Less than Ideal
- October 28, 2009
- Rated 1 of 5 by
baj48 from dunedin, New Zealand
Food at Hine's takeaway mediocre, and service appalling.
Would not return, unless you want your 12 year old daughter to be given the finger, over a receipt mix up. Notably rude to foreign tourists also.
Would not recommend.
Editor Pick
Cheap and Kind of Cheerful Fish and Chips
- January 7, 2009
- Rated 1 of 5 by
wolfbrother from Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Kaikoura is famous for its seafood, notably its crays. Given that it's right on the coast and crayfish are practically dragging themselves out of the sea and onto your plate, we thought that they'd be pretty reasonably priced when you get it direct from the place they're caught. Not so. The locals pay export prices, which is frankly ridiculous, and so we decided we weren't going to contribute to that kind of highway robbery and opted for some good old fashioned New Zealand fish and chips on our first night in Kaikoura. We asked around in a variety of places for the best fish and chips in town and all of them directed us to Hines. As such we had pretty high expectations when we showed up at this little chip shop at the edge of the west end.
It's a reasonably easy place to find. It's just around the corner from the Adelphi backpacker lodge, as you turn the corner towards the bridge out to the highway 1 north.
They have a very basic menu, with a few options for different kinds of fish. The basic whitefish option is cheap and cheerful, with other, costlier fish juping up several notches ($3 for a standard fish, $6 for blue cod and $8 for snapper on the night we stopped in). As Hines has a reputation for its quality we opted for the middle option and got some blue cod and chips.
This was the greasiest meal I have ever eaten. The chips, the fish, the batter - all of them dripped grease and left me feeling like it was oozing out of my pores by the time I left. Having said that though, the fish was pretty tasty. Not twice-the-price tasty, but pretty good and - if you like your chips kind of mushy - then you might like those too.
Overall though, I wouldn't recommend this place. There are cheap options in a town that does not have very much for the low budget traveller, but I have never seen so much grease in one place in my life. And I'm from Scotland. The service was pretty unfriendly too. Not hostile, just very bored and disinterested.
If you're looking for something reasonably priced and tasty, then you're much better off going to the bbq seafood cart off the road near the seal colony up at the other end of town.
From journal The Spectacular Vistas of Kaikoura