There's something really pleasant happening high above Auckland. The Sugar Club, Skycity’s showcase for Kiwi cuisine, is benefitting from a prolonged and determined journey to find just the right combo of leadership, head chef and service style to make the dining experience as memorable as the long lift ride to the best view in Auckland.
RESTAURANT REVIEWS
Ode Conscious Dining
Down a lane behind the post office, up the stairs between two bars, through a heavy drawn curtain to an unmarked door. I open the door and yes, we are in Ode Conscious Dining Wanaka. It’s not the prettiest of spaces, nor the easiest to find, but this is of no importance once you begin your experience.
Hugo’s Bistro
It's just a well that Hugo’s Bistro is open for all-day dining as the chairs here are so soft to sink into that it’s hard to muster up the will to leave. And why would you want to when the house-blend coffee is excellent, the food is good and the service is so warm.
5th Street
Already seduced during a few visits to the bar at 5th Street for drinks before dinner elsewhere, I was greatly anticipating the full food experience at the recently opened restaurant, an offshoot of Hello Sunday cafe across the road.
TRAVEL AND LIFESTYLE
Living for the City
This is the third year in which Cuisine has been media partner for Plate of Origin, an annual competition showcasing chefs from across New Zealand. Hosted in Manawatu, seven local restaurants sought a partnership with a renowned restaurant in a region allocated to them at random.
48 HOURS IN RAGLAN
Every Raglanite knows the place to start off the day is at Raglan Roast on Volcom Lane. Join the long queue of caffeine-cravers who line up for their hit of coffee, which is roasted fresh on site. If you peer inside you might spy their roasting contraptions and catch a whiff of newly toasted beans in the air.
STREET CRED
Food on wheels isn’t new – think of the roaming ice-cream van tinkling its way through summer afternoons, or the kerbside kebab-and chips combo sobering up the rowdy crowds after a night out. But a while back, mobile eating became hip and supercool...
CATALAN COOL
A day spent immersed in the hospitality of “Barcelona food sherpa” Sarah Stothart unveils an insight into a food culture that’s all about product – and the tradition, flavour and quality therein. Sarah says she rarely adds anything more than a little...
THE MAKER
SWEET BOY
When Kate Marinkovich was seven she wanted to have a banana cafe with everything made from bananas: banana cakes, banana smoothies, a floor made of banana chips. With that idea planted she went into a career in hospitality, with jobs in catering, working in bars, on a boat in Spain and finally a job as head baker at Wellington cafe/bakery, Prefab.
MAKING WEAVES
Jude Huani-Te Uruti had no formal training in weaving, nor did she learn from her mother or grandmother. One day she just cut some kōrari (flax) and starting weaving.
ARTISAN WATCH
Ben Leggett Elemental Distillers
“Our biggest problem is that most consumers don’t know what it is, or what to do with it,” says Ben Leggett of the range of aromatic cocktail bitters made by his Marlborough boutique distillery, Elemental Bitters.
Hogarth Craft Chocolate
If you haven't tried yet tried a chocolate bar from Nelson’s Hogarth Craft Chocolate then their new Alto Beni ‘dark milk’ bar would be a great place to start.
Scapegrace Gin
Gin Lovers Mark Neal, Daniel Mclaughlin and Richard Bourke believed that gin had an image problem. It was perceived as very proper, serious and stuck in the past.
Paekākāriki Pops
While many Wellingtonians no doubt welcomed the uncharacteristically balmy summer the region has been experiencing, Amy Delahunty and Chrissy Vize had more reason than most to celebrate.