NZ’s best restaurants for 2017
After months of rigorous judging, New Zealand’s top 100 eateries can be revealed. By Ewan Sargent.
ne hundred restaurants across the country will be celebrating if they find their name on the list of finalists for the Cuisine Good Food Awards, which are announced today.
Cuisine editor Kelli Brett says each of the establishments on the list deserve to enjoy their success.
‘‘Making the finals is wonderful. It’s a celebration of their incredible work and ability to shine in a really, really tough and highly competitive industry.’’
The flipside is some restaurants will be hurting.
‘‘If a restaurant doesn’t make the Cuisine Good Food Guide list it can be devastating news for the team behind the restaurant.
‘‘It can be really hard to tell them they have not been recognised,’’ Brett says.
‘‘We know this, and take creating the guide very seriously.’’
Today’s announcement is effectively the first cut of the rigorous judging process which has been under way around the country for months.
To feature in the guide (which is released next month) is to be selected among the cream of the country’s ever-evolving restaurant scene. The judges have narrowed these finalists down to 100; the next step will be the awarding of ‘‘hats’’ (a rating system of 1, 2 or 3) and, at an awards dinner in early August, announcing Cuisine’s verdict on the industry’s very best individuals and businesses.
For restaurant diners, it’s all good news. The annual guide is a useful, changing snapshot of restaurants that are delivering wonderful experiences.
The 2017 guide has the most on the list yet. Last year there were 83 restaurants.
Chief judge Kerry Tyack says most interesting to him was a change he saw in the differences between metropolitan and regional restaurants.
‘‘What we typically see on offer in urban areas we are now seeing appear in regional areas. Travelling Kiwis don’t all just come home to the cities, they go to the regions and they are demanding more variety. Restaurants are popping up to meet that demand,’’ he says.
‘‘Whereas the trends used to be led by the urban restaurants, now the regional restaurants are much more in tune with what is going on and are adopting them.’’
Those trends that continue to strengthen include a big push for using local produce, and using fermented and pickled foods. Restaurants are also offering more special diet options like gluten-free.
Brett agrees that regional restaurants ‘‘are stepping up’’ and
the spread in the 2017 list underlines that.
The big trends she sees are in the rise of the awkwardly named ‘‘plant-based’’ meals, and excitement around bringing a distinctly Kiwi influence to dishes, especially in using local produce.
Her plant-based epiphany came earlier this year at a pop-up event.
Brett was hungry and first course was a single roasted carrot with a bit of dressing on it.
‘‘I looked at the carrot and thought, ‘You have got to be kidding me.’ I was really disappointed. But I’m so ashamed because that carrot was the best carrot I’ve ever had in my entire life. The flavour and the way they treated this vegetable and the wine they paired with it – who knew you could be transported by a carrot?
‘‘It was really clever cooking that made me start to change the way I think about all that.’’
She says young diners are driving this.
‘‘For years we have been talking about where our food comes from, but they are asking even more questions.’’
The 2017 list also acknowledges the shift towards casual dining in New Zealand.
‘‘We felt we weren’t recognising the casual sector enough. There are so many places serving up excellent food and wine and craft beers. but not necessarily in a formal setting,’’ Brett says.
‘‘They still have that level of excellence of food and drink and service, but you are not going to walk in the door and get linen tablecloths.’’
Both Brett and Tyack believe at least a couple of our top restaurants would earn a spot in the world’s top 100.
Brett says the key is getting the world to notice our top restaurants – and creating a guide that sums up our best will help.
Finding the Top 100
Restaurants can’t buy their way in. Many more were assessed than made the list.
Cuisine uses a national pool of expert judges who make anonymous visits. Their detailed templated reports, plus background information on the restaurants, decide whether they make the list, and then whether they get further awards or ‘‘hats’’ that mark an outstanding place.
‘‘We build up a dossier over time on places,’’ Tyack says.
‘‘That includes local intelligence, anecdotal information, and information from people who have been there over the year, including our assessment team. And we do link it back into past performance.
‘‘The anonymous visit gives us an up-to-date snapshot of what that restaurant is like and what it is doing.’’
What comes next
The next step is a grand awards night in Auckland on August 7.
The awards include Restaurant of the Year, Chef of the Year, Best Metropolitan Restaurant, Best Regional Restaurant, Restaurant Personality of the Year and Best Winery Restaurant. An award for Best Casual Dining Restaurant has been added this year.
The official Cuisine Good Food Guide for 2017 will be included free with the September issue of Cuisine, which goes on sale on August 14.
Top 100 for 2017
Northland: Duke of Marlborough, Quay Auckland: Amano, Apero, Artwok, Augustus Bistro, Azabu, Baduzzi, Beirut, Bracu, Cassia, Cazador, Cibo, Clooney, Cocoro, Coco’s Cantina, Culprit, Depot, Euro, Gemmayze Street, Gusto at the Grand, Hallertau, Harbourside, Ima, Kazuya, Masu, Merediths, O’Connell Street Bistro, Orphans Kitchen, Pasta e Cuore, Pasture, Phil’s Kitchen, Ponsonby Road Bistro, Saan, Sidart, Soul Bar & Bistro, The Engine Room, The French Cafe, The Grill by Sean Connolly, The Grove, The Sugar Club, True Food & Yoga, White and Wong’s Waiheke Island: Poderi Crisci, Tantalus Estate, The Shed at Te Motu Waikato: Alpha Street Kitchen, ChimChooRee, Crudo, Hayes Common, Palate, Victoria Street Bistro Taupo: The Brantry, The Bistro Bay of Plenty: Macau Wairarapa: Pinocchio Taranaki: Social Kitchen Hawke’s Bay: Bistronomy, Elephant Hill, Malo, Pacifica, Te Awa Winery Restaurant, Terroir Manawatu: Amaygen Wellington: Capitol, Chameleon, Charley Noble, Field & Green, Hillside , Hippopotamus, Jano, Logan Brown, Noble Rot, Ortega Fish Shack, Shepherd, WBC, Whitebait Nelson: Hopgood’s Restaurant, Urban Oyster Bar & Eatery Marlborough: Arbour Canterbury: Black Estate, Chillingworth Road, Gatherings, King of Snake, Pegasus Bay, Roots, Saggio di Vino, Twenty Seven Steps North Otago: Fleurs Place, Riverstone Kitchen Central Otago: Amisfield, Botswana Butchery, Fishbone, Kika, Madam Woo, Rata, The Sherwood Dunedin: No 7 Balmac, Bracken, Two Chefs Bistro