Viva’s Top 60 Auckland Restaurants 2024: Jesse Mulligan & Johanna Thornton’s Special Category Winners

Viva’s dining out editor Jesse Mulligan and deputy editor Johanna Thornton’s special category winners from the Top 60 Auckland Restaurants 2024.

As well as carving out an expanded, exciting list of Auckland’s Top 60 Restaurants for 2024, Viva’s dining out editor Jesse Mulligan and deputy editor Johanna Thornton have awarded some special categories, shining a light on some of the best eateries in Auckland depending on the occasion, whether it’s a drink in the sun or an anniversary, and crowning 2024′s best new restaurant.

And the special category awards go to...

Best New Restaurant

Advieh

This restaurant is a significant achievement even without the food. A huge dining room with one entrance from a hotel and the other from a shopping mall, Advieh nonetheless manages to feel miles away from either of those things. The creation of high-profile chef Gareth Stewart, it feels like somewhere unique in the city – with few concessions to a traditionally conservative hotel crowd, the menu is expansive and exciting. Though nominally Middle Eastern there is plenty of Aotearoa here, especially among the ingredients which are fresh and unexpected. They also do a good range of drinks, served up by a fast and charming front-of-house team. — Jesse

Cuisine: Middle Eastern/Greek. Address: Queen St, central city. Contact: Adviehrestaurant.com

The Grove

“In a class of its own”, is how my co-judge Jesse Mulligan describes The Grove, Auckland’s go-to fine dining destination for 20 years now, with global credits that include a place in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list and 9th best fine diner in the world in Trip Advisor’s Traveller’s Choice Awards. The Grove specialises in modern New Zealand degustation menus that change with the seasons. Award-winning chef Cory Campbell’s six or eight-course menus are simply titled and expertly produced, the work of a creative, precise chef with a deep understanding of flavour. A dish of ‘horse mussel, kombu’ is actually a scallop, sliced thin and served raw with an emulsion made from the skirts of the scallop and seaweed butter, served on an epic horse mussel shell and a bed of kelp. It’s undoubtedly beautiful food, designed to match the elegant dining room, with its white tablecloths and luxuriously spaced tables. For a special occasion, opt for The Grove’s expert wine matching, with special wines hand-picked by owner Michael Dearth and the team. At The Grove, the carefully orchestrated sense of calm belies the hard work behind the scenes. If it all seems effortless, that’s the whole idea. — Johanna

Cuisine: Fine dining. Address: St Patricks Sq, Wyndham St, central city. Contact: Thegroverestaurant.co.nz

Best Service

Soul Bar & Bistro

The staff at this waterfront mega-restaurant work together as an impressive machine, but have the intelligence and initiative to offer a more personal approach when required. I once called about a bag we’d left at our table and within a couple of hours they’d reviewed the security footage to identify the exact moment it slipped out of my wife’s grasp. Hopefully you won’t require that level of maintenance, but you’ll enjoy the little moments that make up Auckland’s best service experience. The waiters are experts at reading your mood and giving you exactly what you need in that moment. — Jesse

Cuisine: Bistro. Address: Cnr Lower Hobson St & Customs St West, central city. Contact: Soulbar.co.nz

Ahi

Our Supreme Winner in 2023, an evening at Ahi is a seamless dining experience, from the food to the drinks to the service, making it ideal for a memorable date night. There’s also an inimitable X-factor about Ahi that makes it an exciting place to have a special dinner with a loved one. It’s been a big awards year for Ahi, and the Commercial Bay dining room has been consistently busy, making it prime for people-watching (hey look, we didn’t specify this was a first date) – that’s if you can turn your head from the views of Auckland’s waterfront and Britomart’s heritage buildings, or the chefs hard at work at the kitchen pass cooking over an open fire (Ahi means fire in te reo Māori). At Ahi there’s a big emphasis on where food comes from, with the menu listing ingredients’ origin, from Wānaka to Waipu, or Ahi’s organic garden in Patumāhoe, with each dish a stunning expression of New Zealand ingredients and flavours. You can’t go wrong here. — Johanna

Cuisine: Modern Fine Dining. Address: Level 2, Commercial Bay, 7 Queen St, central city. Contact: Ahirestaurant.co.nz

Best Taste Of New Zealand

Culprit

What is New Zealand cuisine? It’s the question that’s launched a hundred radio interviews but chef Kyle Street is doing more than anyone to answer it, creating dishes that are a mix of nostalgia, innovation and hot takes on old classics. Culprit flies the flag for city dining and has remained busy throughout the long winter of 2024. That’s because it is simply one of the best restaurants in town – fun, frenetic and fresh, with a team of staff who seem to love their jobs. New Zealand kai is defined by its quality seafood and Culprit’s kitchen prepares it masterfully. Meanwhile, their popular lamb shoulder will show you how good that cut can get. — Jesse

Cuisine: Bistro. Address: Level 1, Wyndham St, central city. Contact: Culpritdiningroom.co.nz

Best Restaurant For A Group

Gemmayze Street

Our Supreme Winner for 2024, Gemmayze Street makes dreaded group dining a dream. There’s room for large tables of family and friends at this St Kevins Arcade restaurant, where the recommended way to eat is the jeeb, which means ‘to bring’ in Arabic and is a two-, three- or four-course set menu made up of the kitchen’s favourite Lebanese-inspired dishes. Those ‘courses’ contain multiple dishes, and diners can expect to find their table laden with housemade pide, hummus, baba ghanoush and falafel when the first round of plates arrive, and later with larger dishes like the shish, roasted carrots and fattouche salad. It’s a joyful way to eat, with all the hard decisions made for you, and no one will be left hungry. — Johanna

Cuisine: Lebanese. Address: Shop 16, St Kevins Arcade, 183 Karangahape Rd. Contact: Gemmayzestreet.co.nz

Best Restaurant For Lunch

Gilt

This is the lunchtime restaurant Auckland city deserves – a beautiful room with an international feel and that rarest of CBD phenomena, daylight, filtering through the northern windows and making everybody look good. Gilt seems to be always busy but that’s not just about the Chancery location – other restaurateurs have been unable to make this corner site a success. Owners Josh and Helen Emett and their team work harder than most to make the lunchtime shift appealing, with food (and drink) specials that must start to look pretty good when the late morning hunger hits. Try the tomato schnitzel when it’s on. — Jesse

Cuisine: Brasserie. Address: 2 Chancery St, central city. Contact: Giltbrasserie.nz

Best Interior

Metita

To step through the curved, wood-panelled entryway to Metita is to leave SkyCity’s bustling hotel foyer behind and enter another world, where you’re floating on the ocean looking up at the sky, or on a tropical holiday. Designers CTRL Space worked with owner/chef Michael Meredith’s brief to “capture the essence of Pacific culture” to complement his Pacific-inspired menu. A palette of deep blues, greys, cool neutrals and soft whites reflect the colours of the sea and sky and there is texture everywhere, from the soft, curved banquettes piled with cushions, to the wallcoverings, timber tables and stone surfaces. The centrepiece is a cluster of hanging woven objects inspired by traditional Pacific fishing baskets and tropical flowers. But don’t just take our word for it. It’s multi-award-winning too, with a gold for hospitality in this year’s Best Awards, where the judges praised the intricate textures, detailing and deep cultural references. It also won a hospitality award at the 2024 Interior Awards in Barcelona, with the jury noting the design “beautifully evokes a sense of calm and place through a re-imagining of colour, texture and materialism”. — Johanna

Cuisine: Pacific. Address: 90 Federal St, central city. Contact: 09 363 7030

Best Vibe

Farina

It’s at the wrong end of Ponsonby Rd and Auckland has 100 newer, cooler restaurants. But Farina is the party you’ve been waiting for and if you’ve overlooked this pizza and pasta joint for something more trendy the locals will thank you: it’s hard enough to get a table here already. Farina has a range of seating options to suit your mood but no matter where you are you’ll feel the energy of the central, open kitchen, where a team of chefs headed by Napoletano native Sergio Maglione create simple, brilliant dishes. The atmosphere in this newly renovated dining room is noisy and festive, thanks partly to the long and luscious drinks list. — Jesse

Cuisine: Italian. Address: 244 Ponsonby Rd, Ponsonby. Contact: Farina.co.nz

Best Summer Restaurant

First Mates Last Laugh

We love a seaside restaurant in summer and First Mates Last Laugh masterfully brings the best of the ocean into one glamourous venture. From hospitality icon Judith Tabron, who founded Soul Bar & Bistro in 2001, First Mates Last Laugh has been conceived as an inviting and fun all-day spot that makes the most of its waterfront location in Westhaven. Inside, nautical touches abound with blue and white striped booths and bar seats, warm wooden surfaces, and shimmering blue tiles. Outside, tables spill out onto the deck with views across the marina to the city skyline. Leaning into a more relaxed style of hospitality, there’s a covered terrace with a TV for watching sailing and sports. The menu has been designed by executive chef Cezar Takahashi, who’s put a Brazilian/Japanese twist on share plates of spicy salmon, tuna taquitos and lamb chops with aji verde. Let the good times roll. — Johanna

Cuisine: Bistro. Address: 121 Westhaven Drv, Westhaven. Contact: Firstmateslastlaugh.co.nz

Rising Star Award

Tushar Grover at Rhu

Some chefs take years before they start creating food that could only have come from them, but Tushar Grove is already there. A protege of Ed Verner’s at Pasture, he created a beautiful menu of his own at Flor and now has total freedom at Rhu in Parnell to source interesting ingredients and push them to their limits. He uses a combination of molecular and classical tricks to invent dishes full of contrast: he makes rich foods lighter by whipping air into them; uses a Gyrovap to delete astringent or cloying elements of ingredients in order to isolate their purest elements. But he loves cooking, not chemistry - though every dish is an experiment, it’s done in the pursuit of great flavour and happy diners. He is already a star; like his food, Tushar’s potential seems almost unlimited. — Jesse

Cuisine: Modern bistro. Address: 235 Parnell Rd, Parnell. Contact: Rhuakl.com

Discover the full Top 60 Auckland Restaurants for 2024 here.