The outlook of travelers, especially millennial travelers has changed over time. Earlier, vacations were about letting loose, binging on local food, and just seizing the day. But now, as people become increasingly conscious of their diet, they do not want to compromise on healthy eating even for a few days on vacation. For all of you planning your next vacation to New Zealand, here’s a list of all places that offer healthy, nutritious and organic food, so your vacation doesn’t leave you with a bad case of post vacation weight gains-

1. Riverside Café, Nelson:

This café’s lunch and dinner menu will surprise and impress you. Their offerings include a good variety of wild meat, local specialties, and organic vegetables and produce from their own garden. Not only is their menu organic, but so is the ambience of the café. Be prepared to be seated in a peaceful garden environment and to be greeted with fresh air. Or, if you’re a fan/AC person, you can always sit inside and enjoy the lush green surroundings through the windows. 

Once there, don’t forget to try their much-recommended coffee, home-baked cakes and brioche!

2. The Raw Kitchen, Auckland CBD:

Located in the prime location in The City Works Depot, The Raw Kitchen is just the place to go for a small treat of coffee, juice or desserts. For most locals, it’s also their go-to place for a quick lunch parcel. The reason why this place is so famous among locals and is now gaining popularity among tourists also is its plant-based menu based on seasonal plants. The menu changes with the season, depending on what best produce is available at a given time. Of course, this ensures that only safe, healthy and chemical-free food is offered to the customers. Everything in this café is hand-prepared and requires minimum artificial or machine processing. This place is an absolute paradise, especially for those looking for food that is free gluten-free, dairy-free, free from animal products and free from refined sugar. Their wholesome, healthy offerings make their patrons go back every day for more. And when they do go back, they’re greeted with the pleasant surprise of a newer, fresher salad, or different varieties of food bowls and wraps to choose from!

3. Sidart Restaurant, Auckland:

How often would you find an Indian restaurant in an overseas country offering innovative Indian cuisine made from seasonal produce? 

As an Indian tourist, your New Zealand experience will be rendered incomplete if you do not visit Sidart Restaurant in the city of Auckland. This restaurant, offering Indian dishes with an innovative twist, is run by Sid Sahrawat, one of New Zealand’s most talented and innovative chefs.  The restaurant’s Discovery Menu is, literally, a booklet of marvel with a lot of things to taste. This menu consists of only dishes made with the season’s fresh produce. 

The Chef’s Table offer will let you get a closer look at Sidart’s kitchen- for you to gawk at, and fawn over the chef’s flawless techniques of cooking (we can already sense some FOMO, guys!).

In 2018, the restaurant’s menu was revamped, and trust us when we say this- it got even better, surpassing its earlier (high) standards! A dining experience at Sidart Restaurant most definitely means an elaborate presentation of flawlessly flavoured delicious Indian dishes made with New Zealand’s fresh produce. 

4. The Refinery, Paeroa:

The Refinery is located in the centre of Paeroa- a very convenient, very prominent location of Auckland. It is one of those hidden gems that you may come across during one of your (many) shopping, cycling or walking trips. 

The Refinery uses many ingredients, but their most important ingredient is love. And, this love of the restaurant owners and restaurant staff is evident in each bite of their absolutely fresh and delicious preparation! Their menu is simple and ordinary, but their preparation is extraordinary. Whether you go there for breakfast or lunch, make sure you try their Mt Atkinson coffee because that is the REAL treat. 

All the dishes at The Refinery are made with local produce. To add to this place’s Genuity, all of their pastries, muffins and other baked goods do not include any preservatives, premixes or substitutes. 

This is one of those places that will make you feel (and eat) like home!

5. Pacifica Restaurant, Napier:

This restaurant is cosy in not just how it looks, but in also how it will make you feel. The restaurant is built in a weathered bungalow where one would just want to sit in a corner and enjoy a hot cup of tea or hot cocoa. But, Pacifica, located on Marine Parade in Napier, offers a more homely feeling with food that is fresh, and is cooked with perfection and passion. The chef, Jeremy Rameka, describes the food offered as something that is a constant work in progress, and that which is made more with emotion than with convention.

Just like you would do at home, the chefs do in Pacifica. They change the menu every day, depending on what fresh produce is available on that day (and depending on how they’re feeling that day)! Their aim is to be simple: to please guests while making them try something new and different each day. 

This place is also so famous among locals because of its unparalleled hospitality. Here, you can literally catch a break from the stuffy formal environment of waiters in black bows. Instead, get prepared to experience true kiwi hospitality of the friendly and welcoming staff of Pacifica.

These were just some of our recommendations. This list is nowhere near exhaustive and is just a small sample of all the delicious goodness that awaits you in New Zealand!