Jan 13, 2025 Metro Eats
Kia ora,
Welcome to the final edition of this newsletter for 2024!
As the year winds down, ’tis the season to reflect, wrap things up and look ahead. For me, the overwhelming takeaway is how much of a privilege it is to have a job (I could put a full stop here and that would be enough) in which eating your way around the city is, quite literally, part of the job description. Every plate I’ve tasted this year represents hours of work, skill and creativity — people planting, catching, picking, processing, packing, driving, cleaning, chopping, cooking and serving — all so someone can sit down, take a bite, think “Wow, that’s delicious”, and feel good about the world, even if just for a moment. (And because, of course, these are jobs, and people need jobs to pay the bills.)
Still, I’ll admit, it’s often felt odd to write about food — a celebration, a joy — during what’s been such an exhausting, relentless, mostly not-celebratory, not-joyful year. To be frank, 2024 has been utter garbage. (Even if, on a personal level, I’ve had a nice time.) And yet, here I am, clinging on to the naive hope that 2025 might somehow be better.
With that in mind, I’ve been daydreaming about the year ahead — what I’d love to see on our tables and in the way we eat as a city. Here’s my wishlist for 2025:
- Japanese breakfasts.
- Somewhere that has really good food and a really good dance floor.
- Vietnamese coffee culture.
- More refined, interesting non-alcoholic drinks on menus.
- Blooming onions and whole artichokes — essentially, vegetables that look like flowers.
- Fewer restaurants designed to cater to the widest possible audience. (I get it, economics. But this city deserves more niche!)
- Later openings.
- Kina.
- More thought given to restaurant bathrooms (shoutout to my favourites, CAZADOR and GILT).
- Yunnan cuisine.
- FRANCESINHA.
- Something similar to KILN in London (which I’d clunkily describe as a Thai version of PICI).
- A shop dedicated to Polynesian puddings.
- Soft serve.
- Southern Thai cuisine.
- Lamingtons in unconventional flavour combinations.
- Pandan.
- More “TOGETHER FOR TE TIRITI” posters in the windows of restaurants, cafes and bars.
- Hellenic baked goods.
- Specialist taco shops that go beyond birria.
- Fresh herbs with phở (please, no more mesclun!!)
- More small plates and tapas-style dining. (We all know starters are better than mains anyway.)
- Dairies with tables and chairs out the front.
- Build-your-own salad bars.
- Menus highlighting a living wage paid and sustainable ingredients.
- A truly great Jamaican spot.
- Good, delicious, culturally appropriate food for everyone. (Admittedly, this feels like a dream in our current trajectory as a country, but still.)
- Better wages and conditions for food/hospitality industry workers. (Again, definitely not the direction we’re going in as a country.)
- Delicious, wholesome school lunches. (Once again, not the direction…)
- Elaborate sundaes.
- Easy-to-find accessibility information for diners.
- Surprising fusion combinations (that are good).
- Places that aren’t “cool”.
- RAREBIT.
I’d love to hear what you’re manifesting for 2025 too — do feel free to send your thoughts through. Wishing you a summer filled with fish and chips on the beach, cold noodles, cans of feijoa fizz, leftovers straight from the fridge, bowls of ika mata, and copious iced coffees.
Thank you so much for reading the newsletter this year, I’ve had such a nice time writing it. See you in 2025!
Noho ora mai,
Charlotte
Comings and goings.
CAFE RICHMOND has just opened in Grey Lynn among the West Lynn shops. They’ve given the former Tana Mera Espresso space a swish modernist refit with lots of light-toned wood, brushed metal and records. It looks to be cabinet food only, with a focus on specialist drinks: affogato, lotus latter, london fog, and the very in vogue, strawberry matcha. Yet another opening which has made me regret moving out of my old flat in the suburb.
The people behind wine shop CAHN’S WINES AND SPIRITS on O’Connell St, are very close to opening their brand new wine bar called Ground. It’s located in the subterranean space underneath Cahn’s and I cannot wait to visit (I love Cahn’s a lot so I have high hopes). You can check for updates on their INSTAGRAM.
There’s so much variation in ice cream around the world — and it’s been a thrill this year to see the slow but still growing diversity of specialist ice creams available in this city. A new one I’m especially excited about is the sheeryakh being made and sold from KEBAB STOP on Mt Eden Rd. Sheeryakh, which literally translates to “cold milk”, is an Afghani style of ice cream that’s made by hand, and is one of the oldest methods of ice cream in the world. Kebab Stop’s are served by the cone, takeaway container or with toppings — dunked in crushed pistachios seems like an especially delicious option.
There’s a new Sichuan restaurant on Manukau Rd called Spice Up (I like the name). A quick glance of the menu suggests you’ll find plenty of spicy dishes, a range of specialty fish soups to share and elaborate (and correspondingly pricey) seafood dishes.
Takimi Mazesoba is a new restaurant specialising in mazesoba on Hurstmere Rd in Takapuna. Those who’ve eaten the abura soba at Kajiken on O’Connell St will be familiar with the concept of mazesoba which is essentially the same (a soupless version of ramen) but with more toppings.
Just in time for summer, and right above the recently opened slightly posh sports bar Tyler St Sport, is PORTSIDE COCKTAIL BAR — a newly opened cocktail bar and rooftop terrace with views of the Waitematā. There’s food too — they share a kitchen with Tyler St Sport so expect prawn cocktails, steak frites and churros to accompany drinks. Open 4pm till late.
It looks like an Indian restaurant called Empress Kitchen will soon open in the ex-Petit Bocal space on Sandringham Rd.
Where we’re going.
ROOFTOP AT QT will be transforming into Le Moulin Rouge for an adults-only New Year’s Eve party. There will be French bites and entertainment from 8pm-2am. They’re also hosting a general admission access to Rooftop at QT on New Year’s Eve, from 8-9pm for an hour of free-flowing Perrier-Jouët Champagne, and a trolley of canapés on us. Tickets from $110 per person and include entry, entertainment and free-flowing Champagne and canapes from 8-9pm
Head to TAPPO from 4pm today (Friday 20 December) for the Three Fates 2024 Arneis launch party. There will be wine, and Pici ’s cacio e pepe made fresh in their now-famous cheese wheel. Goes till late.
