The sophisticated restaurant/bar complex is fast becoming one of the world's must-attend dining destinations.

In the early 90s, I wrote a piece for the Herald in which I sought to demystify for readers (and myself) a cuisine that was newly making its presence felt on the local culinary scene: Japanese.

The passion that goes into creating this Italian eatery's menu is evident in every mouthful.

Top chef's touch shows up in menu and service, writes Phoebe Falconer.

The "Bollix" has built its reputation on featuring the best in homegrown and international rock, pop, celtic, folk and blues talent.

Have you noticed that Americans call a main course an entrée? (They probably say that we call an entrée a main course, but never mind that for a moment.)

Every summer for 10 years I have spent a week with a bunch of about 100 men in a bush camp up north.

If the young talent rising in the food ranks is anything to go by, our restaurant scene is about to get a whole lot more exciting. Viva's restaurant reviewer talks to three chefs ready to shake things up.

Twenty Three Cafe, from the same people who introduced The Corner Store next door, found at 23 Mt Eden Rd is a nice, modern place with a hint of psychedelic thrown in.

An authentic eatery in Glen Innes encourages adventurous dining.

There's no beating round the bush, Mt Eden’s Mulberry has its recipe right.

Heaven help us. Now it's Indian tapas. It doesn't say so on the menu, but Arun's website promises "a modern Indian experience ... ranging from flavoursome curries, succulent flavours of the tandoori and a mouth-watering tapas selection".

A US-style eatery in Manly delivers the flavours of the southern states, but needs work in other areas of the dining experience.

A meal at a restaurant on an olive estate offers a mixed bag of serving sizes and quality.

Auckland's dining scene is about to become a whole lot more exciting with the addition of three new eateries, created and led by hospitality expert Brendan Turner.

Glasgow's culinary reputation for deep-fried Mars Bars and chips with everything is well past its use-by date, says Pam Neville.

If you want to go 'large', beware - upsizing your fries in fast-food restaurants does not guarantee you much for your extra money.

With all you can eat and eight cuisines to choose from, you need to turn up very hungry to the Langham's newest hotel restaurant.

A restaurant manager created an elaborate scheme so he could steal nearly $140,000 from his employer to feed his gambling addiction.

NZ cuisine has well and truly shrugged off its meat-and-three-veg past: that's the verdict from Gordon Ramsay's right-hand man.

The choice of meal options is impressive, less so the service on a busy evening.

We came here because we had a couple of decades-worth of clowning around to catch up on.

Not being a geologist, I cannot say exactly what kind of stones they were.