Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre Café & Bar Mount Cook: Lots of Fresh and Delicious Food
The Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre at Mount Cook is a museum about the area’s history. It’s also about Sir Hillary’s mountain climbing adventures. I stopped to eat at the café and bar at the Centre.
There was a board that let me know what the winter special was. It was a plate of loaded nachos and two cold Coronas.
Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre Café & Bar Menu
I took a look at the café menu. Along with different kinds of sourdough pizzas, they were serving snacks like shoestring fries and squid and meals like fish and chips and a lamb Philly cheese steak sandwich. There were different kinds of beer and wine available.
The menu was also drawn on a blackboard with colorful chalk and there was a special board for the soup of the day.
The café had small round tables that could seat up to four people. As you can see in the image above, there were big windows and the room was filled with sunshine.
The refrigerator had rows of cold drinks. There was a variety to choose from, like Coca Cola, Fanta, Sprite and Schweppes Ginger Ale.
On the other side were bottles of water and energy drinks like Red Bull.
I looked inside the freezer and found packs of the double chocolate chunk cookie sandwich by Cookie Time.
The bakery case had both savory and sweet options. Things like sandwiches and wraps were carefully packed. On the bottom shelf, there were some quiches and salads.
The sweets looked just as good! From macarons to brownies, the café had it all. Some other options were lemon tarts and Lolly cakes.
There was a self-service counter. So I had to go and order my food and any drink that I wanted myself.
Food and drink menus had been printed above the counter. We could use tongs to get something from the bakery counter.
Guests could buy packaged energy bars at the counter. There were flavors like date and orange or cacao and hemp.
What really looked interesting were all the mince pies. There were options like venison or bacon and salmon. There were even some vegetarian and vegan mince pies.
The pies looked very fresh and I knew that they must have been baked that morning. On the top shelf, there were some sausage rolls, which is a very popular dish in New Zealand.
There was a basket of fresh fruits on the counter. Those were for sale too. Behind it was a coffee machine with some cups and some muffins.
The winter special had been drawn on another blackboard. I saw that it was served with chili beef, beans, sour cream, roasted corn and avocado salsa. It looked quite good.
If guests wanted to drink water instead of anything else, they could fill a glass of ice cold water at a table. Lots of clean glasses had been provided for everyone.
Paper napkins, cutlery and sugar sachets had been kept in neat little baskets and bowls on another table.
There were even two big bottles of Heinz ketchup.
Everything had been arranged so that it was very convenient for guests to serve themselves.
I stopped in front of the windows at one corner of the café. There was a large set of sofas there for a big group. The mountains looked beautiful through the big picture windows.
A water dispenser held hot water for all those people who didn’t want to drink cold water.
There was even a pool table that guests could hire if they wanted to.
If someone paid $10 per hour, they could get the balls and cues at the counter.
The café had a view of the museum through the big windows.
A big airplane was visible just behind the windows. There were visitors roaming around the museum.
The café was still quite empty. I found a table to sit down and wait for my food.
The first thing that arrived was my cappuccino. The staff had made a pretty leaf design in the coffee.
I had ordered fish and chips. It came with a side of salad and some lemon wedges.
My food looked delicious. The fish was very crispy and had been perfectly fried. They had even given me an extra cup of fries with my plate.
