There’s probably only one time it is okay to smoke anything, and that’s when you smoke food.

Fortunately, Central Otago has The Stoaker Room Bistro & Bar, where smoked food is their forte. 

Situated in Cromwell, beside (180) State Highway 8B, the restaurant steams, bakes, grills and smokes local foods in French oak pinot noir barrel cookers. 

You can smell The Stoaker Room before you step into it. The waves of smoke emerging from the outdoor cooking area break upon you like stepping into a smokey ocean spray.

Eager, friendly and excellent staff invite you in like long-lost family members. 

Despite COVID-19, the business has largely kept the same staff and has forged on strongly. 

It has built a name for high quality meals and going that extra distance. 

The Stoaker Room’s pinot noir barrel smokers have become famous. 

Legend has it, during the particularly sunny Central Otago summer of 2008, whilst entertaining guests and friends on the banks of the beautiful Kawarau River, two men faced with a fire ban were in search of a way to cook without an open fire. 

The long-story short is they chopped a wine barrel up, added a heat source, some wood chips, and threw some water in the bottom to protect the barrel from burning. 

The result of this genius eventually became The Stoaker Room as we know it today, and the delectable dishes they serve up to salivating patrons in a semi-outdoor entertaining area with a fruit orchard backdrop. 

For cooking, the chefs heat the barrel’s internal temperature up to 170 degrees celsius, which takes 45 minutes to achieve. 

Food is then cooked for around 2-3 hours depending on the dish.

The Central App was invited along to taste-test the restaurant’s Eat.Taste.Central dish, The Samurai Burger. 

A Wagyu beef patty with Wagyu beef brisket, duck liver pate, onion marmalade, chipotle mustard and pinot noir glaze in a burger bun. 

The burger arrives on a rustic wooden board with honey mustard and crunchy roast potatoes. 

The moment the board hits the table my eyes lit up. Burgers are kind of my thing and this burger got me googly-eyed. 

The succulent beef makes up the bulk of the burger and is brought to life with the sweetness of the onion marmalade, while tempered by the duck liver pate. 

The Samurai Burger is a beastly meal in a bun which treads the delicate balance of flavours beautifully. 

The delicate balance struck between the depth and range of flavours creates a really well-rounded burger.

All the ingredients were high quality and masterfully brought together by the chef. My mouth watered before, during and after the meal. 

I found the potatoes were so good my partner was reaching across the table for them. 

A vegetarian, I was worried I brought her to the wrong place. However, not to leave anyone in the lurch, The Stoaker Room offers up a couple of vegetarian dishes. 

She tucked into cajun grilled cauliflower steak, with homemade hummus, chimichurri and roasted cashews. 

But she still wanted my potatoes. 

She sipped on a Wild Earth Pinot Noir while I gulped a beer from the local Polytech brewing school. 

The crack pie was truly something, which topped off the experience.  

For a midweek date night, we then ended it with desert. She wanted the crack pie, and I wanted the baked Alaska. 

We got both and halved them so we could get the best of both worlds. 

We ate, we fell into a food coma, paid our dues and then rolled out to the car where we talked about the meal for the drive home and came up with names of friends and family we have to bring along next time. 

That burger will be etched into my tastebuds for some time yet and I can’t wait to go back. 

Just gotta remember to protect my potatoes though. 

Don’t miss out on Eat.Taste.Central, a month long event where you can take your palate to somewhere it hasn't been before. Local cafès, restaurants and cellar doors collectively produce a 'Central Otago Regional Menu' that celebrates the region.

Eat.Taste.Central runs until Monday October 26, so get in before it finishes. 

Photos Rowan Schindler.

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