This listing is from 2022, profiles will be updated after the Restaurant of the Year event in mid-October.

Candela welcomes diners into an inviting room with a sense of intrigue, with textured walls, patterned tiles and curved lamps casting low mood lighting over the tables. Refreshingly, it feels completely unlike all the other spots on the same road, or even in the same city, and so, too, does the food, most of it Spanish-inspired.
You’ll find lamb-shoulder empanadas, white bean gazpacho, ajo blanco, chimichurri and tostadas somewhere on the menu, along with a bowl of patatas bravas, of course. We’d recommend that anyone who comes here starts with the smoked kina butter and sourdough — the smoked kina butter has that unmistakable seafood-forward saltiness — and ends with the creamy basque cheesecake, which is definitely made to share. After about 9.30pm, the menu switches over into Candela’s late-night eats, where you’ll find mushroom and pork cubanos, paired with some very good cocktails.
Although frequently humming with people loitering outside for a drink with friends, and loud music nights where a local DJ or band will take the floor, service here is warm, fast and friendly, overseen by manager Leola Angel King. All of which is to say, we think Candela is an excellent new addition to the Auckland dining scene, and we can’t wait to see where it goes next.