Lots of tourists come to Te Anau as part of their tour of the south island and mostly on their way to Milford Sound and/or Doubtful Sound. If you come to Te Anau in the spring as we did, you'd find that fewer numbers of the local eateries are open as there would be in the summer.
We came to check out the Tip Top scoop selections and at the menu at this local dairy. Turns out it's not bad. They do have a pretty good Tip Top ice cream selection and while we enjoyed our cones one evening we noticed that a good number of people stopped in for take out (or as the New Zealanders say take aways). The next night we decided to give it a try.
We ordered stir fry vegetables ($12 NZ), the special noodles ($14 NZ), and seaweed soup ($4 NZ). The owner is a couple with their young children. While we waited we watched numbers of people come in and pick up take out. Most of them got fried chicken or fish and chips. Some were obviously locals that were greeted warmly. Don't get me wrong, we were treated very well. As it is not a full restaurant, they don't have hot tea or drinks aside from those in the coolers. As such the rather lightly flavored soup served as a hot drink. There were good bits of seaweed, some carrots, and egg drop to make it interesting. The noodles were special perhaps because it had slices of BBQ pork, chicken, and imitation crab stick. The sauce was fine. The stir fry vegetable dish had broccoli, cauliflower, onion, carrots, and celery. Nothing special, the pieces were a too big, but after too many meals with chips as sides this was a really nice change. This place doesn't serve amazing Chinese food. Someone else will have to comment on the fish and chips and fried chicken, but it is a nice neighborhood place. The Chinese food is fine and the price is right. You can get ice cream for dessert! read more