Sep 26, 2025 Metro Eats
Kia ora,
Following up on last week’s newsletter — yes, we survived the Restaurant of the Year event (just), which took place on Monday evening. And yes, I was a little dusty the next day — not terribly so though.
Despite the hard work that it was to pull together, in my humble (and biased) opinion, the night had a real shimmer to it. Much of this was thanks to Gabby, our event fairy godmother. Some of the sparkle was also, I like to think, the outcome of our tiny Metro team bottling up recent weeks of stress and doubt, then spending the whole night happily gobsmacked that things had somehow fallen into place.
Mostly though, I think it felt fizzy and fun because of the people there, celebrating themselves and celebrating each other. I am sorry to sound soppy but I felt genuinely moved being in a room full of people who, through skill, creativity, energy, labour and time on their feet, make some of the best dining experiences in this city happen. Anyone who gets to dine at any of these 50 places is so very lucky.
I’ll leave the rest of the details for the Spring issue (out October 13th), but it seems impossible to not mention our Restaurant of the Year winner Cazador , whose team took home three other trophies (well, candles), plus a couple of runner-up places. Well-earned!
Finally, my two favourite quotes of the night — each of which felt very on brand. The first was courtesy of Jono Thevenard of Pici and Ooh-Fa , who, while accepting the award for Best Restaurateur, finished a speech with: “Natural wine and free Palestine!” And then from Junko Matsumoto of Sake Bar Icco , while picking up the award for Best Neighbourhood restaurant (for the second year in a row, I might add): “We love everybody.”
Anyway, I’ll leave it there and get on with the mountain of writing I need to get through before we go to print. I hope you have a beautiful week.
Hei kōnā mai,
Charlotte
Comings and goings.
Acai bowl mania continues with the opening of ATMOSPHERE, a new dessert spot in Newmarket. Go for what looks like a varied range of acai bowls, but also things like waffles and donuts. Bonus: they’re open late — till 10pm on school nights and until midnight on the weekends.
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I’ve recently become a little obsessed with St Heliers. It’s off-brand but I’m a big fan of its old-timey deli/bakery/local shop charm that you only get in places where the locals really like to shop within their suburb, and where the commerce, therefore, heavily reflects the uniqueness of the local community. (Ōtāhuhu is like this too.) Anyway, I digress. The newest addition to St Heliers is WATERBOY, a bar from the people behind The Corner in Remuera. It’s got big wide windows and water views, and looks like the ideal spot for an afternoon drink when the weather heats up.
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I mentioned in last week’s newsletter that Burger Burger in Newmarket was being transformed into something new. That something new is apparently an Italian restaurant by Burger Burger owner Mimi Gilmour Buckley. The name is MAMA and it’s meant to open next month.
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CHUL’S is a new Korean place in Commercial Bay doing homestyle Korean classics — bibimbap, stews, stir-fries — alongside rice and banchan. They also do a bunch of specialty cocktails plus wine, beer and makgeolli. The food does look delicious, but $35 for a set of bulgogi beef alongside banchan and rice, in a mall, seems outrageous. I would be happy to be proven wrong, though.
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There’s a new ‘pan-Asian’ noodle spot from the Namu Group called GUKSU SHOP 88, tucked into Osborne Lane in Newmarket. I really like that the bowls of (mostly) noodle soups seem to be filled with lots of offal-y bits like jowl, intestines and tripe.
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THE SPRINGS TAVERN has just opened in Onehunga, very close to Te Papapa Station and the stadium, so expect a league crowd. It’s doing all the modern pub standards: pizzas, fish and chips, burgers, schnitzel, even ceviche and burrata. Oh, and they do a Sunday roast every week.
From the archives.
A very early (perhaps even the first) iteration of Metro’s Restaurant of the Year awards. The winner was Woody’s on Ponsonby Rd.
Metro 208: October 1998
