Jun 18, 2019 What's On
Metro brings you a round up of the best of what Auckland has to offer for the coming week in our city’s diverse and exciting food scene.
A Celebration of Matariki at Orphans Kitchen
Top 50 Restaurant Orphans Kitchen is launching a two-course set dinner menu in celebration of the Maori New Year. From 18 June to 13 July, choose between two entrees (sticky feijoa lamb ribs or smoked kahawai croquettes), two mains (braised wagyu cavatelli or wood-roasted swordfish) for $35. To end the night with something sweet, there are also optional desserts. “We look forward to sharing the bounty of the changing season with you all,” Orphans Kitchen says.
18 June onwards
Kumara Soup
Matariki is a time to connect, so share some kai and share stories with fellow park explorers at the Huia Lodge in Cornwall Park. Soup is available from 11am-1pm or until the pot is empty, and free for all guests.
21 June | Cornwall Park
Moët Day long lunch
A day celebrating Moët? You don’t say! If that rhymed for you you’re saying it wrong. Moët should rhyme with “you’re a poet and you don’t Moët.” But the point is, champagne and celebrations go hand in hand so a day celebrating champagne’s birthday just makes sense. Saturday is the 150th anniversary of Moët Impérial and to celebrate, Auckland’s Gusto at The Grand is hosting a ticketed long lunch where guests will be among the first in the world to drink from the new limited-edition bottle.
22 June | Gusto at the Grand
Miso-Ra Gyoza Pop-Up
Every Sunday in June, chow down on some tasty gyoza and wash it all down with a swig of craft beer. There’s still two more Sundays left. 5pm onwards.
23 June/30 June | 605 , Morningside
Soups ‘n Settlers
Crave is opening their cafe up on Sunday for a free board-game night to keep you and your neighbours connected through the long winter months, with complimentary soups, crunchy bread and hot chocolates, plus other drinks available to purchase. “A winter street party, but inside.”
23 June | Crave, Morningside
Raw, Wild & Uncut
PS. It’s Auckland Beer Week next week, so there’s a lot of tipple to sample. This event at the Bottle Stop Beer Shop wants you to enjoy your beer wild and fermented, with some lo-fi wine and a side of very good New Zealand cheese. $49 includes four of each vice, and all beer and wine tasted through the evening will be available for purchase. Only 20 spaces!
25 June | Bottle Stop Beer Shop, Grey Lynn
The Art of Beer
If you like a little history lesson with your brew, you’re in luck. Craft beer has kind of taken the world by storm, causing an explosion in beer design, both controversial and influential. Art Historian Molly Jones talks through converting The Beer Jerk Bunker into an art gallery for Auckland Beer Week. Drinking beer will also be involved, of course.
25 June | Beer Jerk Bunker, Eden Terrace
New opening radar
Hello Mister, fast Vietnamese street food known for their banh mi, is opening in Newmarket on 19 June. 123 Carlton Gore Rd
What We Ate This Week
Jean Teng and Alex Blackwood
Tianze Dumpling House
I love this little place and their uncomfortable, blue-covered couches where you lean back, expecting a plush backing to meet you soon and fall unceremoniously into the ether. The pork belly dish served with bao is moreish and delicious, bites of meat jelly that melt immediately between the slightest pressures of teeth. The beancurd and fungi folded into the dish were good texture foils, the fungi springy and with bite. Dumplings are also always great. – JT
Sparkling cold brew coffee at Your Local Coffee Roasters
Fizzy? Coffee? Does that sound weird? Hear me out. They use a fruitier coffee for this concoction and as a result, this refreshing alternative just works. -AB
Genzui ramen
Surprise surprise Alex is eating ramen again. You think I eat ramen a lot but honestly I am massively under-representing how much I eat ramen. At Genzui I got the chicken ramen and asked for fewer noodles, more broth, so my meal ended up a bowl of delicious chicken soup. Take a close look at the noodles if you ever come here. They’ve got a square cross-section with a good firm biteyness. -AB
Almond/chestnut tart from Coffee Pen
Silky, soft and not the sort of flavour you’d be expecting when you think of a tart – just slightly, naturally sweet and very nutty, it tastes just as it should. Quite a hefty price tag – $9.50 – but makes more sense when you think of the ingredients that went into it. -JT
Kage
I hadn’t heard anything about this place in Kingsland, but soon discovered why – it’s neither great nor terrible, the sort of place you might stop by if you were in the area. The soft-shell crab baos were great texturally but lacking in any discernible flavour, while the market fish (snapper on the day) served ceviche-style was too sweet and needed something to mop up the sauce. I so wish I had some bread. – JT
Sensational Chicken
It’s just off the end of Dominion road and it does what it says on the tin. Fried, juicy goodness. – AB
