Tasty Temptations is a South African-inspired café and food shop on State Highway 1 in Te Hana, opened by a team of self-described food lovers after months of planning, renovating and preparing. It was created as a warm, welcoming stop for the local community, travellers passing through on SH1, and visitors from nearby Wellsford, Kaiwaka, Mangawhai and beyond.
The counter is built around a biltong bar stocked with premium South African biltong and droëwors, with shelves of South African groceries and treats alongside — a taste of home for expats and an easy introduction for the curious. Fresh barista-made coffee, homemade baking and café meals cover the eat-in side, while frozen take-home meals let regulars take the same flavours home to the freezer.
True to the name, there is a sweeter side too: the 'Sweet Temptations' range of desserts and treats, described by the founders as crafted with care, passion and 'a sprinkle of indulgence'. Whether it's a quick coffee on a road trip, a proper café meal or a bag of biltong for the drive, the promise is the same — great food, great coffee and friendly service, where 'temptation never tasted so good'.
There's a new reason to slow down on State Highway 1. Tasty Temptations has opened its doors in Te Hana, and after months of planning, renovating, painting and preparing, the team finally threw them open with a simple promise: great food, great coffee and friendly service in a warm, welcoming space.
The shop sits right on SH1, which makes it a natural stop for two very different kinds of hungry people. The first is the traveller — the team says it would love to welcome those passing through on State Highway 1, along with visitors from Wellsford, Kaiwaka, Mangawhai and beyond. The second is the local: the Te Hana community the owners thank first when they talk about the journey to opening day. For them, the opening was the end of a long build-up and the start of becoming a regular stop on a stretch of road with plenty of through-traffic and not always somewhere tempting to pull over.
The heart of Tasty Temptations is its biltong bar. Here you'll find premium South African biltong — the seasoned, dried meat snack that South Africans treat almost as a food group — alongside droëwors, the thin dried sausage that traditionally keeps it company. The range comes in a selection of flavours, and the shop's newsletter hints there are always new biltong flavours in the works.
Around the biltong bar sits something rarer in this part of New Zealand: a shelf's worth of South African groceries and treats. For expats, it's a chance to restock on the tastes of home. For everyone else, it's an easy way to explore a cuisine most of us only meet through a packet at a service station — except here it's stocked and served by people who genuinely care about it.
Tasty Temptations is more than a biltong stop, though. Coffee comes fresh and barista-made, and the cabinet and kitchen cover both ends of the day. Homemade baking lines up with the shop's 'Sweet Temptations' side — the founders describe their desserts and sweets as crafted with 'care, passion, and a sprinkle of indulgence'. It's the kind of cabinet that can turn a five-minute coffee stop into twenty.
If you'd rather sit down than snack, café meals are served in-house. And if you like what you taste but can't linger, the freezer holds frozen take-home meals — the same kitchen's cooking, ready to reheat at home on a night when cooking is the last thing you feel like doing.
Everything about the place, from the name to the newsletter greeting ('Hey foodie friend!'), leans friendly rather than formal. The founders describe Tasty Temptations as 'founded by food lovers, for food lovers' — a destination whether you're celebrating something special or, as they put it, simply treating yourself 'because you deserve it'. Every bite, they say, tells a story.
That same spirit shaped the opening. The gratitude in the announcement goes to the community that supported the journey, and the invitation is an open one: come and celebrate with us, we'd love to see you.
Alongside the physical shop, Tasty Temptations runs an online store with three collections — the Biltong Bar, Hot Foods and Sweet Temptations — so favourites can be reordered between visits. Payments are modern and frictionless, with Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Shop Pay and Union Pay all accepted.
Opening hours weren't published on the website at the time of writing, so it's worth checking the shop's Facebook or Instagram pages, or getting in touch, before planning a stop. Joining the 'Tasty Family' email list is the easiest way to hear about new biltong flavours, sweet treats and café specials as they land.
You'll find Tasty Temptations at 309 SH1, Te Hana — on the main road, hard to miss, and well placed for anyone driving SH1 through this part of the country who needs a coffee, a proper meal, or a bag of something chewy and moreish for the road.