Metro Top 50 Restaurants of the Year 2021

We’ve made it!

Metro is excited to reveal the top 50 restaurants in Auckland, for our Restaurant of the Year Awards 2021. After taking a break last year due to, y’know, having our magazine and the whole of Aotearoa close down, we’re happy to once again be celebrating our hospitality industry and all the people and places that make it so great.

This year’s awards are made possible by Estrella Damm as well as Campari, Sanpellegrino, Esk Valley, Pernod Ricard, The Produce Company, Pacific Linen, The Great Catering Co and Ninety Nine Reasons.

As always, Metro has put together a panel of experienced food writers, critics, and hospitality experts to navigate our way around the city, dining at restaurants anonymously and paying for our own meals. We’ve argued and debated at length, considering all factors of what makes a great meal out: the food, the service, the music, the atmosphere, and that elusive “X-Factor” (basically, how much we want to go back). Each restaurant is judged based on their own merits; a formal fine-dining restaurant is judged on its qualities as a formal fine-dining restaurant, a more casual restaurant/wine bar is judged on its qualities as a casual restaurant/wine bar.