Thai Tahuna brings the vibrant, aromatic flavours of Thailand and its Southeast Asian neighbours to Tahunanui Drive, just a short drive from central Nelson. Opened on 10 August 2023, it is the Nelson member of the Thai Food NZ family, a collective of South Island Thai kitchens with four locations across Nelson, Christchurch and Dunedin. The restaurant opens for dine-in seven days a week from 5.00pm to 8.30pm, with a full takeaway menu and online ordering for those who would rather eat at home.
The setting is deliberately casual yet stylish. There is plenty of hustle and bustle for anyone chasing some evening excitement, but the room stays comfortable for families, couples and hungry food lovers of all kinds. The team prides itself on fresh New Zealand produce paired with quality imported Thai spices, with every dish crafted to order by experienced chefs.
The menu is extensive and takes in the wider region, not just Thailand. Alongside Thai staples sit Vietnamese favourites, from fresh spring rolls and salads to the show-stopping Vietnamese Seafood Boat. For tables of five or more, sharing menus and a group banquet make ordering easy, and takeaway orders can be placed online for pickup or delivery.
Thai Tahuna brings the vibrant, aromatic flavours of Thailand and its Southeast Asian neighbours to Tahunanui Drive, just a short drive from central Nelson. Opened on 10 August 2023, it is the Nelson member of the Thai Food NZ restaurant family, a collective of South Island Thai kitchens that has grown to four locations across Nelson, Christchurch and Dunedin. Doors open for dine-in seven days a week from 5.00pm to 8.30pm, and a full takeaway menu with online ordering means the same kitchen can feed your table at home too. Urgent enquiries can be handled by phone on 03 548 5634.
The menu ranges widely across the region, and the cooking balances the sweet, sour, salty and spicy notes that define Thai food, with dishes crafted to order by experienced chefs using local New Zealand produce and quality imported Thai spices. There are all-time Thai classics like Tom Yum soup, Pad Thai and the Lemon Grass Stir Fry, family-pleasers such as Lemon Honey Chicken and the Peanut Sauce Stir Fry, and perennial favourites like the Vietnamese Fried Fish Steak and the Panang Curry.
Curries get their own chapter: green, red and massaman, the coconut-rich Panang, a red-based Gang Par cooked without coconut cream, a Vietnamese laksa served over vermicelli noodles, and a slow-cooked lamb massaman with chunky potatoes, pickled onion and peanuts. Around them sit tasty nibbles from spring rolls and satay chicken sticks to pork spare ribs, spicy soups, Thai-style salads, jasmine fried rice, noodle dishes and a long list of wok-tossed stir fries, from cashew nut to ginger, oyster sauce and black pepper hot plate.
If you are pushing the boat out, the Vietnamese Seafood Boat is the one — a generous mixture of fresh mussels, squid, fish and prawns in an Asian coconut broth, served with rice. It is the restaurant's declared signature dish. The Garlic Hot Plate runs it close: fresh garlic strips fried in the wok with a selection of vegetables and served sizzling on a steamy hot plate, which the kitchen calls a must for garlic lovers. Both dishes capture what Thai Tahuna does well — big, fresh wok flavours with a Vietnamese accent alongside the Thai staples.
The room is casual yet stylish, with plenty of hustle and bustle for those looking for some evening excitement, but comfortable enough for families, couples and hungry food lovers of all kinds. Groups are especially well catered for. For tables of five or more, the sharing menus make it easy and convenient to fill the table with dishes to be enjoyed together.
Sharing Menu 1 pairs a combination entrée with Pad Thai, green curry, cashew nut stir fry, garlic hot plate and Vietnamese salad, finished with steamed jasmine rice. Sharing Menu 2 swaps in Panang curry, black pepper hot plate and sweet and sour stir fry for a sublime variety of the most flavourful dishes. The Thai Tahuna Dinner banquet is a third option, specially designed to combine the best of Asian flavours for a group of five or more.
Not dining in? A full takeaway menu covers the whole kitchen, and ordering online is described as a breeze — choose pickup or delivery, and you can pay when picking up your order. That makes Thai Tahuna an easy weeknight option as well as a destination dinner in Tahunanui.
The 'Thai' experience has proved popular enough that the family now spans four South Island locations in Nelson, Christchurch and Dunedin, alongside sister restaurants under the Asian Garden Hospitality banner, including Mama San, Commi, Le Xom Indochina, Spirithouse, Hoi An House, Buddha Stix and Hutong Asian Street Food. Each keeps its own character and local team, but they share a single mission: fresh, aromatic Southeast Asian cooking that brings people together. In Tahunanui, that mission arrives on a steamy hot plate, in a coconut broth, and on a plate of Pad Thai with crushed peanuts and fresh lemon.