Dec 15, 2023 Metro Eats
It’s the most wonderful time of the year…
Mistletoe? Maybe. Swarms of drunk office workers in Santa hats? Sure! Fights in the mall car park? Probably. A new summer issue of Metro? Definitely!
Issue 441 includes many pages on the 50 best places to eat for under $25 per person. It’s always one of the highlights of our publishing year, and this one is no different. A great opportunity to be reminded about your old faves and to discover something new. As a little side treat, we also recommend the 10 best bakeries in Auckland and review the three big openings of the season — Metita, Gilt and Tobi. So much food over so many pages!
There’s non-food related stuff too — a summer books special (with our 17 best books, four best wine books, and 10 best kids books of the year); a Christmas gift guide with heaps of amazing recommendations from a bunch of cool people; our annual property report; an investigation into all the stealing that’s been going on from our museums over the years; a look at the secondary art market in Aotearoa; political updates; art; cool drawings; beautiful photographs; 292 pages — perfect to take to the family Christmas, the campground, the bach, the beach, the pool… everywhere. Coming to subscribers as we speak and in stores Monday. And… if you buy it from New World, it will come with a complimentary (i.e. free!) copy of the latest Art News magazine. A Christmas miracle!
— Henry
P.S. This will be our last Metro Eats newsletter of the year. When we return, we’ll have a new food editor so you’ll hear a little less from Simon and I and much much more from someone else. So thank you for reading and thank you to Stella Artois for the support! See you in the new year!
What’s Happening
Next week, Roses has a short residency from chef Kahu, all the way from St Johns in London, in collaboration with Matua of Tawhiti wines, a brand new Māori natural wine label we’re yet to see out in the wild but are rather curious about.
Mr T’s The Baker has a summer holiday menu up.
Maota Samoa in Newton is celebrating 45 years on Saturday with a market and performances.
The Akuthota family are, once again, feeding the food-insecure for free this Christmas at Satya – and they are accepting donations to help them to do it here.
Beit Jidu are popping up at Dear Jervois on 20 January to raise money for Gaza with food and entertainment.
What’s Good
We were invited to check out Norma Taps in the City Works depot (thanks!) and it’s great! – the watermelon salad in particular doesn’t seem like it will be that amazing but you should get there and order it at your earliest convenience.
Henry went to Mr Zhou’s in New Lynn, an old favourite that he hadn’t been to in ages and reports it’s still great!
Metro has its office Christmas dinner at Tempero, a restaurant that we only write only in this newsletter because it’s co-owned by Tiffany, who works with us. Anyway, not only is it still good, it is, in fact, better than ever. Maybe it was what we ordered or what was chosen for us (we went for the ‘trust the chef’ option) but the food was more indulgent and more flavourful than previous visits. Highly recommended!
We’ve just put our non-alcoholic wine taste test up from the last issue on the site, hopefully it can help you to chart your way through December intact.
What’s new
Nice BBQ Buffet – an all you can eat buffet – is now open in the bit of Dominion Rd by Tasca – looks like $49 to try and eat so much they have to close. If you go, make good decisions and avoid anything carb-heavy.
A little late to it but Ssam Jang, a new Korean place with a very cool, very green fit out, is now open on Lorne St.
Manzo, a new steakhouse by the people behind Spiga, has opened next to Spiga in that cool little laneway thing behind Remuera Rd.
There’s a new (or, at least, new to us) canned margarita out just in time for the holidays called Club Sola. We were sent some with a Umu Margherita pizza (get it?) and the punny, cross-continental combination was delightful!
Give the gift of Metro this Christmas
We have gift subscriptions available on the site now – a great gift that gives all year!
