Eat your Heart out in Rotorua
Stratosfare Restaurant
Coming into Rotorua from the North this is a complex that you cannot miss. The Stratosfare Restaurant is located at the top of the gondola at SkyLine Rotorua. We decided to get a feel for the area with a meal at this all you can eat buffet style restaurant. Overlooking Rotorua and the lake was an amazing setting for the first night. We had booked this in advanced with a gondola ride as well as some luge runs, more on that in another post it is a must do when here though.
Startosfare is a higher end buffet style meal. We had an early seating and were sat very quickly and given an over view. All of the food is included with your meal including water, tea and coffee. Alcohol and other beverages are available for an extra charge. Since it was an early dinner for us we chose to just stick with the water but the Drinks, beer and wine list looked very tasty. We dug right in for the 90 min meal. The buffet featured a few soups, bread, salads, sushi, lots of vegetables, dumplings, fish, many different meats as well as so many other seasonal dishes. Everything that we put on our plate was fantastic, they do a very good job of making sure meat is cooked but not overcooked. All of the hot items were piping hot and all of the cold things looked so fresh and full of color. They did feature many dishes that are must try in NZ including lamb, bbq meats, fish and chips, Pavlova, meat pies and so many other fresh veggies. Our visit was in late March so it was their fall bringing in so many fall flavors was very good.
Overall we had a great meal, between the four of us nobody had something that they didn’t enjoy. After looking back at the places we ate during the trip the boys said they would have done it another night as well. We dont have any pictures from the meal but follow the link here and you will get the full feel of the place and book your dinning experience while you are in Rotorua.
Atticus Finch
For the second night in Rotorua we had grabbed a reservation at Atticus Finch downtown. They are a tapas restaurant they didn’t disappoint. Going into the meal we questioned if it was going to be enough as well as sharing plates with four people sometimes can be a little challenging. We didn’t have a single problem here. Our group of four all ordered a small dish per person of what grabbed their attention as well as a larger dish that we shared as well. This was definitely enough food and so many great flavors. The price was a little bit high but after the meal we were not upset about the bill as everyone got enough food and we were all able to try so many different dishes.
I would highly recommend ordering one of everything on the menu. Our only slight disappointments came in the form of the deserts. Otherwise we all had different favorites for a multitude of different flavors. Atticus Finch was a great way to sample a different take on NZ flavors
Follow this link for more information on the Restaurant and to book your table. I would highly recommend reservations during peak times as this place will fill up fast.
Ambrosia
One thing that we noticed when driving through the country side was the mass amounts of 
cattle. So naturally we had to find some steak. When searching the best steak in Rotorua this place came up, which was funny as it is right next to Atticus Finch. We decided to give it a shot. Nothing here disappointed us. It was a place that you could tell cooked a great steak and didn’t want to go crazy with everything else. My wife and I had the steak special which was fantastic, it came out with a cheese sauce that we looked at questioning and both said after the meal “WOW”. The boys had strip steaks and everything came out perfectly cooked, melt in your mouth. We could tell that they have a great beef supplier and that is doing all the heavy lifting there. The ice cream shop around the corner was calling out for dessert more than anything on their menu. When you want to have a great steak and not break the bank this is the place to go. Information on booking a table is here.