Restaurant

The Larder

The Larder

In the day­time, The Larder’s plain decor and food cab­in­ets suit its descrip­tion as a diner or cof­fee shop, but after dark it has lofti­er ambi­tions. After all, few coffee […]

Whitebait

Whitebait

We’re told that White­bait is not just a relo­cated White House; it’s part of the trend away from stil­ted ‘fine din­ing’ to a more cas­u­al exper­i­ence, though still with high-end […]

Cicio Cacio Osteria

Cicio Cacio Osteria

There are many pleas­ures to be had down dark alley­ways in New­town, but few of them are leg­al. One excep­tion has always been the nar­row arcade off Rid­di­ford Street, which […]

Mexico

Mexico

I was ini­tially puzzled by the buzz among my friends about Mexico’s immin­ent open­ing: they’re not nor­mally the type to get excited by chain res­taur­ants with branches in Taka­puna and […]

Waimea

Waimea

This review required some men­tal time travel on my behalf, because while this issue will come out in early sum­mer, we dined in the depths of winter. We tried to […]

Basque

Basque

Basque describes itself as a “Tapas Bar and Res­taur­ant”, though the lay­out and atmo­sphere, with prom­in­ent beer taps and more lean­ers than tables, def­in­itely emphas­ises the bar aspect. This is […]

Queen of Jackson

Queen of Jackson

Ima­gine life without fer­ment­a­tion. We would have no bread; no wine or beer; no cheese, pickles or salami. For some years now fer­ment­a­tion has been slowly bub­bling away as a […]

Loretta

Loretta

One occu­pa­tion­al haz­ard of a pro­fes­sion­al gour­mand is a diet rich in fat and sug­ar, and accord­ing to my doc­tor the inside of my arter­ies now resembles half-melted raclette, while […]

Grill Meats Beer

Grill Meats Beer

I was all set to hate this place. A bar and grill run by a celebrity chef, with a jokey name and cal­cu­latedly oh-so-cas­u­al decor, set up with lean­ers and […]

(Near) Perfection in Plimmerton

(Near) Perfection in Plimmerton

Grey clouds rolled in from the south as our train pulled in to Plim­mer­ton sta­tion. While it detrac­ted from the care­free sea­side ambi­ence, the autum­nal chill put us in the […]