Editor Pick
The Adelphi
- April 21, 2006
- Rated 4 of 5 by
stomps from Houston, Texas
When we arrived in Kaikoura around 8pm, without any food to our name, we didn't expect to be eating much for dinner. All of the cheap takeaway restaurants in town had obviously been closed for at least a few hours, and many of the restaurants were either closed or looked like they were in the process of closing as well, which made sense, since Kaikoura is a rather small town and it wasn't exactly bustling at this time of night.
After making our way down the main street, all the way to the train station (just to see what was there), we ambled our way back and found that the Adelphi bar and restaurant was open. The Adelphi is very hard to miss, since it has "The Adelphi" written down the side of the main building in large letters. It is a hotel and backpackers, which made the scene in the bar that much more odd—there were probably five or six other people in the entire place, including the people that worked there, which we found very odd for a bar connected to backpackers.
We ordered a pizza between us and it got to us rather quickly. I expect we would have been rather disappointed in the service otherwise. It was quite a good pizza and really not expensive—NZ$12 between the two of us. We enjoyed being able to sit in peace, watching the two other patrons of the bar playing a game of pool in the center. The layout of the place was really nice in this way—the tables were around the outer ring of the restaurant, so everyone could have some entertainment in the pool games and such during their dinner.
The restaurant was very clean, as was the bar area that we waited at for our food. The whole place was in general much different to any bar I had been in previously, in that it was nearly spotless and smoke free. It could have just been spotless since the bar staff were getting ready to go home, but I didn't get that impression. We weren't actually ushered out the door by said bar staff, but they made it very clear, without being rude or pushy in any way, by putting chairs on tables and such that it was time for the restaurant to close (around 10pm). Overall, a very nice place to eat, although slightly lacking in atmosphere late on a Thursday night. I expect it would have been slightly louder, with a few more people, on a Friday or Saturday night, but I can't say that for sure as we were gone by the next evening.
From journal Kaikoura--Wildlife Paradise