Ōtautahi / Christchurch Daily Photo

There’s a great little area on Lichfield street referred to as SOL (south of Lichfield) which has great shopping, restaurants and bars. There are couches outside the bars, fairy lights hanging from the trees, and lots of people out having a great time. At the end of the lane is the Fish and Chip shop, and a friend and I had dinner there last night.

On the wall opposite the Fish & Chip shop is a giant tv screen, so you can sit out on the balcony (on a couch) eating your fish and chips and watch the rugby!

The restaurant is very retro with lots of kitsch New Zealand items and what we call ‘Kiwiana’. Well worth a visit just for the ambience and the stuff on the walls, pictures of long deceased famous New Zealanders (Norm Kirk) and the formica dining tables.

Inside of the giant tomato container is Tomato sauce, which New Zealanders use quite liberally on their chips. The tomato container is a great example of New Zealand ‘kiwiana’ (a type of uniquely New Zealand kitsch).

And here is part of my meal. I ordered the ‘chip buttie’ and my chips came out folded up in an outer layer of newsprint (this is how fish and chips stores used to wrap chips in NZ – they don’t any more).