@ustin92 Restaurant sits on King Street in Temuka, the small South Canterbury township between Timaru and Geraldine, and it cooks with a personal stamp you can taste. The name is the first thing newcomers ask about, and the answer is charmingly simple: the owner's surname, Austin, and 92 — the year the culinary fun began in the kitchen. Decades of cooking later, that experience shows in a menu of generous, well-made plates that blend proper Kiwi classics with playful local touches. The menu runs from sharing plates like house-made curry cream dipping sauce with Agria fries, coconut green-lipped mussels and pulled red stout venison sliders, through to hearty mains such as a full lamb roast with roasties and mint sauce, a four-hour red wine and black beer braised venison colcannon, and crispy skin salmon on citrus dill risotto. Local fingerprints are everywhere — Agria potatoes, L&P fries alongside the beer-battered market fish, and a Kahlua creme cheesecake made with local Southbound coffee. Dietary-friendly cooking is treated seriously, with gluten friendly and gluten & dairy friendly options marked across the menu, alongside an honest note that the kitchen is not a gluten-free preparation area. There's a dedicated children's menu, a short dessert list of sticky toffee puddings, apple turnovers and affogatos, and a friendly, community-minded welcome that sums the place up: they love their customers.
On King Street in Temuka, the small South Canterbury township between Timaru and Geraldine, @ustin92 Restaurant serves the kind of generous, personal cooking you only get when the kitchen carries someone's own name. The first question most first-timers ask is about the name, and the answer is a charming one: quite simply the owner's surname, and 92 — the year the culinary fun began in the kitchen. Decades of cooking later, that experience lands on the plate at every service, pairing honest Kiwi favourites with clever, playful touches.
Start with the entree and sharing plates. The Britt chips arrive with a house-made warm curry cream dipping sauce; blue mushroom poppers pair oven-baked button mushrooms with creamy blue vein cheese, thyme and baby spinach; and the coconut green-lipped mussels — a proper South Island treat — come flecked with garlic, mild curry chilli and lime. There are pulled red stout venison sliders with smoked cheese and ranchslaw, and salt and pepper squid flash-fried and drizzled with the house tangy chilli lime mayo.
Mains lean hearty. The @ustin Lamb Roast is a full plate of potato roasties, kumara, carrots, pumpkin and peas with mint sauce and roast pan gravy. The Braised Venison Colcannon is described in-house as a winter banger of flavour: succulent venison braised for four hours with red wine, black beer, herbs and mirepoix, served on Irish-style mash with fried field mushrooms and parsnip crisps. Seafood gets its due too — crispy skin salmon rests on a creamy citrus, wine, garlic and dill risotto — while the Surf n Turf pairs a 300g sirloin with creamy garlic prawns. The @ustin Fried Chicken, with its southern-style coating, beer-battered onion rings and house gravy, is comfort food at full volume.
There are local fingerprints all over the menu: Agria potatoes, L&P fries alongside the house beer-battered market fish, and a Kahlua creme cheesecake made with local Southbound coffee.
Dietary-friendly cooking is treated seriously here, with gluten friendly and gluten & dairy friendly options marked across the entrees, light meals and mains. There's an honest note too: the kitchen is not a gluten-free preparation area, so dishes may contain traces of gluten, nuts, dairy and seafood — worth knowing if you have a serious allergy.
The light meals cover both nostalgia and newer comforts: lamb's fry and bacon on creamy potato mash with roast pan gravy and parsnip crisps, a rich mac 'n' cheese with a fresh tomato topping, panko chicken under a creamy mushroom, garlic and thyme sauce, and the beer-battered fish of the day with farmhouse slaw and tartare cream. Younger diners get a menu of their own — crispy chicken nuggets, battered mini hot dogs or a kids roast — and a list of sides, sauces and gravies makes it easy to build a plate your way.
@ustin92 runs two services. Lunch is served from 11.30am until 2pm, and dinner from 5.30pm until 8pm, with the restaurant closed between 2pm and 5pm — worth planning around if you're passing through town. The welcome, either way, is warm: we love our customers, the team says, so feel free to visit during normal business hours.
Save room, too. Desserts run from a sticky toffee date pudding moated with runny cream and topped with vanilla ice cream, to @ustin's apple turnover rolled in cinnamon sugar, a strawberry eat & mess of house-made sorbet and crunchy meringue, and classic affogatos — liqueur optional.
For a town the size of Temuka, it's an ambitious, affectionate menu — one built by a cook who has been at it since 1992 and clearly still enjoys the fun of it.