Looking for dining out inspiration? Jesse Mulligan visits a restaurant every week. Here are 2024′s reviews.
Viva’s dining out editor Jesse Mulligan visits a restaurant every week in his role as restaurant reviewer, highlighting new openings worthy of your attention, but also revisiting old favourites that have been around for
The College Hill Wine Room, Freemans Bay
December 18, 2024
Jesse says: This was my last review meal of 2024 and it was one of my favourite experiences of the year. If they had a full menu I would have scored it higher but I still loved it. The casualisation of service in Auckland has been a bit like that famous pot of water with the frog in it – aside from occasional shocks like last week when I was forced to order my food via QR code, the changes have happened too slowly to ever really notice. Ten years ago most restaurants would have at least one career waiter who could talk about the food and the winelist with experience and intelligence. These waiters are now so rare that when I come across one of them I involuntarily emit a little squeak of joy.
Cuisine: Wine bar
Address: 2/43 College Hill, Freemans Bay, Auckland 1011
Contact: Thewineroom.co.nz
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Hazy Tiger, central city
December 11, 2024
Jesse says: It’s hard to pick a favourite but the bibimbap is a great order, fun to stir up and delicious to eat – particularly those crispy little bits of the rice that made contact with the hot stone bowl. Kimchi makes a cameo here and even more memorably in the sushi, where canned tuna is mixed up with rice and then wrapped in fermented cabbage leaves. If that sounds like a lot, well, it is, but it’s a great example of something you won’t find anywhere else. If you’re into seafood flavours you should also get the saewoo jeon, a sort of shrimp cake fried crispy in the pan with what I think must be rice flour, that slightly rubbery consistency making it incredibly moreish to the bite.
Cuisine: Korean
Address: 22 Durham St West, central city
Phone: (09) 377 7998
Nuuna, Wynyard Quarter
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Jesse says: I would never have known Nuuna existed if it weren’t for an Instagram post by Peter Gordon, who apparently eats there all the time (I love it when chefs plug restaurants – Al Brown is particularly generous in promoting places he likes). The room is light and beautifully decorated and could be a real destination restaurant I think, especially as the food is mostly good. There’s a bar and all sorts of food and drink specials and plenty of tables to fit people in, including some out on the street (it was cold with those big doors open when we visited but with the last cold snap of spring now hopefully gone that’s unlikely to affect you for the next few months). The playlist is a bit dire – The Pina Colada song, that sort of thing – but, with a few tweaks, every night could feel like a party.
Cuisine: Asian fusion
Address: 12 Jellicoe St, Wynyard Quarter
Phone: (09) 969 6986
Trivet, city centre
November 27, 2024
Jesse says: It is a good menu: long and interesting if perhaps running out of a little steam by the time you reach the “grilled chicken breast” at the end. Many of the small plates seem too good not to order, and the cocktails are pretty irresistible too.
Cuisine: Modern bistro
Address: 22 Albert St, central city
Phone: (09) 912 3020
Beau, Ponsonby
November 20Cuisine: Modern bistro
Address: 22 Albert St, central city
Phone: (09) 912 3020, 2024
Jesse says: The vibes are great at this recently expanded bar/restaurant/delicatessen. The staff seem very happy to see you, to seat you, to bring you alcoholic beverages. The clientele are very happy too and though Three Lamps can feel like a bit of an economic Bermuda Triangle for restaurants, there are enough successes to prove that if you are good, people will find you.
Cuisine: Bistro and wine bar
Address: 265 Ponsonby Rd, Three Lamps
Contact: (09) 218 5137
Local Talent Taverna, Whangārei
November 6, 2024
Jesse says: Why does it work? I think, because of how it manages to be sophisticated without any pretentiousness. It’s casual and welcoming without ever dropping its standards. The menu is nominally Greek but they were doing a special on “eye fillet and chips” when I visited and I could see an old-timer eating that safe option gratefully, while younger family members chose more adventurous dishes.
I would bring my own family back here in a second – the bench-seat diner booths set the tone for communal eating, and the warm smiles and greetings that waitstaff offer every new arrival mean even nervous locals will feel glad they gave the place a go. The service team is headed up by Matt’s partner, marketing whizz and co-owner Sophie Evans, who is not a local but, based on the number of hugs she got from customers, seems to be fitting in fine.
Cuisine: Mediterranean
Address: 99 Cameron St, Whangārei
Contact: Localtalenttav.com
Goat, city centre
October 30th, 2024
Jesse says: Authenticity runs through the menu, which is full of dishes you would only find in India (or Afghanistan, or Pakistan). From the fried fish of Lahore in the north to a vinegary prawn balchao of Goa in the south, eating at Goat feels like a genuine culinary adventure.
A few weeks ago, census figures showed that Indians are now New Zealand’s third-largest ethnic group. As their beautiful local population grows and flourishes, it feels appropriate that Auckland now has restaurants that go well beyond rogan josh and tandoori chicken.
Cuisine: Indian
Address: 12 Wyndham St, city centre
Phone: (09) 377 7414
St. Marg’s, Karangahape Road
October 23rd, 2024
Jesse says: St Marg’s has a broadly appealing menu with the usual suspects (tartare, crudo), some unexpected delights and a nice list of pasta dishes. The pasta – handmade and superbly cooked – was only lightly sauced. Carbonara, with a wider ribbon than you might expect, was made traditionally (without cream) and with just a few fragments of guanciale and coated in egg yolk, barely detectable. I love a dish that is unashamedly simple and I’d be surprised if you can stop eating it. And I almost forgot to tell you about some of the best oysters I’ve ever eaten. They are freshly shucked with no detected fragments of shell (that’s expected of course but surprisingly rare).
Cuisine: Bistro
Address: 469 Karangahape Rd, Auckland
Contact: Stmargskrd.co.nz
Mr Morris, Britomart
October 16th, 2024
Jesse says: Mr Morris is famously the restaurant of Michael Meredith but in new head chef Georgia Van Prehn he has found someone who will both protect his legacy and lead the kitchen to new places. She is a chef of inspiration and confidence, applying the same intelligent creativity to a broccoli stalk as she does to an expensive piece of duck. In her new home she has the best of both worlds – an audience of locals and regulars, and a dream kitchen, with a fire pit in the centre and a bar surrounded by adoring diners.
Cuisine: Modern bistro
Address: Excelsior Building cnr Galway and Commerce Streets, Britomart
Phone: (09) 869 5522
Sidart, Ponsonby
October 9th, 2024
Jesse says: What can you expect from the new Sidart? The white tablecloths are gone, but I looked really hard and found little sign of the “simplicity, warmth and communal spirit” the recent announcement promised. The tasting menu, surely the best way to enjoy a chef’s vision, features dishes that are complex, playful and definitely not for sharing — all the stuff we loved about Sidart in the first place.
One of Auckland’s best chefs, creating very elevated bistro food in an upmarket dining room with stunning views of the city. A chipper team of staff serving great drinks to happy customers. And a final bill more suited to someone with a term deposit than a mortgage.
Cuisine: Bistro
Address: 283 Ponsonby Rd, Ponsonby, Auckland
Phone: (09) 360 2122
Rhu, Parnell
September 25, 2024
Jesse says: Moments of surprise and delight are common at Rhu, a Parnell space in what was Pasture’s test kitchen and bakery Alpha. As at the best fine-dining restaurants, every ingredient at this more casual eatery has a long story (of origin and of preparation), but it’s also the same story over and over again: they grabbed the best piece of produce they could find then set about expressing its unique flavour on a plate using whatever tools and techniques they could possibly access. In charge of it all is Tushar Grover, who honed his skills at Pasture, a boy genius who might be my chef of the year.
Cuisine: Modern bistro
Address: 235 Parnell Rd, Parnell
Phone: 022 059 1967
Sora, Mount Eden
September 18, 2024
Jesse says: Sora is one of the most chaotic restaurants I’ve ever been to. Waiters are either moving fast, bumping into one another, dropping crockery on the floor, or they’re standing motionless at the counter, apparently paralysed by the thought of what to do next. I’m not sure whether they have a system, but if they do it isn’t working.
Everyone is trying to do everything, and lots of things are getting missed. If it’s like this before 7pm on a Thursday with empty tables, God knows what the weekend rush hour is like. Apparently you can’t get in unless you book. And that’s because although service is quirky bordering on anarchic, the food is very decent.
Cuisine: Japanese
Address: 474 Mt Eden Rd, Mount Eden
Phone: (09) 520 2288
Koji, Wellington
September 11, 2024
Jesse says: This is the sort of Wellington restaurant I’ve been longing for. A beautiful, glowing room offering respite from the rain outside, Koji is at the bottom of Marjoribanks St (technically pronounced “Marshbanks” but only a psychopath would do so with a straight face) in what has become a great little row of restaurants – even better if you include the fantastic Capitol on the corner.
Cuisine: Asian fusion
Address: 12 Marjoribanks St, Wellington
Phone: (04) 213 7331
The Grill, central city
September 04, 2024
Jesse says: I’d been really looking forward to my dinner at The Grill, but the experience was puzzling and hurtful. Puzzling, because I can’t understand how such a well-funded, professional operation can make as many errors and bad choices as it did. Hurtful, because I think of all the bright-eyed tourists and conference delegates who’ll eat their first New Zealand meal here, in the house restaurant of the country’s newest five-star hotel, and assume this is the best we can do.
Cuisine: Steak and seafood
Address: Horizon by SkyCity, 85 Hobson St, central city, Auckland
Phone: 0800 759 2489
Madame Social, Napier
August 28, 2024
Jesse says: Madame Social is a huge, modern waterfront restaurant, on a corner site, in a quiet part of Ahuriri. Well, it was quiet until these guys showed up and filled the place with grateful, tipsy carousers. We’d booked early but a high-powered local friend told me he couldn’t get a table that night for love nor money (he’s a resourceful man and I feel sure he offered large amounts of both).
We sat among a pleasantly mixed crowd – a blue-collar Tinder date on one side, a group of high school friends on the other. There were boomers a-plenty, of course (those generous term-deposit returns have to be spent somewhere) and a 50th birthday function which meant Gen X was there in some numbers too.
Cuisine: Asian fusion
Address: Cnr West & Customs Quay, Ahuriri, Napier
Phone: (06) 650 2367
Kome, central city
August 21, 2024
Jesse says: The lighting is harsh – bright, pendant downlights have the effect of illuminating the human face’s bumps and contours, while casting shadows over its pocks and caverns. And service is casual – after leaving you alone for five or 10 minutes a server wanders over with an iPad and says “what can I get you?”. There’s no explanation of the menu or inquiry as to what you’re in the mood for – no offer of a drink before you order food. While none of this is a dealbreaker (and the food to come is very good), a useful general service note might be “look for opportunities to be less like McDonalds”.
Cuisine: Japanese
Address: Commercial Bay, 1 Queen St
Phone: (09) 212 9589
San Ray, Ponsonby
August 14, 2024
Jesse says: I’ve had some good nights out on Ponsonby Rd but I wouldn’t say there often feels much heart to the place. It’s fast, it’s noisy, you’re wrestling with the bridge-and-ferry crowd just to order a drink and once you’ve paid your bill you know the person at the counter will never think about you again.
That all changes with the arrival of San Ray, where you can feel the warmth as soon as you walk in. The wonderful Orphan’s Kitchen had a great run but now that business has closed and been replaced by the team from Cazador, a blue-blood Auckland hospitality family who are in it for all the right reasons. They’ve toned down the masculine elements of the design, bringing in soft pastel cushioning to the chairs and lowering the tables to encourage longer stays. There’s a fresh coat of paint and a new ceiling-mounted structure above the coffee machine that holds wine bottles and masks the kitchen – suddenly, this feels like a restaurant.
Cuisine: All-day bistro
Address: 118 Ponsonby Rd, Ponsonby
Phone: (09) 360 0486
Bianca, Ellerslie
August 07, 2024
Jesse says: I mean I’m excited about The Grove’s 20th birthday dinner this month but despite it being the hottest ticket in town there’s actually a table that’s even harder to book: 6pm on a Tuesday at Bianca.
I have never been denied this many times trying to eat somewhere. Tonight is fully booked, tomorrow is fully booked, and the day after that, and so it goes, sometimes for weeks into the future. One night, in frustration, I drove all the way to the restaurant without a reservation hoping I could peer pressure them into feeding me.
Cuisine: Pasta
Address: Unit 4, 2 Robert St, Ellerslie
Contact: Book here
Rahi, Ponsonby
July 31, 2024
Jesse says: Rahi replaces Mr Spicer at the south end of the strip. What makes the new owners think they will do any better? Well, they have a great pedigree, having been involved in the early days of the wonderful 1947 in the city and Newmarket’s VT Station. Both these places occupy a welcome middle ground – flasher than a suburban curry house without approaching fine-dining fussiness or price. Rahi has been launched with the help of artisan cocktail maker Sahil Patel, who takes his job very seriously and we loved his creative inventions.
Cuisine: Indian
Address: 14 Ponsonby Rd, Ponsonby
Phone: (09) 558 4994
Sage, Hamilton
Jul. 24, 2024
Jesse says: My recent review of Mr Pickles was a local hit, and I’d been encouraged to come back down and try one of the city’s other great restaurants. Sage is in vibrant Hamilton East, just above Duck Island icecream parlour, and though there are a few signs of its former life as an open-plan office, it was cosy enough – the heat pump just keeping up on what would turn out to be the Waikato’s second coldest night of all time.
The first thing you notice is the cocktail list, featuring drinks named for TV characters. I really enjoyed my Dwight Schrute, a cold coconut tequila shaken up with lime, elderflower syrup and pickle juice (sounds odd but I loved it, and who needs another restaurant margarita?). Chris Warner and Judge Judy both looked good too, a sentence you probably didn’t expect to read.
Cuisine: Bistro
Address: Level 1/300 Grey St, Hamilton
Phone: (07) 949 6738
Alla Prossima, central city
July 16, 2024
Jesse says: This is the restaurant I’ve been waiting for. A superb, regionally focused, handmade pasta joint where they do the old stuff incredibly well, and throw in some new stuff just for fun. I don’t think I’ve eaten better Italian food anywhere. This is gob-smackingly, heart-stoppingly, jaw-droppingly delicious. You must come here at once.
But first, you’ll need to find it. The restaurant opened a few weeks ago in a hotel that is itself pretty new. Called Hotel Abstract, it might sound like a duck-shaped building with a moat of milk where the receptionist is a 2m-high pixelated human foot, but the reality is a stylish high-rise on Upper Queen St, with the restaurant several steps down from street level into a cosy but very modern dining room.
Address: 8 Upper Queen St, CBD
Phone: (09) 320 1671
Reservations: Accepted
Parro, Mt Eden
July 09, 2024
Jesse says: The food is great. It’s “Mediterranean” which covers everything from labneh to gelato, but Andalusia in the south of Spain features prominently, especially in the enthusiastic and successful use of sherry throughout the menu (forget the bottle of Old Masters your mum used to keep under the sink for Christmas; the word ‘sherry’ derives from the Spanish town of Jerez where the good stuff – either very dry or very sweet – is made).
I loved the ceviche: fresh slices of snapper with various forms of citrus and the masterstroke, a base of white gazpacho, the blended almond adding creamy body to the translucent slivers of fish. The aubergine is brilliant too, quite the change from Omni’s battered flavour-bomb, it’s a more subtle layering of thin grilled slices, flavoured with romesco, parmesan and sherry reduction, all hidden from view by handmade amaranth crackers.
Cuisine: Mediterranean
Address: 359 Dominion Rd, Mt Eden
Contact: 022 490 7935
One Tree Grill, Epsom
June 26, 2024
Jesse says: This is a fine dining restaurant by the simple definition my former editor and mentor Simon Wilson used to use: it has white tablecloths and free bread. There was a “no white tablecloths” activism movement a decade or so ago, as restaurants around the western world rebelled against formality and tradition, but I think there are plenty of diners out there who still enjoy both. Sharing food, sharing bench seats, sharing blankets, these have all been nice innovations but I don’t think there’s any reason to demand we abandon the old ways altogether. A special occasion still needs to feel special.
Cuisine: Fine Dining
Address: 9 Pah Rd, Epsom
Phone: (09) 909 7215
Gion, Parnell
June 19, 2024
Jesse says: This is exceptional Japanese food, and I say that as somebody who, regular readers will know, has turned into a complete bore on the topic (it’s about to get worse – I have an Air NZ direct flight to Tokyo departing at 8am this morning with my name on it). The dishes are beautiful, and the ingredients exceptional. Chef Akari Kugue is a trained sushi chef so please make sure you order some. My hardcore Japanese friends tell me it’s almost impossible to find sushi of acceptable standard in Auckland, but from now on I will send them here.
Cuisine: Japanese
Address: 1/168 Parnell Rd, Parnell
Phone: (09) 379 3344
Rosella, Wellington
June 12, 2024
Jesse says: Nothing makes me happier than arriving at the airport for a flight to Wellington. I felt that euphoria again on my most recent trip, even though weather-related delays and cancellations had the Koru Club stuffed with people, a line of unlucky latecomers like me queued outside and the staff running a one-in, one-out policy like bouncers at a nightclub after midnight.
“Not in those shoes,” I almost expected to hear as I nervously approached the sliding glass door with my boarding pass but, of course, they were welcoming and apologetic and happy to show me to a comfy seat where I ate the businessman’s banquet: a large wedge of blue cheese with water crackers.
The flight eventually took off just in time for me to land in Wellington, hail a taxi and make it to my 8.30pm booking at Rosella, though turning up at the restaurant carrying an overnight bag and a tuxedo (Plumber of the Year Awards, nbd) was not the sort of low-key arrival I was hoping for.
Cuisine: Bistro/wine bar
Address: 18 Marjoribanks St, Wellington
Phone: (04) 333 0573
Queens Rooftop, central city
June 05, 2024
Jesse says: Wow. This is a gobsmackingly great space – a space so magnificent that when you step out of the elevator and look around, you immediately start thinking about who you could bring with you next time.
The restaurant is on the 21st floor of “One Queen” and if you can’t immediately picture that particular high-rise, well, that makes two of us. It’s best known as the Deloittes building, I think, and forms part of the Commercial Bay development but you can’t get to the restaurant through Commercial Bay, even via the Intercontinental Hotel, which is one of the new building’s marquee tenants.
Cuisine: Bistro
Address: Level 21/1 Queen St, Auckland CBD, Auckland 1010
Contact: Book here
Gochu, central city
May 29, 2024
Jesse says: We had a good sample of Gochu’s menu, which has a lot of very good options. Eggplant and miso is a winning combo (we had a beautiful one last week at First Mates, Last Laugh) and here it just has a little tilt thanks to doenjang, Korean cuisine’s second most famous flavour paste which, while not interchangeable with miso, is fermented and soy-based too. The aubergine is listed as “crispy”, a nicer way of saying deep-fried, and came in a sort of smooth fish and chip batter with more treats at the bottom of the plate, including a silky, moreish, slightly tangy tofu cream which pops up in a few places on the menu.
Cuisine: Modern Korean
Address: Commercial Bay, 1 Queen St, CBD
Phone: 0210 905 2396
First Mates, Last Laugh, Westhaven
May 22, 2024
Jesse says: Auckland’s coastline measures at least 3000km (look it up) but how many seaside restaurants do we have? Well, I guess it depends on your definition of “seaside,” but you get my drift. There’s something special about eating a fish right next to the briny deep from which it was plucked, and I don’t feel we have nearly enough opportunities to do so.
Enter First Mates, Last Laugh, which is not an improv comedy troupe trained by pirates but a new restaurant so close to the sea you can almost smell it. You park your car somewhere nearby or, in my case, your Uber drops you off somewhere not at all nearby, then enjoy a moonlit stroll along an only slightly murdery boardwalk to a glowing house of fun, warmed by the love and laughter of people who’ve been drinking there since lunchtime.
Cuisine: Bistro
Address: 121 Westhaven Drive, Westhaven
Drinks: Fully licensed
The Night Car, central city
May 15, 2024
Jesse says: They have really gone for a modern look – the dystopic train show Snowpiercer is a reference point, as is Delilah, a Los Angeles-famous restaurant of which owner here Daren Zhou is apparently a fan – and the fit-out is 95 per cent there (a ceiling-mounted LED display bearing the flashing message “LED Display” was the only piece of decor that broke the spell). The lighting is perhaps a little brighter than you might expect too, but when everything looks this good, why not?
Cuisine: Modern Chinese
Address: 44 Queen St, central city
Phone: 022 384 0068
Tanukis Cave, central city
May 08, 2024
Jesse says: Tanuki’s Cave is a restaurant that adds up to much more than the sum of its parts. The food is … well, I can see the appeal but I’m afraid I didn’t love it. What was exciting was the unique offering of this great room, a below-ground Queen St secret that makes you glad you came here as soon as you descend the stairs.
How many other restaurants have lasted 30 years in Auckland? Tanuki’s will reach that milestone in a couple of years, and a big crowd on the Thursday I visited (with new diners still arriving well after 9pm) suggests they’ll have the economic thrust to get there. It’s not hard to see why this place is popular: each night several hundreds (sometimes thousands) of people arrive with tickets to theatre shows and concerts on this very street block.
Cuisine: Japanese
Address: 319b Queen St, central city
Phone: (09) 379 5151
Manzo, Epsom
May 01, 2024
Jesse says: Manzo is a steakhouse, and a very good one. Though I’m sure you can order red meat east of the Southern Motorway, I can’t think of any restaurants that are famous for it. Karl, who cooks steak once a week at home, was dead keen to try the house specialty so I steered him towards the scotch and he loved it. It had the darkened appearance of a well-hung piece of beef (they have a big glass dry ager in case you want to watch this happening close up) which I see now on the menu is “beeswax-aged”, though we weren’t offered any info on that.
Cuisine: Steakhouse
Address: 415 Remuera Rd, Remuera
Phone: (09) 600 1142
Farina, Ponsonby
April 24, 2024
Jesse says: The first thing to say is that this is a tremendously inviting new space – a warm, noisy, convivial front room then a walk through to a cosier back room, heated in part by a large brick pizza oven. In between the two main spaces is the kitchen, with a 180-degree pass allowing the owner-chef Sergio Maglione to keep an eye on everyone, and everyone to keep an eye on him.
Floor staff are very good. Even the new ones, who are watched closely by the seniors, exude a friendly efficiency in everything they do. And a couple of waiters really know what they’re doing.
“I’m thinking about this verdicchio,” I said, “do you know it?”
“This wine comes from a town on the mid-east coast of Italy,” he began. “It is an important port. Every container ship that goes through Italy stops in this town.”
Cuisine: Italian
Address: 244 Ponsonby Rd, Ponsonby
Phone: (09) 390 6213
Okome, Eden Terrace
April 17, 2024
Jesse says: Not every restaurant review can be of a place as small as this but I love that from time to time we can ignore the 100-seater rooms in the city and drive out to, well, Eden Terrace to experience a neighbourhood eatery that feels full as soon as a second couple is seated. I came upon this via the “Where we’re eating” column in the latest Dish magazine, and might otherwise never have discovered it – it’s a restaurant space so invisible that even when you go looking you struggle to find it. That’s fine. A city needs spokes as well as hubs, and the idea that the apartment owners on Enfield St have their own, secret Japanese kitchen fills me with joy.
Well, not enough joy to stop me telling the rest of you, obviously. But try and keep it to yourselves.
Cuisine: Japanese
Address: 30 Enfield St, Eden Terrace
Contact: 022 174 6593
Advieh, central city
April 10, 2024
Jesse says: Advieh is the house restaurant of the new InterContinental Hotel and is an early candidate for opening of the year. An exceptional menu, fantastic staff, a big, beautiful room and an exciting drinks list – this is the sort of place that reminds you how good restaurants can get.
It also reminds you how good Gareth Stewart is – after a few years floating around at executive and group chef level (he ultimately oversaw the menu at Jervois Steak House, for example, but there was nothing about the place that made you think of him) – he is very much on the tools here, working a Monday night when I visited and creating the sort of food that couldn’t be anybody else’s.
Cuisine: Middle Eastern/Greek
Address: 1 Queen St, central city
Phone: (09) 304 0040
Anise, Eden Terrace
April 03, 2024
Jesse says: Unusually, this review dinner wasn’t my first visit to Anise. That occasion was a media launch event, the first I’ve attended for almost 10 years thanks to a live 7pm TV commitment that became a serious impediment to gobbling up free meals.
My first look at Anise was a great way to break the drought but – nice introduction to the restaurant though it was – it’s hard to pay serious attention to the food when you’re full of free cocktails and trying to keep up with Kerre Woodham’s anecdote about the English cricket team. We ate all sorts of delicious things but I remember going home feeling a little sick (not the anecdote’s fault, it started ominously but ended cleanly), so I was looking forward to returning and enjoying the menu at my own pace, with a glass of wine I wasn’t gulping down extra quickly in case somebody turned off the tap.
Cuisine: Modern pan-Asian
Address: 210 Symonds St, Eden Terrace
Phone: (09) 377 1911
Kookoo, Mount Eden
March 27, 2024
Jesse says: My excellent colleague Kim Knight, reviewing Kookoo in Canvas, noted the style of cuisine as anju, a Korean concept meaning “food to soak up your alcoholic drinks”. But on the night I visited I was in desperate need of some drinks to soak up the food.
It is a charming restaurant in many ways but the service was barely there – it took our table 15 minutes to be offered a beer and even then they wanted our food order too. Out-of-fashion though this view is, I think a first drink loosener is a pretty crucial part of most restaurant occasions (not to mention a crucial part of that restaurant being able to pay the bills), so when my first bottle of Cass arrived at the same time as four plates of kai, I couldn’t help but feel a little ripped off.
Cuisine: Korean
Address: 245 Dominion Rd, Mount Eden
Phone: 0274 408 589
Mr Pickles, Hamilton
March 20, 2024
Jesse says: I know what you’re thinking: there’s no way you can trust Mulligan to deliver an unbiased review of a restaurant in his hometown. It’s like asking Donald Trump to appraise the conference facilities at Mar-a-Lago. And you’re right, in recent years I have become something of a Hambassador (not my term unfortunately – it was coined by the charismatic hosts of NZME-adjacent podcast Between Two Beers, whose recent 90-minute interview with me is required listening if you want to listen in real-time as an interviewee loses all resistance, by the third half-hour blithely answering questions about his career, his marriage, his mental state with the unguarded candour of someone in their sixth year of therapy). Yes, when it comes to Hamilton I might not have a key to the city, but I have the equivalent: a VIP pass for the Outback Inn.
Cuisine: Bistro
Phone: (07) 839 7989
Address: 298 Victoria St, Hamilton
Lil Ragu, Takapuna
March 13, 2024
Jesse says: The one downside of choosing to eat at Lil Ragu is you will have to pronounce the word “Lil” in front of your friends and family. Are you certain you know how to do it? I worked in commercial radio for years and remember attempting “Lil Kim” as infrequently as possible, on one occasion carefully back-announcing a song as “Lady Marmalade by Christina Aguilera and … friends”.
But that is my only hesitation about sending you to eat at this North Shore gem, a brilliant example of somebody executing a simple idea in a beautiful way. It is a food truck, now permanently situated next to an office building, with chairs and tables in between the two creating the sort of al fresco experience more associated with Burleigh Heads than Takapuna.
Cuisine: Pasta
Address: 150 Hurstmere Rd, Takapuna
Phone: 021 244 0148
The Emerald, Manukau
March 06, 2024
Jesse says: I can’t think of another Auckland restaurant like this one. It’s suburban but sophisticated, classy but casual, with decor that is ornate but tasteful.
“How would you describe the vibe?” my dining partner, Jon, asked me when we arrived. “Singaporean ex-pat bar?”
“I’m really not sure,” I said, but he was on to something. A little bit tropical, a little bit colonial, a little bit Epsom. Like somewhere James Bond might drink if he was priced out of Herne Bay.
Cuisine: Bistro
Phone: (09) 624 0363
Address: 581 Manukau Rd, Manukau
Tala, Parnell
February 21, 2024
Jesse says: Tala has immediately become one of the most beautiful restaurants in Auckland. The chemistry of the space – a warmer reimagining of the famous Pasture dining room – is quite astounding. You feel good from the moment you open the door. Actually, that door was opened for us from the inside as we approached, a nice service touch that lets you know how seriously the staff are taking your experience.
Cuisine: Samoan
Address: 235 Parnell Rd, Parnell
Contact: 021 172 8349
Darling on Drake, central city
February 14, 2024
Jesse says: I’ll be very interested to see how this one goes. Darling on Drake has, in Ryan Moore, one of the best chefs in New Zealand. The Grove was brilliant while he was there, then he moved to Bivacco, which was also brilliant and now he finds himself in charge of the menu at Darling, a new venture for owner Fraser Kirby, whose LinkedIn tells me he did all sorts of creative jobs before finally settling down as Red Bull’s sales and marketing guy in Australia.
Cuisine: Bistro
Address: 27 Drake St, Auckland CBD
Contact: Darlingondrake.com
Xie Xie, Ponsonby
February 07, 2024
Jesse says: Xie Xie has opened up in a lightly cursed courtyard between Mackelvie St and Richmond Rd. American-style barbecue joint Miss Moonshine operated here for a few years before the charismatic young couple who owned it unexpectedly departed the restaurant business and were last seen making ready meals for babies, no doubt in search of a more mature consumer market than the long lunch crowd on Ponsonby Rd.
I say “lightly cursed” because this seems like a prime spot for a hospitality business, yet nobody else has quite seemed to be able to create a hit. My first impressions of a 2021 tenant were so horrific I immediately tried to figure out how little my wife and I could spend before paying the bill and trying somewhere else (unless you really have no shame, the answer, in Auckland, turns out to be about $60 – or two cocktails and a bowl of olives).
Cuisine: Chinese fusion
Address: 130 Ponsonby Rd, Grey Lynn
Phone: 021 130 2898
Wakuwaku, Remuera
January 31, 2024
Jesse says: Wakuwaku has an extremely good-value set menu and I have to wonder why you’d go any other way. For the price of an entree plus main in any other high-end restaurant you get a bowl of edamame and a pastry shell salmon tartare snack, then some of Auckland’s best sashimi, then a plated montage of six different excellent entrees followed by the main course of your choice (and it’s very hard to choose).
Cuisine: Japanese
Address: 1D/415 Remuera Rd, Remuera
Phone: (09) 520 0243
Bonita, Ellerslie
January 24, 2024
Jesse says: Ellerslie is a place you generally visit only if you have a very good reason to be there: an open home, a day at the races, perhaps some refractive eyeball surgery. Well, now the suburb has a new drawcard: a restaurant that serves Korean-Spanish fusion food.
If you’re thinking it a bit unusual that those two cuisines should come together under one roof, your confusion may persist long after you’ve eaten here. Even the staff seem bemused by the mash-up (I should note the executive chef was overseas when I visited), and unlike some of the city’s other seemingly weird pairings, there’s no clear historical precedent for this one.
Cuisine: Korean-Spanish fusion
Address: 131 Main Highway, Ellerslie
Phone: 022 547 2509
Jesse Mulligan’s Restaurant Recommendations
What you’ve asked, and what he’s shared.
Where To Take A Vegetarian & Accessible Eateries. Get out of the city centre to find some of the best accessible eateries.
Where To Go For An After-Work Drink; The Strangest Things I’ve Found In My Food. Plus, news from a beloved bar on Karangahape Rd.
Auckland’s Top Thai Spots; Where To Go For A Quiet, Romantic Dinner. From big menus and a sublime satay sauce, to lovely lighting and good acoustics.
Where To Go For Good Gnocchi; A Drink In Mt Eden. Try three different styles of gnocchi cooked traditionally, and Jesse’s current favourite.
Where To Go For The Best Vietnamese Food In Auckland; Dinner Before A Show. Plus, one reader asks where to find some of the city’s hottest new openings.
