Coromandel Oyster Company (Coromandel, New Zealand)

Last Tuesday I briefly mentioned the camping that we had in Coromandel and one of the best fish and chips we had for a long time, today I will showcase this place which I have been wanting to visit every time we visit Coromandel, Coromandel Oyster Company. When you visit this place it nearly impossible that you won’t see this oyster shack, just by Manaia Road, a few kilometres to the town centre. We have been in Coromandel in many occasions and in all of those instances, I always wanted to try this place out but never had a chance, either we don’t have enough time or when we pass by it they were already closed. This time we will not let it pass as we will be leaving early to avoid the weekend after holiday traffic jam back to Auckland.

We left the campgrounds just after having lunch, while we were still full of the mini feast that we had with friend, I made sure I had left some space for some oysters. This is a chance that I will not let go so before heading back to Auckland we had to stop by quickly and see what this place has to offer.

We arrive just minutes after 2PM, they were still open and there was a good amount of people in the place. As we parked, we noticed that they also had a restaurant, maybe we do that some other time since we were here just for one thing, the oysters. Nothing can be fresh as what they offer, the oyster farm is just around the corner. As we checked what option they had for us, we saw this standard dozen which costs NZ$18.50, which roughly equates to NZ$1.50 per oyster, that’s a steal compared to what you get in Auckland. We were already decided on getting that until we saw this tub of oysters at the same price, they were already removed off from their shells.

We asked the lady from the counter what’s the difference between the two, she said they are basically the same, one is just on shell, they were both harvested at the same time but the tub although was advertised as a dozen, it can contain around 15 or more if you get lucky. With bang for your buck in mind, we grabbed the tub and enjoyed it on the picnic tables outside overlooking the oyster farm.

Indeed it was a steal, I guess we had 18 oysters in that tub, while it does not have that experience of sliding down the oysters from the shell, they exactly are the same, tastes similar and both were fresh. I am picky with my oysters before I came to New Zealand, maybe because I had bad ones but with our clean water you would only expect good quality oysters from our ocean, and this is nothing different. It tastes clean, no irony taste, it’s not that ocean salty, I can say it was low in salinity which gives it an almost buttery taste.

There you go, if you happen to pass by this place, just try to drop by and try their fresh oysters, tub or on shell they do taste great but I suggest you get the tub ones as they tend to give more oyster meat on that.

Coromandel Oyster Company
Address: 1611 Manaia Road, Coromandel 3581, New Zealand
Phone: +647 866 8028
Website: http://freshoysters.co.nz/