Cave Kitchen is a takeaway and delivery kitchen at 10 The Bay Hill in Timaru Central, cooking wood fired pizzas, tacos, burgers and loaded fries for Timaru. The menu centres on pizzas built on homemade 10-inch bases with traditional pizza sauce and mozzarella — from a classic Margherita with cherry tomato, bocconcini and basil, to a Meat Lover stacked with pepperoni, champagne ham, bacon and pork & fennel sausage.
Beyond the oven there's a taco menu — southern fried chicken, slow cooked pulled pork, beef brisket, garlic & chilli prawns and a vegetarian option — plus brioche-bun burgers, loaded fries topped with slow cooked pulled pork, chips with roasted garlic aioli, a rocket-and-brie salad and a kids' menu. A traditional beef lasagna appears as a winter special. The kitchen holds a 4.9 rating on its online ordering page.
Ordering is online-first: pre-order for pickup or delivery with secure payments, and delivery fees apply across a wide spread of Timaru suburbs from Gleniti to Washdyke. The kitchen opens Wednesday to Friday from 4pm to 8pm and from noon to 8pm on Saturday and Sunday; Monday and Tuesday it is closed.
Cave Kitchen brings wood fired pizza to 10 The Bay Hill in Timaru Central, and pairs it with a menu that ranges well beyond the oven: slow cooked tacos, brioche-bun burgers, loaded fries and a short list of snacks and salads. Its online ordering site carries a 4.9 rating — a figure that says a lot about how consistently this small kitchen turns out its food.
The pizzas start with homemade 10-inch bases, spread with traditional pizza sauce and mozzarella before hitting the wood fire. From there the toppings run from the time-honoured to the generous: a Margherita with cherry tomato, bocconcini and fresh basil; a Pepperoni with roasted peppers and kalamata olives; and a Meat Lover loaded with pepperoni, champagne ham, bacon and pork & fennel sausage under a sweep of BBQ sauce. Seafood and cured-meat fans are covered too, with a Garlic & Chilli Prawns pizza and a Prosciutto finished with roasted mushroom, rocket and parmesan.
What sets Cave Kitchen apart from a standard pizza takeaway is everything around the pizzas. The taco line-up covers southern fried chicken, slow cooked pork shoulder, beef brisket and garlic & chilli prawns, each built on a warm tortilla with slaw, a tomato-avocado-red onion-coriander salsa and chipotle sour cream — plus a vegetarian taco with Mexican spiced beans and peppers.
The burger board keeps the same slow cooked theme: a southern fried chicken burger with buttermilk-crumbed chicken breast, coleslaw and pickled red onion on a toasted brioche bun, and a pulled pork burger with BBQ sauce and aioli. Loaded fries come small or large, blanketed with pulled pork, BBQ sauce and chipotle sauce, while simpler appetites are looked after by chips with roasted garlic aioli and tomato sauce, and pizza bread baked with garlic-herb butter and parmesan. There's a fresh salad of rocket, spinach, roasted mushroom, kalamata olives, toasted pumpkin seeds and brie, a kids' menu with a mini Margherita and chicken nuggets with fries, and a winter special of traditional beef lasagna with roasted tomato-basil sauce.
The menu flags gluten free, vegetarian, sugar free and dairy free items where they appear, which makes it easier to steer a mixed group — and the shareable format of tacos, chips and pizza bread means ordering for a table is straightforward.
Cave Kitchen runs an evening service five days a week: 4pm to 8pm Wednesday through Friday, and noon to 8pm on Saturday and Sunday. Monday and Tuesday the kitchen is closed, so weekend lunches and weekday dinners are the windows to aim for. Everything is ordered through their online site, with secure payments by Visa, Mastercard or PayPal, and the preorder system lets you schedule a pickup or delivery in advance rather than waiting at peak dinner time.
Delivery covers a wide slice of Timaru — Gleniti, Highfield, Kensington, Marchwiel, Oceanview, Parkside, Redruth, Seaview, Smithfield, Waimataitai, Washdyke, Watlington, West End and more — with delivery fees applying by suburb. If you're in Timaru Central, pickup from The Bay Hill is the simple option, and pre-ordering means the food is timed to be ready as you arrive.
Whether it's a weekend lunch pizza, a midweek taco dinner, or a spread of loaded fries and burgers to share, Cave Kitchen has carved out a place as one of Timaru's more versatile takeaway kitchens — one oven, one slow cooker, and a menu that keeps the whole household happy.