Andrea Harbour has tried oysters from as far afield as Vancouver and Nova Scotia, but says the bivalve molluscs produced in southern New Zealand are a cut above the rest.
''I'll just say these are definitely the best.''
Ms Harbour was at Dunedin's Best Cafe for the first oysters of the season yesterday.
The cafe received its first load of 60 dozen oysters from Southland on Sunday.
Although she now lives in Vancouver, Canada, Ms Harbour is originally from Dunedin, and was in the city for her mother's birthday.
She had memories of eating at the Best Cafe on a Friday night in the late 1960s and early 1970s when she was at university, and of her father bringing home sugar sacks full of oysters, which he shucked himself.
''We ate lots of oysters. I like the taste.''
Of the new-season oysters, she said: ''These are great.''
Duncan Mathieson was also in the cafe ''first thing sharp'' to feast on oysters.
''They're a top favourite of mine,'' both raw and cooked, the Dunedin man said.
