With plenty to get excited about on the food front this month — including Restaurant Month 2020 — we’ve got your update of unmissable events, new openings and special menus to eat your way through.
RESTAURANT MONTH
Euro has put together a menu celebrating the joy of sharing for Restaurant Month. For $55 per person, a table can choose two dishes from two separate selections of delightful dishes including crispy duck with ‘nduja and hummus; cured trevally; jersey milk ricotta with beetroot and Fiordland red deer tartare; plus four dishes on top of this including Taupo Farms lamb rack, whole butter poached flounder, heirloom lettuce and crispy crushed Marilyn potatoes. Go hungry.
Soul Bar & Bistro has a special two course menu on offer for August, featuring a delectable two course meal for $40 per person, with the option for a wine pairing at $18 per person. Available for lunch or dinner, choose between the likes of Korean fried chicken, yellowfin tuna or green goddess salad for an entree, and a main of grilled tarakihi, pedro beef cheeks or prawn linguine. Dessert is available for a supplemented $6.
Gochu has a generous $55, 6-dish offering which includes Bbang & Guk (Gochu’s fried chicken slider with a side of spicy soup); Mul Hwe raw kingfish; Cucumber with Ssam sauce and cashew cream; charred chicken with gochujang and comte; and broccolini with doenjang glaze with Bingsoo — a shaved ice dessert served with dulce de leche — to polish it off. It’s a Korean flavour experience that shouldn’t be missed.
Culprit chefs Kyle Street & Jordan MacDonald are known for staging adventurous and often electrifying chef collaborations, and for one celebratory night they are recreating dishes from some of their favourite collaborations to date. This one-off menu features dishes designed by famous talented kiwi expats, Hayden Mcmillan, Peter Gunn, Morgan McGlone and more — all with the special Culprit twist.
CHARITABLE ENDEAVOURS
From the Pass is a not-for-profit dinner to support wellbeing and mental health awareness in the New Zealand Hospitality industry. Founded by chef Nathan Ward, who has worked with the likes of Prego, Bowman’s and Molten, From the Pass is taking place on Thursday 6th August. This inaugural event sees top New Zealand chefs Nic Watt, William Mordido, Carlos Atkinson, and Jamie Robert Johnston team up for a special five-course dinner with wine matches at Auckland Zoo, and the proceeds raised from each $345 ticket will go towards setting up an online platform to educate and support both employees and hospitality businesses in mental health.
Saint Alice is doing it for the kids. The Viaduct restaurant has joined forces with Eat My Lunch on the initiative’s mission to ensure no Kiwi kids go hungry at school, and for the entire month of August, for every wood-fired pizza sold, Saint Alice has pledged to give a school lunch through the Eat My Lunch programme. With a target of 1000 school lunches — but hopefully more — they’ll need all the help they can get, so head down there and grab a pizza or three to share with your friends.
NEW OPENINGS
Dominion Road has welcomed Omni, a new bar-estaurant bringing yakitori and natural wine to the city fringe. With an ever-evolving selection of delicious skewers and sharing plates, plus a fantastic selection of natural wine, local beers and simple cocktails, we can confirm Omni is a must-visit destination.
Nook is the latest project from the always-busy duo behind Culprit and Lowbrow. Situated in St Kevins Arcade (directly across from Lowbrow) Nook has also delved into the delicious realm of yakitori, as well as more directly Japanese-inspired small dishes like karaage chicken, grilled eggplant with miso sauce and pork and prawn gyoza.
New cafe Deep is bringing its unique twist on daytime fare to Rosedale, serving up an enticing menu of brunch and lunch dishes plus expertly-poured Atomic Coffee Roasters coffee.
Another daytime spot worth a visit is Spectra, the latest addition to Commercial Bay as part of the impressive new PwC Tower. Situated in the airy Sky Lobby, it’s a great solution for an inner-city lunch or meeting, with both a dine-in restaurant section, complete with Kōkako coffee and a licensed bar, plus a takeaway counter filled with sandwiches and baked goods.
COFFEE HIT
Grey Lynn’s newest addition, Neighbour is bound to be a new local for many with its serene space, fair trade, organic coffee, and baked goods from Scratch. Find the cafe at 2A Hakanoa St, Grey Lynn.
If you’re working or shopping in the city, be sure you can find a good brew at Kōkako‘s new specialty coffee bar in Commercial Bay. Designed to be a considered, calm sanctuary to enjoy a cuppa, there’s a host of options to excite even the most seasoned coffee drinker including batch brews, Clever Dripper, Chemex, Aeropress and a nitrogenated cold brew and Cascara Kombucha – both out of bar style taps. There’s also a reusable cup wash station to encourage the uptake and use of reusable Keep Cups. Find Kōkako on Level 1 at Commercial Bay.
POP-UP
Cheeseburger Heaven
Known for their sell-out burger pop-ups, the team behind BabyG Burger will once again be slinging their hearty cheeseburgers for this month’s event on Sunday 16th August at Grownup Doughnuts in Henderson. Follow the account for updates, and make sure you get there on time as they go quick.
