Kai - Te Kuiti

Since this weekend has an extra day of holiday we decided to pay a long overdue visit to Te Kuiti to visit my uncle and his family. It's a bit of a hike (about a six hour drive) but we hired a car and headed out of town straight after work on Friday, and have been enjoying a weekend away.

Yesterday for lunch we thought we'd try out a local cafe in Te Kuiti, and decided to try out Kai, which has reasonably recently been renamed and has new owners, though the cafe has been there a while. There weren't many people there but it was clean and tidy, the staff were friendly, and the menu was pretty appealing.

The special was french onion soup, which I haven't had for ages but was in the mood for. It was pretty good - nice and rich, packed with onion and topped with a couple of slices of ciabatta with cheese.

We also had the fish and chips (both Mr Cake and I couldn't decide so we shared both dishes). This was the small plate ($9.50) but there was an option for a larger serving too (I think $12.50) so if this looks too small that's because we chose the small dish. ;-) The fish was lovely - tasted nice and fresh - and the chips were pretty good - and made fantastic by the homemade aioli that came with them! My biggest complaint of the meal was that there just wasn't enough aioli (or that it was too delicious).

It was a pretty good meal - and I was very tempted by the delicious-looking cakes in the cabinet but we didn't have room so I guess those will have to wait for our next trip up this way. Highly recommended!




Kai Cafe is located at 35 Carroll Street, Te Kuiti, ph 07 878 6639.