Tararu Store & Bait Station sits on Tararu Road at the northern end of Thames, a general store working as a takeaway and fishing shop, with a 4.5 rating from 175 reviews. Reviewers praise the fish and chips and ice cream, and anglers say the owners will order in tackle that isn't on the shelf.
Stores like this are a fixture of the Coromandel coast, part dairy, part chippy, part tackle shop, often the last stop for bait and ice before the water. The trade runs on local knowledge: a good bait counter tells you what's running and which hooks suit the tide, and the best takeaways cook to order so the batter stays light. When choosing between two, ask the fishers at the counter; they always know.
For fish and chips, ice cream or a bag of bait on the drive up the coast, it's a handy stop at the Tararu end of Thames.