A culinary journey to Auckland: Pasifika flavours, fresh produce and clever chefs
There’s something special happening across the ditch. Beautiful produce, clever chefs and Pasifika flavours are creating a totally unique amalgam of flavours – even Coldplay’s Chris Martin is a fan.
There’s a funny feeling that comes over you every now and then as an Australian visiting New Zealand. It’s almost like déjà vu. Wander around a city like Auckland, and you might have the impression you’re in an Australian city you’ve never visited. It feels familiar. The buildings – a mixture of heritage grandeur and modern blandness – look like something you’ve seen before. The accent is close. The vegetation is almost Australian. The coffee? You can get a flat white, and it’s good. There’s even Vegemite to have with your toast.
And yet it feels different. Not quite Australian, in a way that makes you look twice now and then. The weather, the people, the flavours are just unfamiliar enough to make you realise you’ve left the country. It’s discombobulating, in a good way.
This feeling applies to the food too. In New Zealand, I often feel I’m eating as I would at home, but differently. There’s great produce, lots of lamb, although locals grizzle about the cost of lamb now, as they do here (“$60 a leg of lamb, in New Zealand!”, someone tells me), fantastic seafood and dairy, Whittaker’s chocolate by the truckload, Otago pinot noir, and restaurant food with a mod-European sensibility. You can get Asian cuisine too, but not as much as you can here. There’s a lot to love at cuz’s place across the ditch.
A lot of people talk about New Zealand food as belonging to wineries and remote retreats, but the dining scene in Auckland has its own rewards, much of it surprising. This is where to start.
Fine dining, Samoan style
Tala
Parnell Road, Parnell
One thing that defines modern New Zealand is its growing Pasifika identity. Wander through the streets of Auckland to see an increasingly diverse Polynesian influence. Tongans, Samoans, Fijians, and Cook Islanders bring their magnetic presence, charm and culture to the city. That is translating to the food. At chef Henry Onesemo’s Tala, Samoan cuisine is magnificently redefined within a fine-dining context. Onesemo, born in American Samoa, offers a splendid sampler of South Pacific flavour over a menu of exquisite morsel-sized tastes, which, during our visit, range from triangles of pineapple spiced with chilli and paprika to chicken wrapped in banana leaves and cooked in a traditional Samoan umu (a fire set up in the open kitchen). There are hibiscus-influenced cocktails, succulent slices of pork cooked over the grill, NZ seafood, and a general bounty of deliciousness. The “chef’s journey” ($NZ215, $A190) is a delight from start to finish. Onesemo is on hand to chat with guests and even offers a traditional Samoan act of humility by washing guests’ hands in scented water. It’s a beautiful experience. I can’t recommend this restaurant highly enough — it is worth the trip to Auckland alone.tala.co.nz
Coffee with history
Miller’s
Cross Street, Auckland
One of the joys of New Zealand is the excellent coffee scene. I meet with Auckland local Elle Armon-Jones, whose The Big Foody Tours have been showing visitors the food of NZ for about 15 years, for coffee at this local institution. Secreted down a Melbourne-style back street that’s kind of grungy, in the midst of a heap of roadworks, we sip top-quality flat whites and eat shortbread that reminds me of my mother’s. This café drips with atmosphere and has been doing so since the 1980s, Armon-Jones tells me, pointing out owner Craig Miller, a café pioneer buzzing about in a Hawaiian shirt. Incidentally, a collection of Hawaiian shirts is strung along one wall, available for purchase. Miller’s is both a coffee den and a mini fashion emporium. A true NZ institution. millerscoffee.co.nz
Mod-NZ dining
San Ray
Ponsonby Road
Ponsonby Road is what you might call Auckland’s answer to Melbourne’s Brunswick Street. Armon-Jones takes me to meet San Ray’s personable owner Dariush Lolaiy, who opened this ambitious diner last year. The restaurant inhabits what Australians call a terrace shopfront (Lolaiy agrees with the term), and the space has buckets of charm. The dining is influenced by Lolaiy’s years in Southern California and Mexico, where he lived as a child with his globetrotting parents. Find dishes like kingfish crudo with leche de tigre, makrut lime, crispy shallot, oregano, and chilli, or Fiordland Wapiti venison tartare with horseradish, chives, and comté. Lolaiy describes his food as, in its own way, quintessentially Kiwi in that it’s fresh, modern, global, and uses brilliant local produce. I can’t disagree. A great place to dine, and open all day. sanray.nz
Wine bar vibes
Apero
Karangahape Road
Knockabout Aussie expat Mo Koski and his French wife Leslie Hottiaux run this cute wine bar/French bistro on “K Road”, another of Auckland’s more happening strips. Koski does a mean wine list – interesting NZ drops are well represented – while Hottiaux offers an easygoing Gallic menu designed to pair with a tipple or two. Armon-Jones and I lunch here on goat’s cheese croquettes and a giant raviolo with mushrooms, and later a beautiful strawberry soufflé, during which we eke out of Koski the story of how British band Coldplay came to dine here recently. “The security comes first to check out if we have a back entrance so (lead singer) Chris Martin can come in secretly,” Koski tells us. “But I say, ‘Nah, this is New Zealand, mate, we don’t do that kind of thing here. You have to come in through the front door like everyone else.’” Which Martin duly did, and nobody batted an eyelash. They had a great time. Says everything about the place, really. apero.co.nz
A couple of honourable mentions
Cocktail hour
Rooftop at QT
This cool hotel is vibrant and quirky, and its rooftop bar is one of the most vibey places in town. The cocktails are excellent, and the crowd loves it. qthotels.com
For good steaks
The Grill at SkyCity
This hotel restaurant is an unexpected find. Executive chef Patrick Ikinofo is from Niue – between Samoa and Tonga – and has worked at top-flight restaurants around Australia and New Zealand. He brings his huge presence to the open kitchen that serves steaks and Kiwi seafood. Try the Te Matuku oysters with Meyer lemons for a lip-smacking experience. skycityauckland.co.nz/restaurants/the-grill
Beyond the city
Winery touring
Brick Bay Winery & Dining
Matakana
You can be lucky with the weather in NZ, or you can be unlucky, or you can be both at once. When I arrive at Brick Bay winery, about a 45-minute drive from Auckland, it’s rainy and grim. But then the shower passes, and the vineyard is bathed in glorious sunshine, droplets of water sparkling on the ends of tree branches and rainbows peeking out between the clouds. NZ knows how to put on a natural show. This is one of the area’s most-loved wineries, not only for its lush situation overlooking Kawau Bay but for the sculpture gallery that shares the space with the chardonnay and pinot gris vines. In summer, guests eat on an alfresco terrace, or in the colder months (which is most of them), there’s a glasshouse dining room that makes you feel like you’re part of the landscape. The contemporary menu matches perfectly with the local wines. Try the spiced Brick Bay lamb with celeriac purée, honeyed baby carrots, pear chutney, and dukkah, at $NZ40, still reasonably affordable by Australian restaurant prices. After lunch, wander the grounds checking out the sculptures that dot the property, including my favourite, Sam Hamilton’s The Sex Choir, an aural work that amplifies recordings of mating Amazonian frogs over the onsite lake.
brickbay.co.nz
Food markets
Matakana Village Farmers’ Market
Matakana
Each Saturday morning in this tiny town north of Auckland, a bustling produce market springs to life, with dozens of producers hauling their goods to town. The market fills the space left by a disused timber yard, converted in 2002 by locals Richard and Christine Didsbury into this thriving attraction. Go for cheese and orchard fruits, wood-fired pizza, chocolates, coffee, baked goods, and check out the sweet little arts and crafts stores that are located in the village, including Honest Chocolat, a tiny shop filled with chocolates that glisten like jewels. matakanavillage.co.nz
Checklist
Stay: New Zealand is just the place for indulging in boutique hotels, and Auckland has a very fine example in The Hotel Britomart (thehotelbritomart.com). Called New Zealand’s “first five green star-rated hotel”, it is located by the harbourfront in a former derelict area that has been transformed over 20 years into a vibrant hub that links the CBD and the Harbourside. The location is excellent, with easy access to the city CBD and the docks, from where you can get away to Waiheke Island. The property has a great vibe, even if the rooms are quite small. Be sure to seek out The Library, a beautifully appointed set of heritage-inspired rooms secreted above the downstairs restaurants, as it is an excellent spot for guests to have a sneaky Otago pinot noir before bedtime. The breakfasts here are also excellent. Rates from $NZ379 ($335).
Do: The Big Foody culinary tour. A great way to fast-track your dining experience in Auckland is to book in with Elle Armon-Jones on a culinary tour. Armon-Jones describes these day trips as an “urban food safari”, which is an accurate description of a day out exploring cafes, restaurants, wine bars and places of interest. Do not turn up hungry, for you’ll be soon sampling everything from oysters to local sauvignon blanc, soufflé and plenty more. Armon-Jones has a great relationship with the city’s hospitality providers, who’ll give you insights into everything to do with the city’s food scene and drop lots of juicy gossip about what’s going on below the surface (see the aforementioned Chris Martin anecdote). Armon-Jones is also great company. Rates from $NZ195 ($170); thebigfoody.com
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