The five sections are Restaurants, Trendie Cafes/Bars, Lunchbars/Cafeterias, Other Food Establishments, and Non-Hamilton (i.e. Waikato) places. They are loosely organised from my most favourite to my least favourite. Note that unreviewed/new places are at the bottom of each section. Reviews of deceased restaurants reside here.
They are also indexed by Food Type / Nationality, Geographical Location and Alphabetically.
If you want a different set of reviews, try going to Dine Out or Zomato (nee MenuMania).
Duck Island Ice Cream In Grey St just beside Steel Park. Has lots of interesting flavours of ice-cream. Some even Dairy-Free. People rave about this, but I haven't managed to go yet. Hint: If you go to Goneburger first, get the small burger so you have room for an icecream after. [not reviewed] | |
Hell Pizza shop in 5 Crossroads, Hillcrest & Dinsdale. The pizza's were interesting. It takes a while to get through the menu. Price is a bit more that normal Pizza Hut/Haven, but the pizza's have more interesting toppings. Only one base type, but the flavour was good. The dessert pizza's are the best thing we got. Also do pasta (I quite liked the tandoori chicken pasta) and salads (no comment - anyone want to try for me?). I do like the pork ribs. And now they have a branch right next to uni, so yay! Has a website that you can order from. Shame about the $7 delivery charge. [last reviewed Nov 2008] | |
Scoff I can't believe I don't have Scoff on this list somewhere! Why did nobody tell me? As it says on the sign: "takeout for grownups". They have a new menu board, which you don't have to crane your neck to see, but everything has gone up by a dollar. Everything is good, especially the Cannelloni. But their rewards card is really sucky, you only get 1 stamp, no matter how many many meals you buy. So a single person get's twice as many rewards as a couple. The burgers aren't as good as BurgerFuel, but then I don't go to Scoff for burgers. Has a website. [reviewed May 2008] | |
Pizza Hut The old standard. I don't like them as much now the Hamilton East and Ulster Street restaurants have closed, but I guess most people takeaway or get delivered. Ask for everything with barbecue sauce - and you need to say underneath otherwise you just get it squirted on top, a la Eagle Boys style. Note that they will not always do this if you ring the 0800 number, depending on how anal the operator you get is. You can now order online. | |
Dominos Most of the Pizza Haven's have turned into "Dominos". They seem reasonable, and have a good range. Some people rave about them. The pricing confused me, and their website only has a pdf of the pizza descriptions. The Godfather pizza was nice. | |
Sals The Burger Fuel in town has turned into a New York style pizza place. The pizza is good, and some of the sides are interesting. but I don't think I could go regularly. Be warned that the interesting menus in the video above the counter don't belong to Sals, so you can't order anything from them. Has a website | |
Nando's A roast chicken joint (as it were). Part of an Aussie chain - see their web site. The chicken is nice, very succulent, and the lemon & herb baste is good. The mild Peri-Peri (chilli) sauce is hotter than I expected for an NZ "mild" sauce. Order first and you should have read all of the walls before your food arrives. A bit pricy, but a change from KFC. | |
Seafood Grotto In Frankton Village. Essentially a fish'n'chip shop with seats out the back. Cheap and cheerful, with lots of local colour. The fish was lovely. the rest was ho-hum. and yes Malcolm, we also got the 'yous want eggs wiv that' with every order. [reviewed Junish 2007] | |
D'Lishes Odd burger joint in the mall food court in Westfields. The Chartwell one is getting a facelift. [not reviewed] | |
Working Mens Club Bar & Bistro Not my cup of tea, but here for completeness. I believe you need to be a member to get in, although one member can bring in three guests, so if you have a mate who is a member... The food was generous and reasonably tasty. We went on a busy night and it was a small wait, but the drinks are cheap :-) Has a web site. [not reviewed] | |
Vegan Buffet, or somesuch Used to be Chinese Healthy Vegetarian Food. A *very* dodgy looking place next to K-Mart. Does asian vegetarian fodder. Don says "I think the food is quite tasty, but it's not hot enough. They have a sign offering to heat food up in the microwave oven. For under $5 I could eat a filling meal. The owner is friendly." but then most people thought Don was slightly weird to start with. [not reviewed] | |
Nawab A hole in the wall that used to be Spawn. I am not around town when it is open to see what it does. | |
A cross between an Indian and a kebab place Another hole in the wall on Vic St. Was Sweeties. Now a cross between an Indian and a Kebab place - i.e. does a roti wrapped around a curry as far as I can tell. Is never open when I want to try one. Presumably I need to be hungry late at night. | |
St Pierre's Sushi of Japan Just had to include this. It really was a wtf? when I first saw it, cause the French are famous for their sushi - not! Appears to be popular, and is in every mall, but who's brainfart was the name? | |
GelatAmore Used to be the in Garden Place next to Urge/Le Petit. Now only have the Cambridge GelatAmore place. Their gelatos are great, so try it sometime. [reviewed Oct 2006] | |
any of the myriad and ubiquitous Noodle Canteen/Master/Wok style places So for years you could only dream about getting your chinese takeout in the boxes like they do on the movies. and now they are everywhere, looking exactly like each other, but each having it's own unique name and menu. so you can't just go into any one and assume you can get what you got at the last one. [impossible to review them all, kinda like pokemon...] | |
Coffee Culture Used to be 5 Cross Roads Cake Kitchen. More of a drop in for a coffee place than an eatery. Counter food only. Not a lot of soul here, but it always seems busy, so someone must like it. [reviewed Dec 2014] | |
Dunkin Donuts In Vic St just past Garden Place. Some people rave about this place. It is confusing that there is a large array of items with exotic names in the cabinet, but only prices for 'donut' and 'fancies'. I guess you just pick and see whether your 'Boston Creme' falls under a donut or fancies price. I found the donut we tried okay, but I would have preferred a Cinnabon :-) [not reviewed] | |
Fusion Pizzas In Ham East. We had the teriyaki chicken pizza, which was about the most 'fusion' it got. Oh, and the garlic bread, which was nice, and good value. Really, If you are going to sell yourself as fusion pizzas, then I expect at least to have different sauces and cheeses, not to mention some cross culture pollination. Also, I think you need to look at what Hell is doing rather than Pizza Hut as your inspiration. [reviewed Aug 2012] | |
Hamilton Farmers Market There has now been a schism between some of the market that has gone out to the Te Rapa Racecourse, and some that have stayed in the car park on River Road. Can I say I preferred the old place more. Sunday morning market. Good place to buy veges and produce. Food is normally high quality, but expensive. The salami's are good, as are the spotted dick. Don't think much of the cornish pasties tho - they need more salt/pepper/spice. The soggy bottom sausages are also good. I love the pretzels. Has a website. [reviewed weekly] |
If you have any comments or corrections or additions you would like to make, please don't hesitate to email me at: telphick@cs.waikato.ac.nz
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