Golden Island Chinese Restaurant and Takeaways owner Aimei Wu was at the Thames St building yesterday morning, surveying the damage caused by the fire.
"Everything"s OK, everyone"s OK. It"s just the building," she said.
The fire is believed to have started in the restaurant"s kitchen, but a Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) investigator, at the scene yesterday, was yet to determine the cause.
Emergency services were called to the restaurant, between Oamaru Cinema and Hiway Autos Oamaru at 7.57pm on Tuesday.
A Fenz spokeswoman said the single-storey building was "well-alight" when two crews from Oamaru arrived, causing firefighters to activate a second alarm, for a crew from Weston and Glenavy to help.
"They did check adjacent buildings that had got smoke drift ... but it had not spread to any other buildings," the spokeswoman said.
Crews had "no issues" extinguishing the fire and were dampening down the scene by 9.15pm.
A St John spokeswoman said one ambulance responded, and treated one patient with minor injuries at the scene.
