Where To Dine In Auckland? Every Jesse Mulligan Restaurant Review From 2024

Viva
Viva's dining out editor Jesse Mulligan. Photo / Babiche Martens

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

Rhu's yoghurt ice cream Photo / Babiche Martens
Rhu's yoghurt ice cream Photo / Babiche Martens

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

Mixed tempura at Sora. Photo / Babiche Martens
Mixed tempura at Sora. Photo / Babiche Martens

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

The bar at Koji, Wellington. Photo / Luke Owen Smith
The bar at Koji, Wellington. Photo / Luke Owen Smith

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 at Horizon by SkyCity. Photo / Babiche Martens
The Grill at Horizon by SkyCity. Photo / Babiche Martens

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 in Ahuriri, Napier. Photo / Ruby Bloom
Madame Social in Ahuriri, Napier. Photo / Ruby Bloom

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

Japanese restaurant Kome in Auckland's Commercial Bay. Photo / Babiche Martens
Japanese restaurant Kome in Auckland's Commercial Bay. Photo / Babiche Martens

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 on Ponsonby Rd is the second venture of Cazador owners Dariush Lolaiy and Rebecca Smidt. Photo / Babiche Martens
San Ray on Ponsonby Rd is the second venture of Cazador owners Dariush Lolaiy and Rebecca Smidt. Photo / Babiche Martens

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

The beef tartare, anchovy mayo, currants, pistachio on the menu at Bianca. Photo / Babiche Martens
The beef tartare, anchovy mayo, currants, pistachio on the menu at Bianca. Photo / Babiche Martens

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

The Shahi tukda. Rahi, Ponsonby. Photo / Babiche Martens
The Shahi tukda. Rahi, Ponsonby. Photo / Babiche Martens

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

The gnocchi with blue cheese, mushrooms and walnuts at Sage. Photo / Alex Armstrong
The gnocchi with blue cheese, mushrooms and walnuts at Sage. Photo / Alex Armstrong

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. Photo / Babiche Martens
Alla Prossima. Photo / Babiche Martens

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

The celeriac and ricotta tortellini from Parro. Photo / Babiche Martens
The celeriac and ricotta tortellini from Parro. Photo / Babiche Martens

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

The beef sirloin on the menu at One Tree Grill. Photo / Babiche Martens
The beef sirloin on the menu at One Tree Grill. Photo / Babiche Martens

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's sashimi plate. Photo / Babiche Martens
Gion's sashimi plate. Photo / Babiche Martens

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

Wellington's Rosella bar.
Wellington's Rosella bar.

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

Skewers from Queens rooftop. Photo / Babiche Martens
Skewers from Queens rooftop. Photo / Babiche Martens

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

The oysters on the menu at Gochu restaurant in Commercial Bay. Photo / Babiche Martens
The oysters on the menu at Gochu restaurant in Commercial Bay. Photo / Babiche Martens

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. Photo / Babiche Martens
First Mates Last Laugh. Photo / Babiche Martens

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 bar and restaurant. Photo / Babiche Martens
The Night Car bar and restaurant. Photo / Babiche Martens

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

Tanuki's Cave. Photo / Babiche Martens
Tanuki's Cave. Photo / Babiche Martens

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 cheeseburger. Photo / Babiche Martens
Manzo cheeseburger. Photo / Babiche Martens

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

The mushroom pappardelle, cornettos and vitello tonnato on the menu at Farina. Photo / Babiche Martens
The mushroom pappardelle, cornettos and vitello tonnato on the menu at Farina. Photo / Babiche Martens

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's offerings. Photo / Babiche Martens
Okome's offerings. Photo / Babiche Martens

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. Photo / Babiche Martens
Advieh. Photo / Babiche Martens

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

A selection of dishes from Anise's "modern Asian" menu. Photo / Babiche Martens
A selection of dishes from Anise's "modern Asian" menu. Photo / Babiche Martens

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

The sweet chilli fried chicken. Photo / Babiche Martens
The sweet chilli fried chicken. Photo / Babiche Martens

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 restaurant in Hamilton. Photo / Babiche Martens
Mr Pickles restaurant in Hamilton. Photo / Babiche Martens

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

The mezzaluna pasta on the menu at Lil Ragu in Takapuna. Photo / Babiche Martens
The mezzaluna pasta on the menu at Lil Ragu in Takapuna. Photo / Babiche Martens

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. Photo / Babiche Martens
The Emerald. Photo / Babiche Martens

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 restaurant in Parnell. Photo / Babiche Martens
Tala restaurant in Parnell. Photo / Babiche Martens

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. Photo / Babiche Martens
Darling. Photo / Babiche Martens

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

The tuna on the menu at Xie Xie restaurant. Photo / Babiche Martens
The tuna on the menu at Xie Xie restaurant. Photo / Babiche Martens

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

The five-entree platter on the menu at Japanese restaurant WakuWaku in Remuera. Photo / Babiche Martens
The five-entree platter on the menu at Japanese restaurant WakuWaku in Remuera. Photo / Babiche Martens

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's beef tartare. Photo / Babiche Martens
Bonita's beef tartare. Photo / Babiche Martens

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

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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.

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