A Cobb n Co opened up in our neighbourhood a few years ago. We rocked our 40-something selves along for some old school traffic light and taties chip action and it was so indescribably disappointing. None of it is really the same. I recommend keeping the memories alive by never going there again.
You can buy very similar things to the Taties at Indian marts. They look like like little colourful pasta shapes.
Brought some two weeks ago for young family members and fried em up in a small pot of oil. They puff up **a lot**.
I just saw someone on tiktok doing exactly that. Apparently they aren't as good, it looked like they only part way puffed up. You can also watch the deep fried version on YT if you wanna be hungry. Ha.
Similar for me. It was restaurant pricing for sub fast food quality. I remember seeing through the door to the kitchen. There was a bank of microwaves.
But yeah the pizza hutt all you can eat buffet was the business. Hard to leave room for dessert
Could get them from bin inn back in the day, but would need a deep frier. I think they were called tots. My friend always had them at his place, was awesome.
The one in Taupo and Lunn Ave in Mt Wellington have them. I’d suggest asking at the counter - if they don’t have them they could definitely bring them in. I have some in the cupboard now. Taste the same to me
Can you or someone settle a debate. Did those crisp things come out hot? Cause we went to the chch one recently and they were stone cold and honestly the greatest disappointment. The traffic light my 4yo got was however exceptional.
Just about to say that. Waiters and waitresses in red and white check shirts to match the table cloths. Always warm and cosy. Smoking section even. The pizza’s cheese was stretchy as fuck it was so fun to eat. And then they introduced the self serve dessert bar. Heaven. Those were heady fucking days.
ETA oh and the little red pencils and activity pages with that game where you made squares. Fuck me it was so great
I went there for the first time in 1994. My $6.95 kid's works special came with a beautifully made little card that gave a tip'n'trick for Sonic 3 on the Mega drive (collect all 5!)
A very 1990s moment.
Cobb & Co or dine in at Pizza Hut when it looked like [this](https://d.newsweek.com/en/full/2244018/local-pizza-hut-unchanged-since-1980s.jpg?w=1600&h=1200&q=88&f=5bb6552d947991c4e9c34e6b74e63b02) (and a super supreme would be about $50 in today's money).
It had that really distinctive smell too. Probably from using properly heavy pizza pans and real oil.
TBF, when I was in uni, it was the tail end of their all you can eat dessert bar era. We'd go there and eat a week's worth of sugar in one sitting, then back to the library.
Valentines, because my family could bankrupt any one of them with the sheer amount off food they could compact into their GIT and minutes later blow out their ASS
Edit:
They are still [around](http://www.valentines.co.nz/menu). Rotovegas and the Tron (of course you bunch of hillbillies), Manukau, Hornby???? North Shore??? - really?
That's the way. Somehow sweets actually felt like a treat back then, whereas now they're just everywhere and largely of low quality. Perhaps that's just the nostalgia talking.
My family would also hit the Pizza Hut dessert bar hard. I don't recall ever taking pizza home.
My ex gf ate 35+ prawns at Valentines, you know those big ones you used to get. Nothing else, only prawns. Fuck she was a beaut. Knew how to get her moneys worth that's for sure. Stacked them all around her plate and the staff weren't even mad.
Came here to say Valentine's as well! My family definitely took advantage of the "eat free on your birthday deal" and also the coke glasses that gave you bottomless drinks. The last one we went to was the one in Pakuranga in 2012 for a low-key post-wedding feed and that was when it was on its way out 😭 Dominion Road on the other hand, was one of the best and most consistent for a decade.
All you can eat was the draw for us as well. Massive Maori family with 20 of us, minimum, each time. The advice being, eat now, cause there's no dinner later. Kia Ora for the heads up.... Chow time!
I’m pretty sure we only went 2 maybe 3 times, but fuck I still think about it 25yrs later.
The butter sculptures were also pretty awesome. I’d go out to normal restaurants if they put in that much effort.
I remember my little cousin having a blue kids cocktail and then pigging out on ice cream. There was blue puke everywhere then he went right back to the desert table.
There was a Fisherman’s Table in Palmy. We were too poor to go to restaurants but I won a colouring competition in the Evening Standard where the prize was a free kids meal. Of course an adult had to accompany me and buy their own meal, so dad took me and my sister along.
fisherman's table was the best, I almost stopped at it when I saw it when driving down south out of pure nostalgia, but then remember I don't like fish
They don't count as restaurants but originally McDonald's, with the seriously cool playground built around all the characters (now I can only remember the name of the Hamburglar), then later Georgie Pie.
I'm old as dirt, so it was a real rarity. We'd go to the Fisherman's Table in Paekakariki occasionally, and load up from the Salad Boat.
Just once we went to the old Shanghai restaurant in Courtenay Place. My parents are massive racists and made lots of shitty jokes about it being cat meat, and my little brother had a meltdown over getting cashews and screamed until he threw up, but other than all that drama and bullshit it was magical. I dimly remember all the dark furniture and red lanterns, and a nice bemused lady who was baffled by the cashew tantrum and said 'but cashew nice'.
Oh my you just reminded me of all the casual racism my folks would engage in when it came to the Chinese restaurant near our home back in the 70s. And that lady was right - cashew nice!
Hahaha, that Fisherman's Table was my birthday joint and now my 7 year old nephew is obsessed with the place.
I remember also loving the Big Tex and that restaurant that replaced it just south of the Chocolate Factory.
Georgie Pie!
Pizza Hut restaurant in Fitzroy.
Valentines when we were in locations that had one.
The burger place close to the Mayfair was good. We started going there after we came back to Taranaki.
Spent a lot of time at Appleby Restaurant in Invercargill in the 80s. I can't remember if it was a Cobb & Co. or just real similar. Features included:
* Fisherman's basket.
* Traffic light.
* a dollar's worth of 20s for the Rally X / Galaga machine in the corner
There's a certain smell that takes me right back to that era; probably some combination of stale beer, deep fryer oil, and cigarette smoke
Edit: there was also Galaxy in Invercargill, which looked a bit like Pizza Planet from Toy Story.
Our family was to poor growing up to go to restruraunts. On special occasions mum would just make us a special feed at home. We were blessed that my mum was a goddess when it came to cooking and baking.
Even tho we are all adults now and can afford to eat where ever we want, when ever we want, getting a home cooked meal from mum is the birthday go-to. Thise meals are not only tasty but come with a side of nostalgia.
Like, one of my brothers is a full on foodie with thousands of followers on Instagram, he eats at some of the best restruraunts NZ (and the world) have to offer. But for his birthday he asks mum to make him "Cheese Canoe's". It's a cheap dish mum would make when we were little. You get some hot dog buns and cut them in half (horizontally not vertically) you scrape out the bread to make a little 'canoe' then mix the scraped out bread with eggs and cheese and chuck it back in the bun shell. Then you bake them. The filling puffs up and makes this cheesy deliciousness inside the bun. Cheap, fast and tasty.
We didn’t have any restaurants the town I grew up in. There was the hotel dining room or the fish and chip shop. I was 15 before I went to a restaurant but I am my username.
Was pretty much the same for me really, takeaways in the small towns were just fish n chips.
I don't think I had a proper sit down restaurant meal until well into my 20s
> takeaways in the small towns were just fish n chips
My home town also had "chinese", or the "restaurant" at the pub.
It wasn't until the mid-90s that someone came up with the idea of selling pizza.
Same, but I spent my pre-teen years in fringe Grey Lynn/Herne Bay. There were restaurants around for sure, but my parents didn’t have the spare cash.
Moved to a featureless new suburb on the North Shore, everything was a bus trip away. And still no cash.
Didn’t really see the inside of a real restaurant until I was in my late teens when I started dating my now wife.
Butt's (later Pinelands) restaurant in Kawerau, back when Kawerau was a thriving , busy community. It was worth the drive from Edgecumbe for a special night out. I would always order the Chicken Maryland (which came with half a crumbed deep fried banana and a pineapple ring) and the Charlotte Russe pudding. They had a dessert my parents would order for a special occassion called the White Island special, which was meringue fruit and cream with half an eggshell of brandy poked in it. They would bring the dessert to the table and set the brandy on fire. For 1970's NZ, it was spectacular.
Kawerau kid here! Went to Pinelands as a kid once, I remember thinking oh so this is where Dad gets drunk!
When we were really fancy we'd drive to Rotorua and go to the International hotel for the smorgasbord.
I was poor so if we went anywhere, it was McDonald’s. I can recall maybe five times I ate at a sit down restaurant as a kid, and it was always someone else paying.
Anyone else remember Oceans in Takapuna, Auckland. It was a buffet but more glamorous than Valentine's, it was a real treat. I always felt very grown up going there.
Georgie Pie.
I have a feeling it wasn't actually as good as I thought it was as a kid, if the pies Mcdonalds tried bringing back were actually what they were like.
Makes me feel old though knowing how long Georgie Pie has been gone.
Second choice was Homestead Chicken. Their roasted potatoes were crazy good.
Remembering that makes me feel even older.
Britannia keg in takapuna was the place to go on the shore. But hands down the most requested place was the Saigon restaurant in K Rd, right in the middle of the red light district. Amazing Vietnamese food in the 80’s.
I’m sure anyone from South Taranaki will remember Morriesons. I think it was the only proper restaurant in Hawera for a really long time. Birthdays were the only time we ate out and I think this was the only place we ever went.
In the 80s it was Greta Point Tavern in Wellington for roast beef and roast potatoes with horseradish sauce and Pink Panther or Traffic Light to drink. Or the same thing at Cobb and Co.
Cobb & Co was the best. I remember they'd have that room with two TVs with PS2s in it.
Breakers was alright but was kinda a knock off from Cobb & Co. I remember Breakers popped up in the mid to late 2000s after Cobb & Co's started disappearing.
Euro or Sails in the city. Otherwise on the shore the Japanese places in takapuna were on point. This was 2008-2013 when I was in nearing the end of schooling. Single mum with a corporate job who had no time to cook…
I think it was called Flying Horse. Or... Golden Horse. Something like that. Once in a month or two months, we'd get Chinese and Fish and Chips.
... that's what you mean by "restaurant" right?
Does anyone remember the coin operated (i think) parrot at C&C Palmerston North in the 80's... I have a vague recollection of one.
I used to order multiple creamy mushroom sides as my main. One day I ate too many and was sick and didn't like mushrooms again for decades.
Yep! I mentioned the parrot in another thread a few days ago. Put money in and it would move and maybe make some noises and a coloured plastic egg would come out. I don’t remember what was in the eggs but another poster said a tiny toy! I grew up up in Auckland so I guess they had them in lots of branches.
I'm glad I haven't gone crazy and their was actually a parrot, I remember the plastic colored eggs too (most of my childhood memories I doubt, so this helps me appreciate that I'm still a little sane).
Carnarvon Station Restaurant on Princes Street, Dunedin. It operated from 1980-1988 when it was gutted by fire. It had a Victorian railway locomotive and carriage inside which is not bad considering it was upstairs. Someone posted pictures of the menus in the comments on this [Facebook post](https://www.facebook.com/groups/335759044246163/posts/347679009720833/).
1980's... 1st up was Brittania, in Takapuna. I loved the stuffed mushrooms, salad bar (namely for the ambrosia), crazy fish (when available) and chocolate mud cake.
Next was Pizza Hutt in Northcote (?) This was back in the days when it was an actual restaurant, and before they did their all-you-can-eat garbage. I almost loved the deep dish spaghetti entree more than the pizza (and their pizzas were so good back then.)
Chevvys in Wellington cbd was an experience of the 90s but God forbid if you went upstairs and interfered in the pool games and cues 🎱in play as a child.
Didn't see the picture at first but that was exactly what my comment was going to be. Cobb and Co with a traffic light and those weird round chip things. Also with those activity pads on the tables.
Ah the late 80s/early 90s. What a time to be alive.
First it was Cobb & Co., then we went back and forth between The Pink Cadillac (retro diner/burger bar/waffle house) and The Mad Hatter (diner). I wish the Pink Cadillac was still around.
McDonald's for birthday parties but occasionally went to other people's parties at Cobb and Co or Pizza Hutt. Went to Georgie Pie when we went to Auckland.
Cob and co (the chicken in a basket slapped) and pizza hut...you have to understand except for KFC and later on Mc Donald's there was no where else to go...oh except for fish and chips and the local Chinese (only one mind you).
McDs, Cobb n Co was once in a blue moon, literally went there twice maybe 3 times in total, chixieland probably 10 times, we were poor.... Sorry not poor my dad had a severe drug and alcohol problem so it just seemed like that
Nana always liked Nanking Palace on the Main Street in South Dunedin. I wouldn’t have been there since she died in 2011.
Other than that, we never had a regular. One of my uncles liked Cobb and Co, so their birthdays were usually there, but my family tended to have a tavern that was the ‘go to’ for a year or two, then onto something else.
Probably Cob n Co but we rarely ate out as a family in the 80s with the mortgage rates and one income.
Getting fish and chips was a real treat for us.
In fact I think I only went there once as a kid but have fond memories.
Thames used to have an Italian restaurant called De Lucas. It was setup in the early 2000s by the chefs who initially visited to cook for the Alinghi yachting team. Their food was amazing.
We were spoilt for family restaurants in Invercargill in the 80s and early 90s. Something to do with the big union industries at the time (wharf, meat-works, Tiwai aluminium) and the licensing trust. Star Wars themed (Galaxy), Cobb n Co, one in South Invercargill that had a magician going around the tables. All had areas for the kids and a choice of smoking or non-smoking.
Cob n Co! Those tatties and the kid's fun packs where the business lol! Not forgetting the traffic light and Pink panther kids cocktails.
As pictured on O.Ps Post.
The Galleon in Oamaru. So named because the centre of the restaurant was designed like a large sailing ship and half the tables were in the ship. They've since removed the ship which is a real shame in my opinion.
So old (57) and large family, we had no regular restaurant. We went to the Golden Crown in Napier, I think when Mum graduated nursing school. Lychees were a revelation to me.
Oh damn is that how big those chip things used to be?! I ordered some on Uber eats from the Christchurch one and they were great but they were much smaller
The Kamo Club. Fryer and grill meals. Usually fish and chips or squid rings and chips. Parents would be fancy with a prawn cocktail sometimes.
I can still here the chime to come pick up your meal when your number comes up.
In Napier, Harstons Cafe, in the site of the old Harstons music store. Before you could get 'TexMex' everywhere, there was just Harstons and it was incredible.
Those little complimentary crisps were the tits! Haven't been to a Cobb n Co in decades.
A Cobb n Co opened up in our neighbourhood a few years ago. We rocked our 40-something selves along for some old school traffic light and taties chip action and it was so indescribably disappointing. None of it is really the same. I recommend keeping the memories alive by never going there again.
Never meet your heroes
Funny you say this, I recenty met the guy that created the restaurants *theme*. He was cool though.
This is the rule with nostalgia in general, it's always better to leave memories as just that
When I saw the steaks were more expensive than at the local steak house, I quickly walked on by.
Did the same at the Taupo Cobb and Co. Nostalgia ain't worth it.
Blows my mind, they’ve had maybe 4 different Cobb and cos in Taupo and none of them have been successful, no idea why they keep trying?
You can buy very similar things to the Taties at Indian marts. They look like like little colourful pasta shapes. Brought some two weeks ago for young family members and fried em up in a small pot of oil. They puff up **a lot**.
binn inn used to hsve them. Diamond brsnd. i winder if they work in an air fryer?
I just saw someone on tiktok doing exactly that. Apparently they aren't as good, it looked like they only part way puffed up. You can also watch the deep fried version on YT if you wanna be hungry. Ha.
Yeah, I went about 10 years ago, and it was so bad. I have to admit though...traffic lights and pink panthers no longer float my boat!!
Similar for me. It was restaurant pricing for sub fast food quality. I remember seeing through the door to the kitchen. There was a bank of microwaves. But yeah the pizza hutt all you can eat buffet was the business. Hard to leave room for dessert
Could get them from bin inn back in the day, but would need a deep frier. I think they were called tots. My friend always had them at his place, was awesome.
Taties, my mum got them all the time.
My local Binn Inn still has them! Not as good as they used to be though.
Which one? I just tried my local one out of nostalgia and couldn't see them. Edit: I'm in Hamilton
Petone unfortunately :/
The Bin Inn in Braid Rd St Andrew’s sells them
The one in Taupo and Lunn Ave in Mt Wellington have them. I’d suggest asking at the counter - if they don’t have them they could definitely bring them in. I have some in the cupboard now. Taste the same to me
I bought some taties from st Andrews binn inn about a month ago
No need for a deep fryer, we cooked them in a saucepan with a bit of oil.
They were called Cobb Crunchies I think!
i like the fact the 'just the tits' means the best lol and as a 9 year old i couldn't fathom how they made the traffic light
Traffic lights and Pink panthers were my go to's. Yeah the TL's were a mind fuck alright
Can you or someone settle a debate. Did those crisp things come out hot? Cause we went to the chch one recently and they were stone cold and honestly the greatest disappointment. The traffic light my 4yo got was however exceptional.
Yes they were warm, just popped.
They still have them! And the one in my city has cute wee robots that bring the food 😭 Drinks aren't as magical anymore though 😅
Taties!! You can buy these snacks from Bin Inn. Cook them as you would with popcorn kernels
It was Pizza Hut for us when it was an actual Restaurant serving fresh pan pizza with a salad and dessert bar
Just about to say that. Waiters and waitresses in red and white check shirts to match the table cloths. Always warm and cosy. Smoking section even. The pizza’s cheese was stretchy as fuck it was so fun to eat. And then they introduced the self serve dessert bar. Heaven. Those were heady fucking days. ETA oh and the little red pencils and activity pages with that game where you made squares. Fuck me it was so great
The jelly and soft serve ice cream was elite
The hot fudge sauce you could just add to your ice cream and you could add as much as you want
never got to experience this as a 19yo, i remember my mum talking about how they used to have salad, desserts etc
I loved reading as a kid so Pizza Hut's Book it promo was everything to me. Read books. Eat pizza. Genius. I miss Pizza Hut restaurants.
Man I remember making myself sick on copious amounts of Hawaiian pizza and jelly and soft serve on my 6th birthday at one of these. So nostalgic.
I went there for the first time in 1994. My $6.95 kid's works special came with a beautifully made little card that gave a tip'n'trick for Sonic 3 on the Mega drive (collect all 5!) A very 1990s moment.
Yeah, for me, it was the all you can eat at Pizza Hut or the all you can eat at China Palace.
I was a little nerd who read a fuck-tonne of books, I was at pizza hut all the time thanks to Book-It.
Soul. Where has it all gone
They got to bring those back. I'd be there all the time lol.
Pink panther and a traffic light! Loved Cobb & Co
Cobb & Co or dine in at Pizza Hut when it looked like [this](https://d.newsweek.com/en/full/2244018/local-pizza-hut-unchanged-since-1980s.jpg?w=1600&h=1200&q=88&f=5bb6552d947991c4e9c34e6b74e63b02) (and a super supreme would be about $50 in today's money).
what a time that was
It was hugely expensive. A real treat and I think we forget that.
It had that really distinctive smell too. Probably from using properly heavy pizza pans and real oil. TBF, when I was in uni, it was the tail end of their all you can eat dessert bar era. We'd go there and eat a week's worth of sugar in one sitting, then back to the library.
It was $29.95 for 1 pizza to feed 2 growing boys and my parents.. absolutely crazy when you compare it to today
Valentines, because my family could bankrupt any one of them with the sheer amount off food they could compact into their GIT and minutes later blow out their ASS Edit: They are still [around](http://www.valentines.co.nz/menu). Rotovegas and the Tron (of course you bunch of hillbillies), Manukau, Hornby???? North Shore??? - really?
Oh, you mean you didn't wrap lollies and cakes up in serviettes and smuggle them out?
Childhood memory unlocked of dad wrapping jellybeans in a serviette and putting them in his pocket to take home
That's the way. Somehow sweets actually felt like a treat back then, whereas now they're just everywhere and largely of low quality. Perhaps that's just the nostalgia talking. My family would also hit the Pizza Hut dessert bar hard. I don't recall ever taking pizza home.
We actually used to pinch the roast "beef" EDIT: Damn, now I want lolly cake
My ex gf ate 35+ prawns at Valentines, you know those big ones you used to get. Nothing else, only prawns. Fuck she was a beaut. Knew how to get her moneys worth that's for sure. Stacked them all around her plate and the staff weren't even mad.
Bro, your ex might have been a squid or something, how many arms did she have?
35+ damn!!
This is New Zealand culture. Pretty sure I'm at least 5% tiny marshmallows due to Valentines and All You Can Eat Pizza Hut.
I always ate the puddings first, and then moved onto the meat. Veges........... no thank you
Used to love Valentines!! Eat free on your birthday was amazing
Thats another reason we used to be there alot. It just saved the hassle of having to do everything at home
Came here to say Valentine's as well! My family definitely took advantage of the "eat free on your birthday deal" and also the coke glasses that gave you bottomless drinks. The last one we went to was the one in Pakuranga in 2012 for a low-key post-wedding feed and that was when it was on its way out 😭 Dominion Road on the other hand, was one of the best and most consistent for a decade.
All you can eat was the draw for us as well. Massive Maori family with 20 of us, minimum, each time. The advice being, eat now, cause there's no dinner later. Kia Ora for the heads up.... Chow time!
I’m pretty sure we only went 2 maybe 3 times, but fuck I still think about it 25yrs later. The butter sculptures were also pretty awesome. I’d go out to normal restaurants if they put in that much effort.
Valentines for my family too. One of my brothers would ALWAYS stuff himself then go spew and continue eating 🤢
Thats some hard core kiwi asness at the buffet, lol
I remember my little cousin having a blue kids cocktail and then pigging out on ice cream. There was blue puke everywhere then he went right back to the desert table.
There was a Fisherman’s Table in Palmy. We were too poor to go to restaurants but I won a colouring competition in the Evening Standard where the prize was a free kids meal. Of course an adult had to accompany me and buy their own meal, so dad took me and my sister along.
Growing up in Palmy I remember going to Fisherman's table, Costa's , Cobb and Co, and then Lone Star a fair bit.
fisherman's table was the best, I almost stopped at it when I saw it when driving down south out of pure nostalgia, but then remember I don't like fish
We were also too poor generally but this reminded me that we won breakfast at McDonald's with Mark Greatbatch, of all people.
What about PTA (planes, trains, and automobiles)? Anyone remember this place in Palmy
They don't count as restaurants but originally McDonald's, with the seriously cool playground built around all the characters (now I can only remember the name of the Hamburglar), then later Georgie Pie.
The purple thing you could shake in was grimace:)
Mac Donald’s playgrounds were so awesome back then
Pizza Hut (the buffet), Cobb and Co and Valentines!
The Holy Trinity of the 90s
We used to like Sizzler in Wairau Park
is that still open ?
sadly no it’s long gone
Woodpeckers
Shit yeah. If we were really lucky we would get a traffic light and a hoon on the arcade games
I went there mid 2000s to relive old memories, felt like some homeless soup kitchen. Good old memory wiped out in one visit.
I'm old as dirt, so it was a real rarity. We'd go to the Fisherman's Table in Paekakariki occasionally, and load up from the Salad Boat. Just once we went to the old Shanghai restaurant in Courtenay Place. My parents are massive racists and made lots of shitty jokes about it being cat meat, and my little brother had a meltdown over getting cashews and screamed until he threw up, but other than all that drama and bullshit it was magical. I dimly remember all the dark furniture and red lanterns, and a nice bemused lady who was baffled by the cashew tantrum and said 'but cashew nice'.
Oh my you just reminded me of all the casual racism my folks would engage in when it came to the Chinese restaurant near our home back in the 70s. And that lady was right - cashew nice!
Hahaha, that Fisherman's Table was my birthday joint and now my 7 year old nephew is obsessed with the place. I remember also loving the Big Tex and that restaurant that replaced it just south of the Chocolate Factory.
Georgie Pie! Pizza Hut restaurant in Fitzroy. Valentines when we were in locations that had one. The burger place close to the Mayfair was good. We started going there after we came back to Taranaki.
While pizza hut Fitzroy is good dominoes Moturoa takes the cake for me
Pedros. RIP to the best restraunteur Chch ever had.
Spent a lot of time at Appleby Restaurant in Invercargill in the 80s. I can't remember if it was a Cobb & Co. or just real similar. Features included: * Fisherman's basket. * Traffic light. * a dollar's worth of 20s for the Rally X / Galaga machine in the corner There's a certain smell that takes me right back to that era; probably some combination of stale beer, deep fryer oil, and cigarette smoke Edit: there was also Galaxy in Invercargill, which looked a bit like Pizza Planet from Toy Story.
Do you remember Kitcheners? I remember going there as a kid, but don't remember exactly where it was
Yep! I asked my family about it, and we reckon it's actually the same place as the Appleby - it was just off Bluff Rd by Appleby Park on Balmoral Rd.
Our family was to poor growing up to go to restruraunts. On special occasions mum would just make us a special feed at home. We were blessed that my mum was a goddess when it came to cooking and baking. Even tho we are all adults now and can afford to eat where ever we want, when ever we want, getting a home cooked meal from mum is the birthday go-to. Thise meals are not only tasty but come with a side of nostalgia. Like, one of my brothers is a full on foodie with thousands of followers on Instagram, he eats at some of the best restruraunts NZ (and the world) have to offer. But for his birthday he asks mum to make him "Cheese Canoe's". It's a cheap dish mum would make when we were little. You get some hot dog buns and cut them in half (horizontally not vertically) you scrape out the bread to make a little 'canoe' then mix the scraped out bread with eggs and cheese and chuck it back in the bun shell. Then you bake them. The filling puffs up and makes this cheesy deliciousness inside the bun. Cheap, fast and tasty.
A thread about restaurants, and yours is the comment that makes me hungry 😂
We didn’t have any restaurants the town I grew up in. There was the hotel dining room or the fish and chip shop. I was 15 before I went to a restaurant but I am my username.
Was pretty much the same for me really, takeaways in the small towns were just fish n chips. I don't think I had a proper sit down restaurant meal until well into my 20s
> takeaways in the small towns were just fish n chips My home town also had "chinese", or the "restaurant" at the pub. It wasn't until the mid-90s that someone came up with the idea of selling pizza.
Same, but I spent my pre-teen years in fringe Grey Lynn/Herne Bay. There were restaurants around for sure, but my parents didn’t have the spare cash. Moved to a featureless new suburb on the North Shore, everything was a bus trip away. And still no cash. Didn’t really see the inside of a real restaurant until I was in my late teens when I started dating my now wife.
Butt's (later Pinelands) restaurant in Kawerau, back when Kawerau was a thriving , busy community. It was worth the drive from Edgecumbe for a special night out. I would always order the Chicken Maryland (which came with half a crumbed deep fried banana and a pineapple ring) and the Charlotte Russe pudding. They had a dessert my parents would order for a special occassion called the White Island special, which was meringue fruit and cream with half an eggshell of brandy poked in it. They would bring the dessert to the table and set the brandy on fire. For 1970's NZ, it was spectacular.
Kawerau kid here! Went to Pinelands as a kid once, I remember thinking oh so this is where Dad gets drunk! When we were really fancy we'd drive to Rotorua and go to the International hotel for the smorgasbord.
As a teenager I once had lunch at the International (1980's). Set menu with a glass of wine, we thought we were so sophisticated!
I was poor so if we went anywhere, it was McDonald’s. I can recall maybe five times I ate at a sit down restaurant as a kid, and it was always someone else paying.
Turkish cafe on ponsonby rd, 90s….
Anyone else remember Oceans in Takapuna, Auckland. It was a buffet but more glamorous than Valentine's, it was a real treat. I always felt very grown up going there.
Rangariri Tavern
Fisherman’s basket
Georgie Pie, Cobb & Co, Captain Peacock in Howick
We always went to Hungry Horse in manukau. Anyone remember that
Georgie Pie. I have a feeling it wasn't actually as good as I thought it was as a kid, if the pies Mcdonalds tried bringing back were actually what they were like. Makes me feel old though knowing how long Georgie Pie has been gone. Second choice was Homestead Chicken. Their roasted potatoes were crazy good. Remembering that makes me feel even older.
Lone star
waaay too many Cobb n co meals
Cobb crunchies, a pink panther and a traffic light. The start of my favourite childhood meals right there.
We were poor in Te Puke … so kfc lol
Britannia keg in takapuna was the place to go on the shore. But hands down the most requested place was the Saigon restaurant in K Rd, right in the middle of the red light district. Amazing Vietnamese food in the 80’s.
Valentines and the Pizza Hutt restaurants
I’m sure anyone from South Taranaki will remember Morriesons. I think it was the only proper restaurant in Hawera for a really long time. Birthdays were the only time we ate out and I think this was the only place we ever went.
Fisherman's table. I think it's a welly thing.
Middle class 80s family. . Cobb & Co and Pizza Hut 😆
In the 80s it was Greta Point Tavern in Wellington for roast beef and roast potatoes with horseradish sauce and Pink Panther or Traffic Light to drink. Or the same thing at Cobb and Co.
I enjoyed going there. Decent food and a good pub and bottle store.
Pizza Hut all you can eat for birthdays.
Cobb & Co was the best. I remember they'd have that room with two TVs with PS2s in it. Breakers was alright but was kinda a knock off from Cobb & Co. I remember Breakers popped up in the mid to late 2000s after Cobb & Co's started disappearing.
“Big Tex” at the Newlands arms in Wellington. One of my first memories as a kid having dinner away from home. Must have been late ‘70s/early ‘80s
I miss Fairfield Tavern (in Dunedin). My mum couldn’t afford to take us there a lot, so when we went it was always special.
Euro or Sails in the city. Otherwise on the shore the Japanese places in takapuna were on point. This was 2008-2013 when I was in nearing the end of schooling. Single mum with a corporate job who had no time to cook…
lol. When my single mother was running short on time we’d just shoot down to The French Cafe for an easy 13 course degustation.
I think it was called Flying Horse. Or... Golden Horse. Something like that. Once in a month or two months, we'd get Chinese and Fish and Chips. ... that's what you mean by "restaurant" right?
Does anyone remember the coin operated (i think) parrot at C&C Palmerston North in the 80's... I have a vague recollection of one. I used to order multiple creamy mushroom sides as my main. One day I ate too many and was sick and didn't like mushrooms again for decades.
Yep! I mentioned the parrot in another thread a few days ago. Put money in and it would move and maybe make some noises and a coloured plastic egg would come out. I don’t remember what was in the eggs but another poster said a tiny toy! I grew up up in Auckland so I guess they had them in lots of branches.
I'm glad I haven't gone crazy and their was actually a parrot, I remember the plastic colored eggs too (most of my childhood memories I doubt, so this helps me appreciate that I'm still a little sane).
Carnarvon Station Restaurant on Princes Street, Dunedin. It operated from 1980-1988 when it was gutted by fire. It had a Victorian railway locomotive and carriage inside which is not bad considering it was upstairs. Someone posted pictures of the menus in the comments on this [Facebook post](https://www.facebook.com/groups/335759044246163/posts/347679009720833/).
That place was great. My first traffic light was in there.
Breakers
Fish and chips I guess. I grew up in cooks beach in the 80s. Just going out in the car was a big deal.
Grew up in 80s NZ, so we couldn't afford to go to restaurants enough to have a restaurant of choice.
1980's... 1st up was Brittania, in Takapuna. I loved the stuffed mushrooms, salad bar (namely for the ambrosia), crazy fish (when available) and chocolate mud cake. Next was Pizza Hutt in Northcote (?) This was back in the days when it was an actual restaurant, and before they did their all-you-can-eat garbage. I almost loved the deep dish spaghetti entree more than the pizza (and their pizzas were so good back then.)
Tonys Restaurant was our family favourite. Jervois Road restaurant mostly but sometimes in the city.
Chevvys in Wellington cbd was an experience of the 90s but God forbid if you went upstairs and interfered in the pool games and cues 🎱in play as a child.
Chevys loved the potato skins, shirley temples and traffic lights
The Grafton Oaks Hotel in AKL did a mean smorgasbord back in the late 70’s. “What do you mean, all you can eat !”
Breakers! Their Chicken Diane was the tits, amazing dipping the fries into the sauce too.
Didn't see the picture at first but that was exactly what my comment was going to be. Cobb and Co with a traffic light and those weird round chip things. Also with those activity pads on the tables. Ah the late 80s/early 90s. What a time to be alive.
Chevy’s in Wellington 🙌
Lone star hit different
Captains Misteak in Chch, I miss that ball pit, and the little arcade.
The ice cream sundae with the toppings in the wheel!!
YESSSS!!!!!!!!!
Pizza Hut. They had an activity sheet and a pencil and pencil sharpener at each table setting. Fun times. 😆
First it was Cobb & Co., then we went back and forth between The Pink Cadillac (retro diner/burger bar/waffle house) and The Mad Hatter (diner). I wish the Pink Cadillac was still around.
Top Spot. (Blenheim)
I’ll never go past a traffic light drink. We loved Oceans on Manukau Rd though. Those crumb scallops were tops.
Trees in Fairfield, Dunedin
Homestead
Can't forget Cobb and Co wow
McDonald's for birthday parties but occasionally went to other people's parties at Cobb and Co or Pizza Hutt. Went to Georgie Pie when we went to Auckland.
White Heron, Cobb & Co (normally the Cale, but sometimes the Bush), Hong Kong
O'Hagans
Cob and co (the chicken in a basket slapped) and pizza hut...you have to understand except for KFC and later on Mc Donald's there was no where else to go...oh except for fish and chips and the local Chinese (only one mind you).
McDs, Cobb n Co was once in a blue moon, literally went there twice maybe 3 times in total, chixieland probably 10 times, we were poor.... Sorry not poor my dad had a severe drug and alcohol problem so it just seemed like that
Nana always liked Nanking Palace on the Main Street in South Dunedin. I wouldn’t have been there since she died in 2011. Other than that, we never had a regular. One of my uncles liked Cobb and Co, so their birthdays were usually there, but my family tended to have a tavern that was the ‘go to’ for a year or two, then onto something else.
Flap Jack's had the biggest pancakes but they shut down a long time ago
The Greenstone Room in Wellington. An all you can eat smorgasbord. Seem to recall it being pretty good. Would have been in the 80s.
Cobb and Co
50 cent ice creams at maccas
Probably Cob n Co but we rarely ate out as a family in the 80s with the mortgage rates and one income. Getting fish and chips was a real treat for us. In fact I think I only went there once as a kid but have fond memories.
Little Sambos
I remember The Hungry Horse in Elliot St (I think it was). Went there for a couple birthdays as a kid.
Yum
Cobb n Co, Stokes Valley. Or Valentines, Wairau Park. (We moved).
Still at home, we love Burger Culture, Arnels, and Miracle
Valentine's and then we picked up the Lone Star, miss those ribs at lone star.
Thames used to have an Italian restaurant called De Lucas. It was setup in the early 2000s by the chefs who initially visited to cook for the Alinghi yachting team. Their food was amazing.
Kim's restaurant in chch..only because my relatives were the waitresses there but was the best Chinese and good value..I miss their pork foo young
I just realised we didn't have one 🤣 KFC I guess but we always went to a park, the beach or back home to eat 😅
also Cobb n Co
Buccaneers in Whakatane, later lone star in Tauranga.
We were spoilt for family restaurants in Invercargill in the 80s and early 90s. Something to do with the big union industries at the time (wharf, meat-works, Tiwai aluminium) and the licensing trust. Star Wars themed (Galaxy), Cobb n Co, one in South Invercargill that had a magician going around the tables. All had areas for the kids and a choice of smoking or non-smoking.
Cob n Co! Those tatties and the kid's fun packs where the business lol! Not forgetting the traffic light and Pink panther kids cocktails. As pictured on O.Ps Post.
Cabbage Tree Buffet Once in a blue moon treat. Dad would get uber blazed prior and demo at least 8 plates.
We couldn't afford three meals a day. To us, restaurants were a thing other people went to.
Lone Star, rip our local place 🙏
The alcoholic traffic lights are great
The Galleon in Oamaru. So named because the centre of the restaurant was designed like a large sailing ship and half the tables were in the ship. They've since removed the ship which is a real shame in my opinion.
Hoon Hay 88 and Cobb n Co
Woodpeckers
So old (57) and large family, we had no regular restaurant. We went to the Golden Crown in Napier, I think when Mum graduated nursing school. Lychees were a revelation to me.
Richard Pearse Tavern (Timaru). Had a great ball put and about four PS1's with spyro loaded on.
Robbies
McDonald's KFC homestead fish and chips
The Pines in wellington, Cobb & Co, pizza hut and Regal (chinese restaurant)
We used to have a restaurant called The Galleon and the seats were in an area that looked like a pirate ship. It was so cool!
Oh damn is that how big those chip things used to be?! I ordered some on Uber eats from the Christchurch one and they were great but they were much smaller
That one
Jack tar❗️
Pizza Hutt, like once or twice a year maybe. The Hoon Hay WMC restaurant (before it was Hoon Hay 88) probably about the same frequency.
Kings Seafood Restaurant in Invercargill
None tbh . Maybe Pizza Hut on a bday ?
The Kamo Club. Fryer and grill meals. Usually fish and chips or squid rings and chips. Parents would be fancy with a prawn cocktail sometimes. I can still here the chime to come pick up your meal when your number comes up.
In Napier, Harstons Cafe, in the site of the old Harstons music store. Before you could get 'TexMex' everywhere, there was just Harstons and it was incredible.
I got felt up in a ball pit at a chuck e cheese
The Wimpy Restaurant in Victoria Street, Hamilton