2019s gone from home kitchens to restaurants with menus full of flavour and dishes many of us have never tried before.<\/p>\n
A recent food discovery I can\u2019t stop talking about: The fry bread from Kai Reka (a food truck in Bluff). Their cream p\u0101ua on fries is also stupidly tasty.<\/p>\n
A place I\u2019ve been dying to try is: Whatever opens next. I\u2019m very much looking forward to seeing who takes on the new Te Unua Southland Museum Cafe lease. At 267m2 and spilling into Queens Park, it\u2019s set to become an institution, with the opportunity to tell Murihiku stories through food.<\/p>\n
Celebrating with a group? Book a table at: Koji. The food is consistently good, the beer is cold, and it never tries to be anything other than a genuinely enjoyable place to eat. Plus the staff have a great sense of humour, and the beef tataki is always a hit.<\/p>\n
Pub or bar of choice: Gadoochi Brewing. It\u2019s an old engineering warehouse turned brewery with large scale art by Nicola McGilvray hanging from the rafters. A fun venue for live music, comedy and beer tasting. Gadoochi are known for their not-so-sweet ciders pressed from Central Otago fruit, but if you love a hazy, the Walking Juice Hazy Pale Ale is worth getting a flagon of. When Mash x Uppercuts food truck is parked outside, cancel your dinner plans and grab lamb shoulder loaded agrias (spuds) or a crispy pork belly roti roll.<\/p>\n
For a late-night food fix you\u2019ll find me: Standing in front of my pantry self-negotiating the consumption of yet another salted brown butter cookie as I feed a newborn.<\/p>\n
Got visitors from out of town? I\u2019m taking them to: Bluff. Start with a tasting at Bluff Distillery, for their award-winning gin, then The Anchorage with Hayz for traditional kai M\u0101ori with a modern twist and let the place do the rest. Bluff has a way of making people understand Southland very quickly. Plus you can stand at the top of Bluff Hill and have your breath taken away.<\/p>\n
An ideal date spot would be: 360 for a liquid dinner. The cocktail list is a drawcard, but I\u2019d be lying if I said it wasn\u2019t mostly about the view. Southland does big skies better than almost anywhere.<\/p>\n
Make sure to order: A flight of three local gins. Third Island Gin from Rakiura Distillery, a crisp Bluff Gin, and Auld\u2019s Endless Fields Gin. All award-winning.<\/p>\n
But avoid: Auld\u2019s Oceans Keep (an oyster gin) \u2013 unless you\u2019re committed to the maritime experience. One sip and you\u2019ll know exactly where it came from.<\/p>\n
Clockwise from top left: The Batch, Koji, The Anchorage, LuisteambuNZ, Groove, Coffee with J<\/p>\n
Invercargill\u2019s best\u2026<\/p>\n
Breakfast: The Batch Caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Coffee: Groove. They roast their own beans, pour your coffee faster than you can pay, know the dogs by name, and groove with the toddlers as they wait for fluffies.<\/p>\n
Sandwich: A Wild Yeast bagel.<\/p>\n
Noodles: The buttery swede noodle soup that chef Ethan Flack occasionally appears with at events is a dish I think about far too often.<\/p>\n
Pie: Miss steak and cheese from Fat Bastard Pies. Or depending on their pie of the month, that. They deliver nationally too.<\/p>\n
Ice cream: Blueberry ice cream from the Otautau Orchard in summer. I hang out for it all year. The toddlers love picking their own berries too.<\/p>\n
Comfort meal: The miso k\u016bmara from The Batch. Although, on some days it\u2019s their granola, their brown butter cookies or simply one of their scones loaded with whipped butter. Walking into The Batch cafe is like coming home. They do comfort food extremely well.<\/p>\n
Kaimoana: Toheroa patties. Which is admittedly a frustrating answer because you can\u2019t just wander into a restaurant and order them. And you need a permit to dig for them. But if someone offers, don\u2019t say no.<\/p>\n
Fish and chips: Wherever you can get fresh blue cod.<\/p>\n
And the best place to unwrap and eat them is: Sitting out the front of the South Sea Hotel in Rakiura with a local gin, one of the best views in the country and undoubtedly some tall tales from the locals.<\/p>\n
Bread: FlourBro\u2019s jalapeno and cheddar sourdough.<\/p>\n
Baked treat: Based on repeat purchases, hands down the scones from The Batch.<\/p>\n
What defines a great scone? A great scone should make you question the cafe\u2019s bottom line. They should be beyond generous with the cheese, and dense enough that you don\u2019t lose any to crumbs. The Batch\u2019s has ruined every other cafe\u2019s scone for me.<\/p>\n
For a serious sweet tooth, head to: Coffee with J. Their filled doughnuts are lighter than air. And the ube is delicious, seriously whimsical in colour and moreish.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re after spice, try: Last Light Lodge\u2019s hot sauce. You can get it out in Tuatapere, or at the Environment Centre in Riverton. Organic, locally grown and packs a punch.<\/p>\n
The dairy with the best lolly selection: Toot Sweets. Part lolly shop, part childhood fever dream. OK, it\u2019s not a dairy, but there\u2019s a giant Jaffa room, and the candy floss from the machine is bigger than your head.<\/p>\n
A little local treat that always cheers me up: Sam\u2019s cheesy ensaymadas from the Southern Farmers Market.<\/p>\n
For the best produce, I stop in at: The Southern Farmers Market on Sunday mornings, Wilson\u2019s Produce on the way to Winton, or one of the community food gardens dotted around the city \u2013 some put in by council, others by guerilla gardeners.<\/p>\n
One of Southland\u2019s underrated strengths is: how close we remain to the people producing our food.<\/p>\n
A perfect place to linger over a drink: Amplify Roastery. Same people as Groove, but a completely different pace. You can watch coffee being roasted, talk beans and lose an hour to food chat with the regulars like David who runs the hidden burger joint just around the corner.<\/p>\n
For outstanding people watching, go to: The coffee shop inside E. Hayes & Sons hardware store. You get a great cross section: pottering old men here for a very particular screwdriver, tourists here for the World\u2019s Fastest Indian, specialty bakeware perusers, and parents of toddlers rebranding a coffee outing by adding tools and motorbikes.<\/p>\n
The place I\u2019m most likely to bump into someone I know: The Batch. Or Groove. Or the Farmers Market. Actually, most places.<\/p>\n
The place I go to avoid bumping into anyone I know: I haven\u2019t found it yet. Southland is small, and I love connecting with food producers.<\/p>\n
A local spot I wish we could bring back from the dead is: Louie\u2019s which closed in 2023. Mana\u2019s stories. The lamb tacos. The p\u00e2t\u00e9. The dimmed lights. The wine list. It was our third place.<\/p>\n
A restaurant I would love to relocate to Invercargill: I\u2019d rather see someone local create the next great Southland restaurant.<\/p>\n
The place I return to again and again: The Batch.<\/p>\n
Why I love eating in Invercargill: Our ingredients are world class. And they come from real people. Bill\u2019s lamb, Annette\u2019s strawberries, Logan\u2019s milk, David\u2019s carrots, Chris\u2019s gin, Gustavo\u2019s mushrooms.<\/p>\n
In many ways, the restaurant scene here still gives \u201crural city\u201d: big portions, comfort food, plenty of deep-fried favourites and menus that often try to do too much. But small producers are making remarkable things, and some of the best things I\u2019ve eaten in Southland only existed for a single night. There are empty spaces waiting for the right idea, locals waiting for an experience, and stories waiting to be told on a plate. Here\u2019s hoping the next great idea is already being scribbled on the back of a serviette somewhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cheese rolls, Bluff oysters and blue cod, yes, but also p\u0101ua wontons, ensaymadas, gin flights, beef tataki and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[93345,138,564,193225,18390,141,111,139,69,15488],"class_list":["post-554663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-bluff","tag-business","tag-food","tag-insiders-guide-to-eating","tag-invercargill","tag-kai","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-southland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}