Now Bao — Restaurant in South Island

Dec 17 2024: A dish that fully embodies cultural fusion in New Zealand. We were amazed as Taiwanese by the creative semi-Asian fusion dishes here, and they were super tasty! We ordered the crispy tofu rice bowl, goat bao, and miso peanutbutter soft cookie.

The crispy tofu rice bowl had fried silken tofu topped with various pickled veggies on white rice. It was unique and pretty good! The goat bao was made with homemade dough and filling by the chef, giving it a special texture. It even had toppings and Western-style sauces on top, which surprisingly worked really well together. The miso peanutbutter soft cookie had a salty-sweet flavor that was really interesting.

My husband also grabbed a pale ale (Joy Rider) from the beer bar next by. It’s similar to Taiwan Beer 18 Days, slightly sweet and refreshing! Definitely recommend stopping by if you’re...

To be clear this review is not for the brewery but just the food at Now Bao (Little food truck outside the brewery).

Unfortunately, our food looked great on the menu but didn't really deliver for us. We got the pork bao buns but the buns themselves were not cooked correctly and the dough was soggy. Flavour was ok.

The balance of ingredients was off in the Bahn Mi. Way to much pate, not enough fresh vegetables to offset the meat/pate (more pickled carrots, radish, coriander etc would have been good). Flavour was lacking overall. Bread was good.

Maybe just an off night as I note this is in contrast to a lot of other reviews.

To their credit the chips were on point! Really crunchy, crisp and salty! Best I had in Wanaka probably.

In terms of atmosphere, it is really nice to be able to order food right in the brewery....

Been back here a few more times now, and my favorite is the char siu pork buns, my husband really likes their Buffalo chicken burger. I wasn't too fond of their duck arancini as the rice was too mushy. We'll be back to try the lamb burger and pork ribs as they look super good!

I've only had the crispy tofu rice bowl here but boy was it good! Fresh flavors of pickled veggies and tangy, creamy sauce. Got me through the rest of my work day without feeling heavy or sleepy. And the food truck is conveniently right next to a local brewery. As a half Indonesian, I really want to try their rendang bao buns next time and will probably hop over next door for a...