Make sure you nail your order every time with Viva’s guide to Auckland’s standout restaurant dishes.
Viva is dedicated to uncovering the best dining experiences in Auckland through its weekly restaurant reviews. With dining out editor Jesse Mulligan leading the charge, we explore eateries across the city to highlight the
Sashimi plate from Gion
If you hadn’t heard of Gion before Jesse reviewed it in mid-2024 you’d be forgiven. This Japanese restaurant in Parnell has managed to stay under the radar despite serving “exceptional” food since 2006. Chef Akira Kugue is a trained sushi chef from Kyoto and opened Gion (named after the ancient Kyoto district) after running Seamart sushi bar and the Auckland Fish Market. The Gion Sashimi plate is chef Akira’s signature creation, featuring fresh New Zealand fish and seafood, presented beautifully.
Cuisine: Japanese
Address: 1/168 Parnell Rd, Parnell
Phone: (09) 379 3344
Lamb cutlets from Ada
At Ada, the gorgeous restaurant inside The Convent Hotel in Grey Lynn, chef Alfie Ingham is absolutely smashing bistro classics. Case in point is these New Zealand lamb cutlets, crumbed and then fried until golden, served with a slightly sweet mint sauce and draped with a salty anchovy and herbs. Available as individual serves, we’d encourage you to get one cutlet each to avoid any FOMO, and yes you can eat them with your hands.
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Advertise with NZME.Cuisine: Bistro
Phone: 0210 909 0101
Address: The Convent Hotel, 454 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn
Pāua vol-au-vent from Trivet
At Trivet, chef Wallace Mua blends his knowledge of French cooking with the flavours of the Pacific and no dish melds the two more impressively than the paua vol-au-vent. A rectangle of crispy puff pastry creates a bed for Wallace’s palusami, which sees fresh taro leaves cooked in coconut milk until tender. Shavings of Tora Bay pāua come next, sustainably caught on the South Wairarapa coast, which are then topped with radish and a scattering of fresh chives in what Trivet calls “a nostalgic nod to the flavours of Aotearoa”.
Cuisine: Modern bistro
Address: 22 Albert St, central city
Phone: (09) 912 3020
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Advertise with NZME.Venison pie from St Marg’s
This pie is a showpiece, with a venison thigh bone towering above the pastry, a clever trick by the chefs to allow the marrow to roast with the rest of the delicious filling. The team at Karangahape Rd restaurant St Marg’s know their pies. They own the popular neighbouring shop Pie Rollas, which sells pies handmade with a pastry recipe handed down from co-owner Lewis Mazza-Carson’s grandma. At St Marg’s, this venison pie is made with golden pastry, chunks of meat, bubbling gravy and some unexpected freshness – and colour – from cranberries.
Cuisine: Bistro
Address: 469 Karangahape Rd, Auckland
Contact: Stmargskrd.co.nz
House chaat from Rahi
At this Indian restaurant on Ponsonby Rd, the ice-cold cocktails are almost as popular as the food – with concoctions like Blackberry Cheesecake made with bourbon, creme de cacao, blackberry jam, lemon and served with a white chocolate chip, or the Milk Punch, which combines rum, Grand Marnier, pineapple, passion, lime and bitters with a coco-pandan foam on top. You’d be wise to order the chaat to munch on while you’re sipping. Rahi’s chat is a sweet potato-filled crispy pastry topped with yoghurt, tamarind, mint and pomegranate seeds, and scattered with fried chickpea flakes.
Address: 14 Ponsonby Rd, Ponsonby
Phone: (09) 558 4994
Beetroot from Mr Morris
At Britomart restaurant Mr Morris, chef Georgia Van Prehn has been putting her distinctive spin on the menu since she took the helm in 2024, with classics conceived by chef/owner Michael Meredith given subtle updates, and the addition of several entirely new dishes. Don’t miss this beetroot starter, which sees thin slices of the vegetable draped atop perfectly tender baby beetroot segments and a bed of pinenut creme and then brushed in smoked beef fat.
Cuisine: Modern bistro
Address: Excelsior Building, cnr Galway and Commerce Sts, Britomart
Phone: (09) 869 5522
Salmon from Rhu
On the menu, this dish is noted simply as ‘salmon, yuzu butter, wood sorrel’. Chef Tushar Grover combines these ingredients with ease and skill, wrapping a piece of two-week dry-aged Ora King salmon in a nasturtium leaf and gently cooking the parcel over an open flame. It’s served with a rich yuzu butter sauce and garnished with foraged nasturtium, onion weed, wood sorrel and bright orange pops of salmon roe.
Cuisine: Modern bistro
Address: 235 Parnell Rd, Parnell
Phone: 022 059 1967
Tuna from San Ray
Would you look at those perfect, blush-coloured slices of fresh tuna? Every Auckland restaurant has its version of a raw fish dish, and at all-day Ponsonby Rd restaurant San Ray, from the team that brought us Cazador, the crudo is served on a herb-infused leche de tegre with dots of makrut lime oil, chilli and fried shallots. Which fish and which herb is used will depend on the season, but both are bound to nail the flavour brief.
Cuisine: All-day bistro
Address: 118 Ponsonby Rd, Ponsonby
Phone: (09) 360 0486
Sirloin from One Tree Grill
Epsom restaurant One Tree Grill has been around for 20 years and is an Auckland institution at this point. Known for doing the classics well, it has what Jesse Mulligan calls “one of the loveliest steaks in Auckland – combining the flavour of Scotch with the yielding tenderness of eye fillet”. It’s presented simply with black garlic butter, wild watercress and jus gras, and sliced before serving. Just add a side of mash or fries.
Cuisine: Fine Dining
Address: 9 Pah Rd, Epsom
Phone: (09) 909 7215
Spicy salmon from First Mates, Last Laugh
The taquitos might get the most airtime on Instagram, with their cute, bite-size taco format containing perfect cubes of salmon or tuna, but the spicy salmon is the unmissable order from Westhaven restaurant First Mates, Last Laugh. It’s a fillet of perfectly cooked salmon coated in Thai red curry paste and served in a pool of coconut cream dotted with vibrant chilli oil and makrut lime.
Cuisine: Bistro
Address: 121 Westhaven Drive, Westhaven
Phone: 09 414 4410
Crayfish taco from Kingi
Name a more spectacular-looking dish, we’ll wait. Kingi’s limited edition crayfish taco is served inside a crayfish shell, atop a bed of smooth black pebbles. A tortilla made with purple kumara holds fresh Tora Collective crayfish meat (lightly singed with a blowtorch) atop creamy whipped avocado and a green salsa made from chopped kiwifruit, habanero, fresh ginger and coriander, and then drizzled with olive oil.
Cuisine: Seafood bistro
Phone: (09) 300 9595
Address: The Hotel Britomart, 29 Galway St, central city
Balanzoni bolognesi from Alla Prossima
Authentic Italian restaurant Alla Prossima’s intriguing Balonzoni Bolognesi dish hails from Bologna where it’s traditionally made with spinach tortelloni stuffed with ricotta, mortadella and spinach. Alla Prossima’s version is spinach ravioli pasta encasing a mix of ricotta and cured pork, infused with New Zealand truffles. Jesse Mulligan likens these pasta parcels to “works of art” and says they’re a total flavour bomb.
Cuisine: Italian
Address: 8 Upper Queen St, CBD
Phone: (09) 320 1671
Gilda from Queens
Several Auckland restaurants offer a gilda – a type of Spanish pintxo (small snack) that originates from San Sebastián in the Basque Country. It usually consists of green olives, pickled guindilla peppers, and anchovies skewered on a toothpick. Queens Rooftop’s version adds marinated red peppers and mini gherkins to the mix and comes with a side order of the city’s best view from the top of 1 Queen Street (read more about that here). Might we suggest a gilda and a glass of dry white wine, or a Vesper Martini?
Cuisine: Bistro
Address: Level 21/1 Queen St, Auckland CBD, Auckland 1010
Cheeseburger from Manzo
The wagyu cheeseburger from Remuera steakhouse Manzo (from the team behind Spiga) is one of their most popular dishes, and for good reason. Served between a brioche bun with piccalilli mayo, tomato, pickles and comte cheese, “it was all about the patty”, says Jesse Mulligan, “which was so juicy that when I bit into it a gush of liquid poured out of the burger, down my chin and onto the napkin on my lap. Don’t order this on a date, but if you’re up for a great burger don’t go past it.” It comes how all good burgers should, with a side of shoestring fries.
Address: 415 Remuera Rd, Remuera
Phone: (09) 600 1142
Johanna Thornton is deputy editor of Viva and Lifestyle Premium at the New Zealand Herald, with an extensive background in magazines and lifestyle journalism, specialising in food and drink, design, culture and travel. Don’t miss Viva’s Top 60 Restaurants For 2024, which Johanna co-judged with Jesse Mulligan.
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