With Te Anau being the gateway to Fiordland National Park, where plenty of adventuring awaits, it’s easy to work up quite an appetite. The good news is that you’re in the right place to satiate your hunger!
The Te Anau and Fiordland food scene offers something for everyone, whether you’re a sucker for a Southland classic or eager to tantalise your taste buds with something a little different.
With the tracks walked, the tourist hot spots well and truly explored, and your stomach growling, it’s time to try these popular meals that can’t help but satisfy all the senses!
Pulled Duck Wontons with Sweet and Sour Sauce
If you ever wanted to step outside your comfort zone at dinner time, wrap your beak around duck wontons. Their rich, savoury flavour profile, contrasting textures, and slightly gamy taste are just… chef’s kiss.
Better yet, when combined with a sweet-and-sour sauce, they become a classic Kiwi pub comfort food with a cheeky little Asian twist that you never expected.
Seafood Chowder Featuring Local Seafood
Picture this: It’s cold, raining, and you’ve just spent hours outside enjoying the best of Fiordland on a boat trip, a rainy hike, or a waterfall walk. You’re hungry, tired, and wet, and you spot a vibrant gastropub in the distance as you head to Te Anau. Once inside the warm, welcoming environment, you spot seafood chowder on the menu. The hot, steaming bowl lands on your table and warms you from top to toe.
It doesn’t get much better than that.
Fiordland is surrounded by some of the richest coastal waters in the country, making seafood chowder a natural meal choice when you find yourself in Te Anau with a hankering for Fiordland food. You’ll be holding up that ‘10’ score card when you tuck into a bowl of chowder full of green-lipped mussels, salmon, fish, and prawns. The garlic bread on the side is also always a nice touch!
Grilled Lamb Salad
You can’t be surrounded by sheep farms in Te Anau and not eat a grilled lamb salad. Whether you’re a local, live elsewhere in New Zealand, or come from another country, you just know New Zealand lamb is good.
But not just any ol’ lamb salad will do. A must-try lamb salad features a range of other ingredients that both balance and elevate the meat. Set your sights on a Moroccan seasoned lamb rump with roasted pumpkin, tomato, pumpkin seeds, feta, mint yoghurt dressing, and a pomegranate molasses as the cherry on top.
If you’re a traveller wanting to avoid a heavy meal but wish to experience the very best in local flavours, a lamb salad should be at the top of your list.
Smoked Akaroa Salmon: A Te Anau Food Favourite
Often described as the Wagyu of the sea, fresh New Zealand salmon is prized for its rich texture, clean flavour, and as a light alternative to red meat. Salmon lovers passing through Te Anau should take the opportunity to try smoked Akaroa salmon.
While delectable on its own, Akaroa salmon is even better when smoked and paired with roasted vegetables, beetroot hummus, Southland hazelnuts, and spinach.
Fish and Chips with a Garden Salad
Can you really call yourself a New Zealander or a tourist experiencing the best of our country if a fish and chip meal doesn’t make its way onto your must-try list? Fresh fish prepared in a delicious, light batter and served with hand-cut chips and a garden salad – it’s an absolute highlight of any evening.
Salt & Pepper Squid with Japanese Pickled Red Cabbage
While certainly not exclusive to New Zealand, salt and pepper squid is an exquisite light meal option for locals and travellers alike. Of Cantonese origins, salt and pepper squid consists of tender pieces of squid coated in a light batter, deep-fried, and seasoned with salt, black pepper, and aromatics. It can also be enhanced with other components, like Japanese pickled red cabbage and Gochujang mayonnaise. Step out of your comfort zone; you won’t be disappointed.
Fiordland Venison with Seasonal Vegetables
If you’re lucky enough to dine in an eatery with Fiordland venison on the menu, prepare to be wowed. Deer harvested from Fiordland’s untouched mountains is beautifully lean and flavourful, making it a real treat to enjoy on its own or in a pie. This delectable Fiordland food also pairs harmoniously with seasonal vegetables, berry sauces, and red wine jus.
Bluff Oysters Prepared Your Way
Visiting Te Anau during oyster season? You have impeccable timing. You’ll be able to enjoy Bluff oysters harvested from the nearby Foveaux Strait. Bluff oysters are a delicacy and can’t help but tantalise your taste buds when served fresh, grilled, or battered.
Green-Lipped Mussels: An Iconic Fiordland Food Experience
The green-lipped mussel, also known as the kuku, kutai, or New Zealand mussel, is a delicious mollusc with a green shell. It’s indigenous to New Zealand and of great economic importance to our country.
While not traditionally a Te Anau food, green-lipped mussels can be found off the outer saltwater fiords and coasts of Fiordland, such as Dusky Sound or the ocean approach to Milford Sound. Many are also transported to Te Anau eateries from aquaculture regions such as the Marlborough Sounds, Stewart Island, and the Coromandel.
Whether you’re choosing varieties locally sourced or brought in from other parts of the country, they are undoubtedly worth a try as a Te Anau local or a visitor just passing through. You can enjoy them from the shell or as part of a delicious dish, such as seafood linguine or seafood chowder.
Pie & A Pint
It doesn’t get much more classic Southland than a pie and a pint. Some of the very best Te Anau food businesses offer delicious pies and welcome you to try a pint to enhance and complement the flavour.
For example, every Thursday in August, The Fat Duck Gastropub Te Anau is offering a ‘pie and pint Guinness’ promotion for $38. All pies are made in-house, and there’s a new flavour every week! Check out the Facebook page to see what taste bud-tantalising flavour will be available this week…
Taste the Very Best of New Zealand Ingredients at The Fat Duck Te Anau
You’re in for a real treat when you stop by The Fat Duck in Te Anau for dinner. From delicious duck wontons and green-lipped mussels to classic fish and chips and hearty pies and pints, what more could you ask for from the Te Anau food scene?
Whether you’ve worked up a hunger from a day trip to Milford Sound or you need to warm up after exploring the huge waterfalls, it’s worth paying a visit and satiating your hunger.
Check out the menu and book your table today!
