Badger & Mackerel Messhall Espresso is a cafe on Thames Street, the main street of Oamaru in the Waitaki district, with a 4.6 rating from 592 Google reviews. Customers can follow it on Facebook.
A cafe stands or falls on the coffee: whether the espresso is dialled in fresh, the milk textured silky, and the flat white tastes the same on a quiet Tuesday as it does at Saturday's rush. In towns like Oamaru, cafes double as community rooms, where regulars settle in with the paper and travellers break a long drive. Locals tend to arrive early to beat the mid-morning queue, judge a place by its cabinet, and ask the barista what's being poured before ordering on autopilot.
With nearly six hundred reviews behind it, this messhall-style cafe is a natural stop for a coffee on a stroll down Thames Street.