Sep 19, 2025 Metro Eats
Kia ora,
We are completely and utterly frantic this week in the Metro offices as we hurtle toward both our Restaurant of the Year event and our magazine print deadline — both happening this coming week, in that order, which, for good reason (see: hangovers on deadline), is not the way we ordinarily schedule things and frankly, is not something I would recommend anyone ever do again.
Of all the responsibilities I inherited when I joined Metro at the start of 2024, the thing I was most warned about was Restaurant of the Year. I was told that it was cursed. I was told that it would make three months of my life hell. Coming off the back of covering the 2023 election as a journalist, I was sceptical that something involving eating at (mostly) very good restaurants could be more difficult than the chaos I had just lived through. But I will admit that my first time around in 2024, I saw why the endeavor had such a cursed reputation. It is logistically complex, full of competing and oftentimes conflicting opinions, there is a lot of time spent angsting about budgets and the question, “what even is a restaurant” occupies much of your waking thoughts.
That said, I found the whole thing actually quite fun, genuinely interesting on a methodological and philosophical level and mostly, just a huge privilege. It’s also been a pleasure to put together a “best of” list at a publication where the process is treated with so much integrity (which feels like a rare thing in this day and age) — we are literally just gathering a bunch of people who love dining, sending them out to eat anonymously and debating the results. This time around, my second time overseeing the awards, I’ve found that the whole thing is still a beast of a project, but a far less angsty one.
Anyway, I don’t have much more to say because most of what is on my mind is embargoed until we publicly announce our list and category winners, and partly because the rest is just dull logistical stuff to do with the impending event which I would never bore you, dear reader, with. In saying that, if you’d like to join us, it’s on Monday — you can buy tickets HERE and we’d love to see you.
Hei kōnā mai,
Charlotte
Comings and goings.
I was very glad to spot my favourite tattooed, sunglass-wearing pig, aka the mascot for MASTER PIG PORK RICE in Newmarket the other day. The braised meat and rice restaurant has taken over what was formerly Tianfu’s premise so this is, to me at least, bittersweet news.
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A new bar called THE FROG (excellent name!) is opening soon in the old Roses spot on Karangahape Rd.
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MRS BUN&DUMPLING, who do, among many other things, a very solid Chinese breakfast, have opened their third branch at Three Kings Plaza, which is home to one of the best two dollar shops with the central-ish radius of the city, and also one of the worst supermarkets in Tāmaki Makaurau.
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The lines are tremendously long but the food looks exceptional at Hugo Baird, Willy Gresson and Petra Galler’s shiny new deli, bakery and (soon to be) wine bar MOTHER on Richmond Rd, in West Lynn. Apparently the almond buns are the bee’s knees.
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It’s such a pleasure watching the slow, but steady reinvigoration of the Strand Arcade in the central city, which has, become populated with a growing number of exciting new openings and pop ups over the last year or so — the most recent being TAIKIN which opened last week, serving takoyaki, teppanyaki and beer.
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Niche is the word at the newly opened T_ART PATISSERIE in Ponsonby who seem to solely trade in idiosyncratic floral-shaped gluten free pastries in various flavour combinations. Cute.
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It is a big year for international food chains turning up in Tāmaki Makarau. The latest addition is TAIER, which first opened in Guangzhou in 2015, and now has a location on Lorne Street. They do a whole range of things but it’s their “Suancai & Fish”, described as “a bold twist on traditional Chinese pickled fish” that seems like the major drawcard. Oh, and the free tea, rice and soft serve.
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I had a very good and messy time at MANAIA SEAFOOD BOIL in Onehunga the other night; and was reminded that nothing beats eating food with your hands, or food that requires a bib. And now you can eat their great big piles of prawns, mussels, crab, crawfish and so on in Penrose, where they’ve just opened a second location.
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KAIZEN has moved from their original home on Kingston St to 317 Queen St (right next to the Civic). I’m happy to report that they’re still doing their $10 lunch bowls of Japanese curry,
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Rumour has it that JOLENE, which was initially pitched as a country music bar, complete with live music and bourbon flights, hasn’t been able to sort their liquor license yet. By the looks of it, they’re still open, but with no drinks list and a more day-friendly food menu with things like breakfast burritos.
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From the looks of it Burger Burger in Newmarket has closed. And is perhaps being reinvigorated as something else…maybe?
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Just around the corner, Sun World Chinese restaurant, a place where I have eaten many great yum cha meals, has also closed.
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From what I can tell, PASTRAMI AND RYE’s Ellerslie location — which existed as a kind of temporal glass-house-type structure in an alleyway following a shift from their original site — abruptly closed within the last month or so. Based on what I’ve read in a Facebook community page, its shuttering was the source of some local tensions. They’re still open in Ponsonby though. The sandwich lives on.
