Rothko may have opened back in 2017, but this Matakana mainstay on the grounds of Sculptureum vineyard had an entire kitchen overhaul this year in the talented hands of chef Neil Sapitula. With a career spanning, among others, Cocoro, Nanam and Solera, Sapitula is shining a spotlight on the food of his homeland, reimagining it through a smoke-licked, modern lens. Matakana and its surrounding coastline is hardly short of enticing reasons to visit, but Rothko is steadily becoming one of the country’s most exciting destination restaurants, thanks to dishes like savoury donuts topped with delicately piped chicken liver parfait and filled with fermented cherry gel, tuna crudo and pork belly  ‘cornettos’, and the unctuous claypot beef.