Herald Rating* * * 1/2
Address:1161 Arawa St, Rotorua
Website: www.fatdogcafe.co.nz
Ambience: Comfy
Vegetarians: Sure
Watch out for: The paw prints
Bottom line: Unpretentious and reliable.
Not everyone in Rotorua is happy with the name Rotovegas (sometimes Roto-Vegas). The city's newspaper, the Daily Post has quoted local historian Don Stafford as saying the name is "ridiculous" because it "suggests bright lights, loud music, everything Rotorua is not" and Rotorua entertainment legend Sir Howard Morrison has criticised the term as "blasphemous". I am not sure that I understand either comment but there you go.
The Professor and I usually make a midwinter pilgrimage to Rotorua to engage in what was once known as taking the waters. Our specific destination, which is some distance out of town, I forbear from identifying because we like it that not many people know about it. But it is fair to say that it involves hot water with neither bright lights nor loud music.
But if that secret place is always guaranteed to please, finding a decent meal in Rotorua has always seemed to me more problematic. There is no shortage of options, though the menus in the windows are not inspiring: it often seems that the upmarket end is chicken-in-a-basket and everything else is Thai. Google "best restaurant in Rotorua" and you get a modest but possibly overstated half a dozen hits. (I was unimpressed by one of them a couple of years ago and I note that a colleague from a sister publication shared my view on a recent visit). Click on "dining in Rotorua" on www.rotoruanz.com and you get two (count 'em) results. I can say, from bitter experience, that one of them makes really bad scrambled eggs and weak coffee.
So it was with some delight that we saw that since we last visited the city has revamped the lake end of Tutanekai St between Pukaki and Whakaue Streets as a pedestrian-only cafe and restaurant precinct called Eat Streat.
It was a trial for summer and must have worked since, in spite of the silly spelling of "street", it persists.
But on an icy Saturday night in early July it looked less than inviting. Bedraggled sun-umbrellas and tilted chairs at outside tables lent it a forlorn air and the restaurant interiors were virtually deserted.
As we peered dolefully through window after window, I felt the clammy grip of indecision around my heart: the longer we hesitated, the wronger our choice was going to be. So we beat a retreat up the road to Fat Dog.
This Rotorua institution is the kind of place that, once met, is never forgotten, because it's so reliable. It's always packed but the tables turn over so fast you never seem to have to wait. The unmatched tables and chairs give it a comfortably bohemian feel and the paint job - paw prints on the ceiling and poems running sinuously across the walls - mark it out as family-friendly.
You order (and pay up front) at the counter from the large blackboard menu that caters to any appetite from breakfast to supper. They sell basic wines, under their own labels, at basic prices, but encourage BYO.
The food is nothing fancy: the Professor's pumpkin-and-chickpea curry and my shanks with a monster pile of delicious roast winter vegetables were hearty as hell, even if they were more bonne cuisine than fine dining. But the service is prompt and cheerful which is what makes it a must each time we're in town. Next time, if the weather's a bit warmer, I promise to check out Eat Streat.
THE BILL
$87.50 for two
Caesar () $11.50
Curry $12.50
Shanks $28.50
Waffles $16.50
Wine (two glasses) $13
Tea $5.50
