Mitchell Downs Takeaways & Dairy is a fish and chips shop and corner dairy at 14 Goldie Street in Pukehangi, Rotorua, holding a solid 4.4 Google rating.
Good fish and chips are cooked to order, so a short wait on a Friday night usually means the fish isn't sitting under a warmer. The batter should shatter when you bite it and hold its crunch on the trip home, and the best chips are thick-cut — crisp outside, fluffy within. In New Zealand it's worth asking what's in the cabinet, since hoki, gurnard and tarakihi each fry up differently. Regulars learn which nights bring the freshest oil, and eat the first hot chips straight from the paper, when they're at their best.
For Pukehangi households, a fry-up and a dairy stop in one on Goldie Street makes tea an easy fix on the way home.