Little Market Kitchen

Have you been wanting to tick the Abel Tasman track off your bucket list? If so, we have the perfect cafe to visit on your trip!

We were lucky enough to chat with Ingrid from Little Market Kitchen, located in the beautiful town of Motueka. With their delicious food and beautiful location, this is a spot you will love to visit.

Hi Ingrid, thanks for chatting with me. Firstly, can you please tell me about Little Market Kitchen and how it all came about?

Little Market Kitchen came about out of a desire to serve delicious coffee and healthy food options. We originally started roasting our own beans and added several menu items, we found quickly that many of our customers were looking to buy food to accompany their favourite drink.

What are your favourite things about working out of the Little Market Kitchen trailer?

We love creating healthy and delicious food options for many and varied customers that support us. Every day is different, and we enjoy the challenge of surprising our customers with great food!

How do you come up with what’s on your delicious-looking menu?

We rotate our menu seasonally focussing on the freshness of local produce wherever possible. Since opening, many of our items have remained the same – our customers have their favourites and loyally stick to these. We choose classic flavours and then we look at ways we can make these more healthy and more delicious! Take the cheeseburger for example – it has all the essential components of a traditional burger but it is made with bakery brioche, good quality beef, tasty cheese and quality sauces and pickles. You can taste the difference that quality ingredients make with as few additives as possible – that’s got to be good!

Motueka is such a beautiful place. What are your favourite things about your town and local community?

Motueka is a great little town. It is self-sufficient and has a great supportive community atmosphere. Boasting some of the most sunshine hours in the country and having the beaches and river right on our doorstep gives plenty of options for exercise and relaxing with family and friends

For someone visiting (after heading to Little Market Kitchen of course) - what are your top three things to do in Motueka?

1) After fuelling up on coffee and food head down the Abel Tasman National Park, the best way you can experience the stunning golden beaches is to take a walk along the Coast Track. Choose your destination, pack some snacks and schedule a water taxi to bring you back to either Kaiteriteri or Marahau.

2) Visit Golden Bay – after charging yourself with Coffee and food from Little Market Kitchen, head over the hill to Takaka and Golden Bay. Here you have many options, I would recommend visiting Anatoki Salmon farm and then heading to Wharariki Beach, a stunning beach well worth the trip.

3) Head inland to Nelson Lakes National Park and explore Lake Rotoiti and the surrounding area. Here there are tramping tracks suitable for all ages and skill levels amid beautiful scenery. 

Hard question, but what is your current favourite smoothie bowl flavour?

I’d have to say Tropicana is my favourite flavour. The freshness of mango, pineapple and orange is hard to beat – combine that with coconut, and you have a delicious bowl that will almost make you believe you’re in the Tropics! Topped with house-made granola and fresh seasonal fruit, the Tropicana is refreshing and filling - perfect for breakfast, brunch or whenever you need a boost.

Thank you for choosing to use decent packaging. What made you decide to use sustainable packaging?

It is important to us that we minimise waste and reduce our impact on the environment. decent packaging provides us with a solution where we can have beautiful packaging for a wide variety of food and drink options and also do our part to reduce single-use plastics.

Lastly, can you tell us where our readers can find/support you? 

Little Market Kitchen Trailer – 489 High Street Motueka 

(open 8am – 2:00pm, Tuesday – Friday)

Website – www.littlemarketkitchen.co.nz

Instagram - @littlemarketkitchennz