The Aotearoa Art Fair returns to Auckland’s waterfront from 30 April to 3 May, and if you’re planning to spend your days immersed in the country’s most compelling contemporary art, you’ll want to eat accordingly. The Britomart and waterfront precinct has you well and truly covered, with five restaurants that between them handle everything from a long Italian lunch to a sharp Japanese cocktail, all within easy walking distance of the fair. Here’s where to book.
The anchor of Britomart’s dining scene and the restaurant that still sets the standard for produce-driven eating in the city centre. Amano’s menu shifts with the seasons and treats its ingredients with serious intention. The pasta programme alone is reason enough to book: think Hawke’s Bay suffolk lamb ragu with pappardelle, scampi chitarra, and a cacio e pepe that knows exactly what it’s doing. Whether you’re after a considered dinner after an evening preview or a relaxed lunch between gallery sessions, this is the table that consistently delivers. Book here.
When the art has sharpened your senses, and you want a meal that matches, Ebisu is the answer. Ebisu’s menu is precise, generous, and endlessly rewarding, whether you’re working through a sashimi selection or settling in with something from the robata grill. It’s the kind of place built for sharing, where plates arrive and the table gets involved. The cocktail edit here deserves particular attention too. It’s one of the more quietly accomplished drinks lists in the precinct, and the kind of place where one round becomes two without anyone complaining. Book here.
Situated right on the water, and the one with the most options for building an Art Fair day around. For Thursday and Friday art fair goers, Bivacco’s aperitivo hour is made for you: running from 4pm to 6pm with $15 margaritas, $15 limoncello spritzes, $10 Peronis, and complimentary bites. It’s the waterfront equivalent of easing into an evening the Italian way. A spritz in hand, a few plates on the table, and absolutely no rush.
For those visiting over the weekend, Bivacco’s Ladies’ Lunch on Saturdays is worth planning for. A three-course Italian-style menu with cocktails for $49 per person, available from 11am to 3pm. Book it before or after the fair and turn a Saturday gallery visit into something significantly more indulgent. Book here.
A light-filled conservatory setting in the heart of Britomart that feels a world away from the bustle outside. Ortolana’s menu is built around seasonal, locally sourced produce, and every dish is beautifully executed and designed for sharing over a long table. It works just as well for a late brunch with friends as it does for a relaxed dinner after a day on your feet, and the wine and cocktail list is pitched perfectly for either occasion. Book here.
If you’re after something sharper and more spontaneous, Bar Ziti is the answer to the post-fair wind-down. The happy hour runs Monday to Friday from 4pm to 6pm and all day on Sundays, which aligns neatly with an Art Fair exit strategy. With cocktails, wines, and pizzas all at happy hour prices, it’s the kind of offer that turns a quick drink into a very good evening. No bookings required.
The Aotearoa Art Fair runs from 30 April to 3 May at the Auckland waterfront.
For most of us, the day begins with two imperatives. Coffee, and a fierce foaming blast of mint so sharp it could strip paint. The ritual is so ingrained that we rarely question it. If your mouth is not tingling and frothing, have you really brushed your teeth at all?
That bracing minty hit is not accidental. It is a legacy. Early 20th-century toothpaste brands trained consumers to associate flavour and foam with efficacy. The stronger the sensation, the more convincing the promise. Fresh breath became synonymous with oral health. Our senses over took any scientific reasoning.
Yet dentists will tell you something far less glamorous. Toothpaste’s primary role is not to overwhelm the mouth but to support the mechanical action of brushing. What matters is how well the bristles reach the tooth surface, how gently plaque is lifted, and how carefully enamel and gums are treated over time. Excess foam can create the illusion of thoroughness. You feel clean, therefore you assume you are.
This is where Ecostore enters the morning routine, not as a moral position but as a practical one. Long regarded as one of New Zealand’s most trusted authorities in responsible home and body care, the brand approached oral care by quietly removing the theatrics. No SLS to manufacture foam. No triclosan. No parabens. No artificial sweeteners masquerading as freshness. Instead, plant and mineral based ingredients selected for their performance and their compatibility with the body. Native kānuka oil and magnolia bark extract support gum health, while peppermint and clove essential oils provide a clean finish without the aggressive sting that has long been mistaken for effectiveness.
For anyone conditioned to believe that a mouthful of foam signals a professional level clean, brushing with Ecostore can feel like rewriting an old script. The foam is restrained, the flavour measured, and the sink no longer resembles a foam party. But it’s what is happening inside the mouth that tells a more compelling story. Gums feel calm rather than sensitised. Teeth feel polished rather than scoured. The freshness that remains is clean and balanced, not chemical. It prompts a revealing question. Have we spent decades equating that foaming sensation with health simply because advertising told us to?
The range also reflects a pragmatic understanding of modern consumers. Ecostore’s Whitening with Fluoride option acknowledges that many people still want the enamel strengthening and cavity protection fluoride offers, while the formula itself remains low abrasive and uses baking soda to brighten teeth gently rather than strip them back with aggressive polishing agents. For those who prefer to avoid fluoride, that option remains within the range. The intelligence lies in the flexibility. It recognises that what we once accepted as the gold standard of cleanliness was often designed to appeal to our instincts rather than our long term wellbeing.
Not all toothpaste is created equal. Some rely on sensation to sell the illusion of effectiveness. Others rely on careful formulation and a quieter kind of confidence. The question is whether we are ready to choose the option that is clearly better for our teeth, and arguably better for the planet too.
The 2026 Aotearoa Art Fair is the biggest yet, with 65 galleries from 25 countries and more than 200 works on display. Auckland is fast becoming a serious stop on the international contemporary art circuit. Held at the Viaduct Events Centre from 30th April to 3rd May, this year’s show holds space for the Māori and Pacific practices that give it genuine cultural specificity alongside blue-chip international names. Solidifying this is Lisa Reihana’s ANZAC, an installation eight metres high and twenty metres long, composed of 180,000 shimmering discs, which surround the entrance to the fair. Reihana, who represented New Zealand at the 2017 Venice Biennale, has spent more than three decades using film, photography and installation to centre Māori and Pacific perspectives in history, and the work is a fitting threshold to what lies inside.
Below are the booths and works worth prioritising.
Denizen’s current issue cover star, Grace Wright, shows with Gow Langsford, one of the fair’s anchor presentations, and her large-scale acrylics on linen are worth seeking out up close. Commanding and weather-like, these are paintings in a state of perpetual motion. The booth also pairs international sculptural weight from Lee Bae (South Korea) and Tony Cragg (UK) with Claudia Kogachi’s canvases, which layer personal narrative with a confident contemporary visual idiom.
Grace Wright, Geometrical Reality, 2025, acrylic on linen
A considered group presentation across four artists. Natasha Wright’s large-scale oils and works on paper deal directly with the female form and gaze. Julia Holderness brings hand-painted ceramics and watercolours drawn from her studio archive, quietly revisionist work in the history of female painting in Aotearoa. Simon Kaan (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Mamoe, Waitaha) offers meditative paintings of waka set against dissolved horizons of sea and sky, while Freeman White rounds out the booth with bold, animated seascapes.
Natasha Wright, Sway, 2026 Oil on canvas 1525 x 1780 mm, Sanderson
One of the more intriguing group presentations at this year’s fair. The Föenander booth features new work by Israel Tangaroa Birch, Lottie Consalvo, Mbali Dhlamini, Anton Forde, Nick Herd, Roger Mortimer, Neal Palmer, Monica Rani Rudhar, Vipoo Srivilasa and Jessica Swney. A broad cross-section of contemporary practice that is worth exploring.
Israel Tangaroa Birch, Poutama Tree of Knowledge, Föenander Galleries
Lottie Consalvo, Reverent Tree, 2026, acrylic on canvas, Föenander Galleries
A solo presentation of new large-scale paintings by Judy Millar, one of the most consistently compelling abstract painters working in Aotearoa. Millar’s practice critically re-examines the gestural tradition she operates within, producing work that is both physically commanding and conceptually precise. These are paintings that require real space to be read properly; the fair setting is ideal.
Judy Millar in her studio with new works for the Aotearoa Art Fair 2026, Michael Lett
Ponsonby’s {Suite} brings something genuinely unusual: 50 small paintings by Richard Lewer, the Hamilton-born, Melbourne-based artist who has built an extraordinary reputation as a contemporary social realist on both sides of the Tasman. The full compendium is a kind of snapshot social commentary: personal, precise and frequently surprising. Following major institutional shows at the Geelong Gallery and National Gallery of Australia, this is a significant moment to encounter Lewer’s work in New Zealand.
Richard Lewer, Drive to the Snow, 2026, {Suite} Galleries
A strong showing across painting and sculpture with international reach. Aida Tomescu’s large-scale oils on Belgian linen are richly material and chromatic, shown alongside new work from Erin Lawlor, Lucienne O’Mara, Bill & Pip Culbert, Matthew Allen and Tomislav Nikolic. Germany-based Jan Albers also features through the Fox Jensen McCrory arm. A booth for those who respond to painting with formal rigour and strong material intelligence.
STARKWHITE’s presentation for the 2026 Aotearoa Art Fair brings together key artists from home and abroad in a sumptuous exploration of the sculptural object. A large central platform supports a metropolis of sculptural work by artists including Mikala Dwyer, Anselm Reyle, Seung Yul Oh, and Mark Whalen.
Jonny Niesche, moon moth lust in warm copper, 2022, Starkwhite
To coincide with the fair, Starkwhite releases Autumn Spice, a new limited-edition print by Jonny Niesche, executed in copper, the work will be released at 12 pm on Thursday, 30th April. Please register your interest at [email protected]. The reflective, warm-toned surface speaks directly to Niesche’s longstanding preoccupations with beauty, surface and desire. A collectable edition that does justice to the artist’s practice.
Black Door brings together four artists whose practices share a preoccupation with landscape, perception, and layered surfaces. Christine Cathie and Ryan Carter manipulate and sculpt glass to reveal and conceal imagery; Kaye McGarva bends perception through illusionistic painting; Mark Wooller works with maps and cartography to trace layered histories of place. Together, a coherent and thoughtful curation.
Kaye McGarva, Earth Tones, 2026, Black Door Gallery
The Trust presents its first authorised limited edition: Clouds 3 (1975/2024), a beautiful archival screen print in an edition of 100. Proceeds fund the Colin McCahon Legacy Project, the digital catalogue raisonné of his 1,850+ works. A rare opportunity to acquire something genuinely connected to the McCahon estate, at an accessible price point.
Colin McCahon, Clouds 3, 1975, The Colin McCahon Trust
Running alongside the fair from 10 April to 4 May, the Aotearoa Art Fair Sculpture Trail (presented by Viaduct Harbour in association with Auckland Live) expands significantly in 2026 with 24 large-scale works by 18 artists installed across the waterfront precinct. Free and open to the public, it is the most accessible entry point to the fair’s broader programme.
Highlights include Lisa Reihana’s ANZAC Waharoa at the entrance to the Viaduct Events Centre; works by Peata Larkin, Reuben Paterson and Sione Faletau; flag works by A’aifou Potemanidrawing on Pacific siapo; a major floating mirror-polished sculpture by Gregor Kregaranchoring the harbour edge; and international names including Bernar Venet and Turner Prize-winner Martin Creed. A genuine outdoor exhibition in its own right that can be appreciated by young and old.
Cumulus Structure by Gregor Kregar
Blood from Stone by Josh Olley
The Aotearoa Art Fair is on from Thursday, 30th April until Sunday, 3rd May. Book your tickets here.
Canada Loucks leads the kitchen at Andiamo, the enduring Herne Bay favourite that has long set the tone for relaxed, neighbourhood dining in Auckland. As Head Chef, Loucks oversees a busy kitchen where consistency, creativity and pace must align service after service. The role calls for calm leadership and a deep understanding of her craft, guiding a team while ensuring the restaurant continues to serve the delicious dishes that locals return for time and again.
Loucks’ path into the kitchen began with curiosity rather than a fixed plan. Growing up surrounded by family members who loved to cook, food was a constant presence, with gatherings often turning into lively recipe exchanges. As a teenager, that curiosity quickly became an obsession, devouring cookbooks borrowed from the school library and experimenting constantly at home. Growing up largely plant-based also shaped her early approach to cooking, with experimentation she crafted her technique by building depth and flavour through herbs, spices.
In 2016, Loucks enrolled at the New Zealand School of Food and Wine, studying professional cookery alongside hospitality, wine and spirits. From there, six formative years at the iconic Euro under chef Gareth Stewart helped shape a collaborative approach to the kitchen. Today at Andiamo, Loucks combines those influences with flavours drawn from travels through Asia, while remaining passionate about mentoring younger chefs and creating a positive, supportive kitchen environment.
After Hours — Canada Loucks
Head Chef, Andiamo
“When I do get the chance to eat out, I tend to gravitate towards places that deliver great flavour without too much fuss. Belly Worshipis somewhere I’ve returned to countless times. It’s quick, incredibly tasty and always satisfying.
Sushi is something I crave regularly, and Auckland has some excellent spots. Gurume Sushi,& Sushi,Jankenand Sora Sushi are all go-tos, particularly Sora with its great sake selection.
For drinks, Caretaker is always impressive. I love the creativity behind the cocktails and the attention to detail in every drink.
One restaurant that consistently impresses me is Cocoro. After more than two decades, it’s still operating at an incredibly high level, with precision and consistency that never disappoints. There are so many places that I love, Goat, Rhu, Ragtag, Advieh and Spiga are all places I enjoy and return to for their atmosphere and excellent food.”
Designed by Simon de Burbure Architects, DO House is a quiet meditation on warmth, restraint, and the power of organic form. Set against a backdrop of textured plaster ceilings, limewashed walls, and full-height glazing that draws the surrounding greenery indoors, the interior unfolds in layers of warm beige and natural tone. At its heart, in the pool zone designed for slowing down, sits one of design’s most enduring icons: the Ligne Roset Togo.
The pool zone is conceived as a space to decompress, a soft retreat from the more formal rhythms of the home. Here, a Togo sectional in soft grey-taupe linen takes centre stage, arranged in an L-configuration that hugs the corner of the room. Designed by Michel Ducaroy in 1973, the Togo’s quilted, floor-hugging silhouette is the perfect counterpoint to the architecture’s clean lines. Its rumpled, pillowed form softens the precision of the bespoke joinery and integrated bar beyond, transforming what could have been an austere palette into something enveloping. It is furniture that invites you to sink in, linger, and let the day slow down around you.
A circular wool rug beneath the sectional anchors the arrangement, its organic shape echoing the curves of the seating and pulling the composition into intimate focus. The pairing is deliberate, sculpture meeting sculpture, with the architecture stepping back to let the furniture breathe.
The same design language continues into the dining space, where a rounded pedestal table sits framed by floor-to-ceiling glass overlooking the garden. Leather sling chairs with gently curved frames flank the table, their cognac tones bringing warmth against the cooler concrete and plaster surfaces. A striped runner grounds the arrangement without disrupting the room’s quiet palette.
Every silhouette has been softened. Every material chosen for its tactility, from the slub of the Togo’s linen to the patina of leather and the hand-thrown ceramic vessel resting on the table.
What Simon de Burbure Architects has achieved at DO House is a masterclass in how minimalism, when grounded in organic form and genuine comfort, can feel deeply inviting rather than austere. In the pool zone, the Togo doesn’t simply furnish the space. It sets its emotional temperature, becoming the piece that turns a beautifully composed retreat into a place to truly unwind.
There is a particular kind of nerve it takes to photograph eighty-four looks yourself and call the result a near-lookbook. Not a campaign in the operatic sense the fashion industry has conditioned us to expect, with its cinematic conceits and celebrity casting and auteur-signposting at every turn. Just eighty-four images. Eighty-four individuals. A collective, Gucci calls them, and the word does more work than it first appears to.
Generation Gucci, which arrived out of Milan this week, is Demna’s opening statement as the House’s artistic director, and it reads less like a manifesto than a mission brief. The designer, whose tenure at Balenciaga reshaped luxury’s relationship to irony and spectacle, has arrived in Florence with what can only be described as a deliberate exhalation. There is no shock here. No provocation for its own sake. Instead, there is an almost obsessive attention to what a Gucci garment has always been asked to do, which is to carry the weight of a century of Italian craftsmanship without appearing to carry anything at all.
The collection draws from across the House’s decades, but the editing is where Demna’s intelligence becomes visible. Two-piece suits with slim-fit trousers feel lifted out of a specific Gucci memory and dropped into the present without translation. Head-to-toe leather and suede appear in the womenswear as an argument for tactility. Textured coats are introduced with what the House calls lightness, and the word, repeated across the collection notes, begins to function as a thesis. Lightness as the discipline of leaving things out. Lightness as a rebuke to the heaviness luxury has accumulated in recent seasons.
The party wardrobe, with its underwear-inspired pieces layered beneath silk blousons and its minimal gowns in fluid jersey and chiffon, nods to the Gucci that once defined the cultural imagination of going out. But it does so without the maximalism that has become the House’s shorthand. Valigeria-inspired ballerinas, now offered in men’s sizes, and streamlined loafers built with the unstructured lightness of dancing shoes, suggest a wardrobe designed for movement rather than for posture.
Then there are the accessories, which is where any serious Gucci conversation eventually lands. The Jackie 1961 returns in new proportions. The Dionysus sharpens into something more angular, more architectural. The Lunetta Phone+ arrives as a piece of genuine contemporary design. And the Paparazzo, the collection’s clearest thesis object, gathers the Web stripe and the Horsebit hardware into a single bag that the House describes, with a small, wry confidence, as defining Gucciness itself.
That neologism is worth pausing on. Gucciness is not Gucci. It is the distillation, the thing a Gucci object possesses that lets it belong equally to a morning coffee and an evening out. It is the kind of word a designer uses when he is trying to name something he intends to keep.
In a season where so much luxury still confuses volume for relevance, there is something almost radical about a campaign that simply shows you eighty-four looks and trusts you to understand.
If you’re lucky enough to have a canine companion, you’ll be pleased to know that Auckland’s food scene has never been more welcoming to the four-legged set. Whether you’re after a post-beach coffee, an afternoon drink in a beer garden, or a proper sit-down brunch with your dog curled beneath the table, the city has an option for every kind of outing. Here are our favourite spots to take your best friend.
A popular Herne Bay stalwart among the two-legged set, Dear Jervois has ‘Dog Parking’ aplenty if you dine outside, with water bowls always on hand. In the meantime, the all-day menu more than holds its own — the eggs benedict and creamy mushrooms are as good a reason to linger as any.
This Saint Marys Bay favourite welcomes dogs in its sun-drenched outdoor courtyard, where the crowd is convivial and the pub fare is several notches above what the name might suggest. Open daily from noon, it’s the kind of place a lazy Saturday afternoon disappears into entirely.
The industrial warehouse space on Westmoreland Street welcomes dogs both inside and out, making it a godsend on grey mornings when the alternative is tying your dog to a lamp post in the rain. The coffee is roasted on-site behind a glass wall, the menu is genuinely interesting, and the sunny outdoor courtyard fills quickly on weekends.
Herne Bay’s neighbourhood institution since 1988, Andiamo relaunched in late 2025 as Andiamo Bar & Dining Room — same beloved bones, expanded bar, more places to perch. Roll up on a warm afternoon, claim a spot at one of the outdoor tables on Jervois Road, and settle in for aperitivo and a Caprese Martini while your dog observes the foot traffic with quiet authority.
Few places in Auckland take dog-friendliness as seriously as this one. Dogs are welcome inside and out every day, but the third Saturday of every month is when things get properly organised — Dog and Grog brings the canine community together in the closed-off beer garden, off-leash and in full chaos, while you manage a craft beer and some very good gourmet tapas. A genuine institution.
Tucked into the Lot 3 laneway precinct off Ponsonby Road, this micro-brewery and beer garden is one of the neighbourhood’s better-kept secrets and a firm favourite among the dog-owning set. Dogs are welcome every day, and every Wednesday from 4pm the venue runs a dedicated dog happy hour — homemade treats on arrival, a cold drink for you, and a closed courtyard that tends to fill with a very enthusiastic cross-section of Auckland’s canine population.
Since expanding into its new garden setting, Parade has become one of Ponsonby’s most pleasant outdoor spots — and with a generous green area for your dog to settle while you work through a pretzel bun burger and loaded fries, it earns its place on this list comfortably. The house-made buns are the real draw; your dog will understand why you’re not sharing.
One of Auckland’s most significant new openings of the past year, Bravo arrives from the team behind Ayrburn in Queenstown with a vast overwater space, a menu heavy on local seafood and rotisserie chicken, and a harbour view that makes two hours disappear without warning. Dogs are welcome in the expansive outdoor area, and the Westhaven promenade walk on either side gives you somewhere to take them before or after. The Bravo Go counter also does takeaway coffee and cabinet food for those who’d rather keep moving.
Judith Tabron — the founder of Soul Bar & Bistro — returned to Auckland dining with this all-day marina restaurant at Westhaven, and it’s been one of the better waterfront additions the city has seen in some time. The covered outdoor courtyard welcomes dogs, the menu moves between South American and Japanese influences via New Zealand’s coastal produce — tuna sashimi taquitos, whitebait fritters in Chardonnay butter — and the harbour views from the terrace are exactly what a long Sunday lunch should look like. One reviewer noted their dog drank from a vodka bowl. We’re choosing to take that as a measure of the hospitality.
The cabinet at Winona Forever is one of the better reasons to make the trip to Parnell — jammed with pastries, slices and beautifully presented cabinet food that disappears fast on weekends. Outdoor seating welcomes dogs, and with Auckland Domain a short walk up the road, it pairs naturally with a long morning stroll before or after.
Sprawling ivy, overflowing flower baskets, garden tools on the walls — The Garden Shed commits to its theme with genuine conviction. The covered courtyard is perfect for rain-averse dogs and their owners alike, and the menu is the kind of honest, seasonal bistro food that justifies the trip from wherever you’re coming from. The epic burger is exactly as described.
Crave is a social enterprise that returns all of its profits to the Morningside neighbourhood, which gives it a pleasant undercurrent of purpose that most cafes lack. The converted warehouse space is genuinely impressive, the food menu changes regularly and leans on seasonal ingredients, and dogs are welcome on the outdoor deck. After your coffee, Western Springs is a short walk away.
Cornwall Park is one of Auckland’s busiest on-lead dog parks at the weekend, which makes the café inside its gates an essential rather than an optional stop. Dogs are welcome in the outdoor seating area, there’s green space directly opposite, and the café is open every day of the year except Christmas. The logic of this visit essentially writes itself.
The only entry on this list that earns you a ferry trip, and worth it. Vondel champions local producers with a seasonal menu that caters thoughtfully to most dietary preferences, welcomes leashed dogs both inside and on the sidewalk patio, and has a resident dog named Curtis who sets the tone. Cap the outing with a walk up Takarunga Mount Victoria for one of the better harbour views in the city.
Few post-walk rituals are as satisfying as settling onto the outdoor deck here after a run along the sand, your dog shaking off and surveying the scene with great self-satisfaction. Three dog troughs of varying heights are fixed to the outside walls, the gelato is award-winning, and the harbour views do the rest of the work.
Formerly The Stoned Cow, this beachfront Browns Bay cafe rebranded entirely around its dog-friendly identity — and then went all in on it. A dedicated dog menu, artificial grass mats so your dog has a comfortable surface underfoot, and spacious outdoor seating looking out toward the water. Combine it with a run on Browns Bay Beach and you have a near-perfect Sunday sorted.
There are evenings that promise a good meal, and then there are evenings that demand you clear the diary entirely. The Trivet x Cloudy Bay Winemakers Dinner, happening Thursday, 7th May falls firmly into the latter category. A single-night collaboration between one of Auckland’s most compelling kitchens and the Marlborough winery that arguably started the conversation about New Zealand wine on the global stage.
At the pass is Chef Wallace Mua, whose cooking at Trivet has quietly established the JW Marriott restaurant as one of the city’s most interesting dining rooms. His style, which he calls “elaborately simple,” makes more sense on the plate than on paper: Polynesian roots, French precision, a deep respect for New Zealand produce, and a refusal to over-complicate what doesn’t need complicating.
Chef Wallace Mua,
The menu for the evening reads like a love letter to Aotearoa’s coastline and seasons, matched course-for-course with wines selected and presented by Cloudy Bay’s Winemaking Director Nikolai St George. St George, who grew up on a rural North Island farm before studying viticulture, has spent his career guided by a philosophy that mirrors Trivet’s own: honour the source material, keep it honest, and let quality do the talking.
The evening opens at the raw bar with freshly shucked Te Matuku oysters, sashimi, and Coromandel mussels, the kind of briny, unadorned start that snaps the palate to attention, alongside Cloudy Bay’s NV Pelorus, the méthode traditionnelle was recently shortlisted for New Zealand Sparkling Wine of the Year. From there, things get more playful. A spanakopita cannoli with cucumber, cinnamon, JW garden mint, and Southerly honey rethinks a classic through a distinctly Kiwi lens, paired with Cloudy Bay’s 2025 Sauvignon Blanc.
The second entrée is where Mua’s Polynesian instincts and technical confidence collide: house- made spaghetti with local kina, garlic, chilli, and coriander. A dish that takes the briny richness of New Zealand’s most polarising delicacy and gives it the pasta treatment it frankly deserves. Cloudy Bay’s 2023 Chardonnay, with its Southern Valleys weight and precision, is the pairing here.
For the main course, confit duck breast arrives with orange, rosti, beetroot, and cacao, matched with the 2023 Te Wahi Pinot Noir from Cloudy Bay’s Central Otago vineyards in Bannockburn and Northburn. A wine built on the kind of rocky, glacial soils that produce structure and intensity in equal measure. Dessert closes the evening with a Ghana dark chocolate mousse, tamarillo, chocolate soil, and cherry, alongside Cloudy Bay’s 2023 Marlborough Pinot Noir. It’s the kind of finish designed to make you linger at the table longer than you planned. Between courses, St George will guide the room through the stories behind each wine. Not in the stiff, lecture-hall sense, but in the way that only someone who has spent their life walking vineyards and tasting dirt can. The evening promises warmth, creativity, and the rare pleasure of two people at the top of their craft working in genuine concert.
Tickets are $175 per person, including wine pairing, and seating is limited. If your Thursday, 7th May, is free, this is what you do with it. Book here.
Sunday, 10th May, is the one day of the year when a “thanks for everything” text simply won’t cut it. Fortunately, Auckland’s best restaurants have risen to the occasion with set menus, special offerings, and the kind of considered hospitality that will make you look like the favourite child. Here’s where to book.
The Herne Bay Italian is pulling out all the stops with a three-course set menu for lunch, running from 11am to 3pm. Think entree, main, and dessert, with a glass of G.H.Mumm Grand Cordon Rosé on arrival to set the tone before anyone has even unfolded a napkin. At $99 per person, it’s the kind of afternoon that earns you serious goodwill. A kids menu is available for the little ones, and for those who prefer an evening celebration, the full à la carte menu returns from 5pm.
Offering: 11am–3pm (set menu) | From 5pm (à la carte) | $99pp Book here.
Azabu’s Mission Bay outpost is serving a special all-day set menu for $95 per person, featuring a sharing-style selection of Azabu favourites. It’s the kind of meal designed for reaching across the table, and for convincing your mum that you do, in fact, have excellent taste. A kids menu is available for guests aged 12 and under. Note that all seatings are limited to two hours.
Offering: All day | $95pp sharing set menu | Kids menu available (12 and under) | 2-hour seatings Book here.
Trivet is going big for Mother’s Day with a Kai-Moana-Pasifika buffet lunch that draws on the flavours of Aotearoa and the Pacific. The spread includes a fresh raw seafood bar, umu-style meats, and comforting staples like pauasami, roasted lamb leg, and kumara, the kind of food that feels like home whether you grew up with it or you’re discovering it for the first time. Mum gets a complimentary cocktail on arrival, which is a strong start to any Sunday. Gather the whanau and settle in.
Offering: 12.30pm–1.30pm | $95pp | Complimentary cocktail for Mum on arrival Book here.
Right on the water, First Mates, Last Laugh is the kind of setting that does most of the Mother’s Day work for you. No set menu here, just a few well-chosen specials alongside the regular favourites: a burrata salad to start, a glass of Palliser rosé for the guest of honour, and a rich chocolate cake to finish things off properly. Add the waterfront views and a long, unhurried lunch in the sun, and you’ve got a Sunday your mum will be talking about for weeks.
Offering: Specials alongside the regular menu Book here.
Aarth is opening during the day for the very first time on Mother’s Day, offering limited seats and first access to a new daytime format. The Parnell restaurant shifts into a more relaxed register from 11am to 3pm, with a three-course menu at $79 per person that includes bubbles on arrival (alcoholic or non-alcoholic), pumpkin sev puri, Aarth’s take on butter chicken, a choice of market fish, paneer, or lamb — the lamb is the one to order — and a mango dessert to close. For those wanting more, an upgrade to Aarth’s full tasting experience is available. There’s a personal story here too: the daytime launch is a nod from chef Vicky Shah to cooking alongside his mum on Sundays, which makes this a particularly fitting Mother’s Day booking. Saturday 9th May also sees a daytime à la carte opening from 11am to 3pm, and a Mother’s Day set menu is available for Sunday dinner.
Offering: 11am–3pm (daytime set menu) | $79pp Book here.
Somm is offering a three-course set menu across both lunch and dinner at $80 per person, a price point that leaves plenty of room to add a glass of G.H.Mumm Marlborough Brut Cuvée at a special $13 per glass. The à la carte menu runs alongside the set offering, though pizzas won’t be available on the day, so plan your orders accordingly. A kids menu is on hand for younger guests.
This is the one to watch. Named after chef Michael Meredith’s mother, Metita is bringing back a very special Toana’i, a Pacific Sunday feast steeped in family, memory, and the flavours of home. The menu draws inspiration from her profound influence on Michael’s upbringing and honours her legacy through each dish. The offering includes bubbles or a non-alcoholic drink on arrival, followed by a three-course sharing menu. At $110 per person with a minimum of two guests, this is Mother’s Day dining with genuine meaning behind it.
Offering: 12pm–5pm (last booking 4pm) | $110pp, minimum 2 guests | Includes bubbles on arrival Book here.
If your mum is the type who appreciates a properly cooked steak and a glass of something celebratory, JSH Auckland has you covered for lunch service this Mother’s Day. G.H.Mumm Grand Cordon Rouge will be poured at a special price of $20 per glass, which is as good an excuse as any to raise a toast to the woman who raised you.
Offering: Lunch service | G.H.Mumm Grand Cordon Rouge $20/glass Book here.
Soul is open all day, from 11am through to 10pm, with its full à la carte menu available for both lunch and dinner. The standout offer here is a champagne upgrade: order a bottle of G.H.Mumm Grand Cordon and it will be upgraded to a G.H.Mumm Cordon Rosé, which is the kind of gesture that pairs well with the warm, impeccable Soul service the Viaduct institution is known for. A kids menu is available at $25.
Offering: 11am–10pm | Full à la carte | Kids menu $25 Book here.
Kome is teaming up with its sibling Yume for a Mother’s Day sharing set menu at $69 per person, with a minimum of two guests. The spread covers a lot of ground: edamame and kimchi to start, salmon and beef fireball nigiri, a generous sashimi and oyster platter, a choice of Tokyo chicken wings or eggplant tempura, and katsu chicken or chicken teriyaki to follow. It’s the kind of Japanese sharing menu where everyone reaches across the table and nobody orders wrong.
Offering: Sharing set menu | $69pp | Minimum 2 guests Book here.
Advieh is offering two ways to celebrate, and both are worth your attention. The first is a Mother’s Day High Tea from 2pm to 4pm, a refined spread of delicate savouries, seasonal sweets, and signature Advieh touches paired with a glass of Ruinart Champagne. At $89 per person, it’s a limited-time debut designed specifically for the occasion.
For those after something more substantial, a specially curated three-course banquet menu is available for both lunch and dinner at $119 per person, with a glass of Monmousseau Crémant Rosé on arrival. The menu moves through yellow split pea hummus, John Dory on the bone, and a spiced artichoke cake, the kind of dishes that feel generous and considered without trying too hard. Book one or book both, your mum won’t complain either way.
Offering: High Tea: 2pm–4pm | $89pp (includes Ruinart Champagne) | Banquet: Lunch & dinner | $119pp (includes Crémant Rosé on arrival) Book here:
If Mother’s Day with young children sounds like it requires military-grade logistics, Bravo at Cracker Bay is the venue that makes it easy. The waterfront setting does most of the heavy lifting, with a fenced play area and an arcade room keeping the kids occupied while the adults settle into a long, unhurried meal by the water. The everyday menu is available all day, from breakfast through to a relaxed lunch or dinner, with a dedicated kids menu to keep everyone happy. No special set menu here, just a genuinely family-friendly spot where your mum can actually sit down, enjoy her food, and feel celebrated without anyone having a meltdown.
Offering: Breakfast, lunch & dinner | Everyday menu | Kids menu available Book here.
The Ponsonby original is running the same $95 per person all-day sharing set menu as its Mission Bay sibling, with the same two-hour seating window and kids menu for guests 12 and under. When booking, specify the number of children in the booking notes.
Offering: All day | $95pp sharing set menu | Kids menu available (12 and under) | 2-hour seatings Book here.
Ebisu is going all in with an unlimited sushi, sashimi, and Japanese-inspired buffet from 11am to 4pm. At $85 per person (half price for kids), the offering spans market-fresh sushi and sashimi, a noodle station with soba and poached prawn cocktail, a rotating selection of hot dishes including Big Glory Bay salmon, market fish with yuzu miso, and teriyaki roasted beef, plus desserts like honey coconut custard and chocolate brownie. Last sitting is at 2pm, so book accordingly.
Offering: 11am–4pm | $85pp (half price for kids) | Last sitting 2pm Book here.
The Lodge is keeping things simple and doing them well: a special set menu for lunch only on Mother’s Day, at $95 per person. The brief is relaxed, the focus is on the most important person at the table, and the rest is taken care of. Sometimes the best plan is the one that doesn’t overcomplicate things.
Gilt is open for lunch this Mother’s Day, serving its all-day menu of favourites, think King Crab Pappardelle, Sicilian Crudo, and Chocolate Torte, alongside a few specials created for the occasion, including a Tortellini en brodo with mortadella and Parmesan. Secure your place in the good books while you’re at it.
Offering: Lunch | All-day menu plus Mother’s Day specials Book here.
Huami is offering two ways to celebrate. For lunch, a bottomless yum cha from 11.30am to 2pm, where the whole family gathers around the lazy susan for an afternoon of endless dim sum and dumplings, from prawn dumplings with wild bamboo shoot to the signature Tabasco prawn toast and Shanghai xiao long bao. Each guest starts with a soup on arrival, plus a crispy duck salad and fruit platter for the table. Bookings are required, with a 1.5-hour dining window.
For dinner, a four-course set menu at $99 per person moves through dim sum, Buddha jump wall soup, crispy duck salad, charcoal-grilled beef ribs with Manuka honey, and a citrus dessert of lemon confit, mascarpone cheesecake, and mint sorbet. À la carte is also available.
Offering: Lunch: 11.30am–2pm (bottomless yum cha, bookings required, 1.5 hours) | Dinner: 5.30pm–9.30pm ($99pp set menu or à la carte) Book here.
Non Solo Pizza’s Italian Long Lunch is back for Mother’s Day, and at $55 per person it’s one of the most approachable ways to treat your mum to a proper Italian spread in Parnell. For those who’d rather order their own way, the full à la carte menu is also available for both lunch and dinner. Either way, it’s the kind of afternoon where the table gets loud, the wine keeps flowing, and everyone leaves a little happier than they arrived.
Offering: Italian Long Lunch $55pp | À la carte also available for lunch & dinner Book here.
MASU is welcoming families for Mother’s Day with its full à la carte menu of Japanese favourites, from maki rolls and crispy tempura to fresh sashimi and beyond. If your mum’s idea of a perfect Sunday involves exceptional Japanese food in a striking dining room, this is the booking to make.
Origine’s Mother’s Day set menu is built for sharing and priced at $69 per person, which, for what you’re getting, is quietly one of the strongest value propositions on this list. The menu opens with a duck liver parfait with Hawke’s Bay apricots, manuka honey, and hazelnut alongside a lamb and cheese pie with Mahoe Farm mature gouda and truffle oil. The main is a slow-cooked Greenstone Creek beef cheek bourguignon with potato puree, homemade mustard, and buttered leeks, the kind of dish that earns a long silence at the table. To finish, Origine’s chocolate mousse is served tableside with EVOO and pistachios. French comfort food with New Zealand provenance, shared across a table with the people who matter.
If you really want to earn favourite-child status, skip the city altogether and take your mum to Waiheke for the day. Oyster Inn is open for a long lunch or a relaxed dinner, with the full à la carte menu running alongside a few Mother’s Day specials, the standout being Skull Island Tiger Prawns with nam jim sauce. The kind of dish she absolutely will not want to share with the rest of the table, and honestly, who could blame her.
Offering: Lunch & dinner | Full à la carte plus specials Book here.
If your mum deserves more than the city can offer on a Sunday, Cable Bay makes a compelling case for the ferry. Head Chef Tim Lumsden has designed a five-course seasonal menu available throughout the day, moving from delicate canapés through vibrant seasonal dishes, line-caught seafood, and premium cuts to a shared dessert course. Mum gets a complimentary glass of Nautilus Estate Marlborough Cuvée Brut on arrival, Antipodes water lands on the table, and the ocean views and living sculpture gardens do the rest. At $95 per person, five courses with this setting and this level of cooking is quietly one of the best-value Mother’s Day offerings on the list. A children’s menu is available at $35. Seating is limited, so book ahead.
Offering: All day | Five-course set menu | $95pp | Kids menu $35 Book here.
For something a little different, Bar Albert is hosting a one-off Mother’s Day High Tea in collaboration with New Zealand skincare icon Antipodes. Perched high above the city with sweeping harbour views and skyline backdrops, the afternoon includes beautifully crafted sweet and savoury high tea bites paired with a signature honey cocktail inspired by Antipodes’ Manuka Honey range, while live music and a roaming bar cart (with additional beverages available for purchase) set the mood. The parting gift alone is worth the visit: each guest takes home a curated Antipodes gift bag featuring full-size Manuka Honey & Orange Blossom Shampoo and Conditioner, plus a mini Manuka Honey Face Mask. At $149 per person, it’s an afternoon that covers all the bases, food, drinks, live music, a view, and something lovely to take home. Tickets are limited.
Offering: Sunday 10th May | Seatings at 2pm & 3pm | $149pp | Tickets limited Book here.
Onslow is keeping things elegantly simple: join for a long lunch or dinner on Sunday 10th May and let the kitchen take care of everything while you focus on what actually matters, spending time together. Whether you’re celebrating your mum, a grandmother, or someone who has always shown up, this is a meal worth sitting down for.
Offering: Lunch & dinner | Sunday 10th May Book here.
Bar Magda is leaning into the long, unhurried afternoon with a three-course sharing menu designed for that sweet spot between late lunch and early dinner. Bubbles on arrival set the pace, and at $75 per person with a minimum party of three, this is the kind of relaxed, communal meal that suits a table of generations. For those who’d rather keep the evening going, the regular à la carte menu is also available from 5.30pm.
Offering: Sunday 10th May | 2pm–7pm (sharing menu) | From 5.30pm (à la carte) | $75pp | Minimum 3 guests | Welcome bubbles included Book here.
Esther is doing high tea its own way this Mother’s Day, which is to say, less doily, more Parisian dessert trolley. The afternoon begins with a glass of G.H.Mumm Champagne on arrival, followed by a spread of sweet and savoury bites that lean Mediterranean in spirit, with unexpected flavour pairings alongside the nostalgic notes you’d expect. The dessert trolley is the centrepiece, piled high and delivered with a touch of theatre that will have your mum reaching for seconds before she’s finished her first. Tea and coffee are included, but the real move is upgrading to bottomless Prosecco for $20 or bottomless G.H.Mumm Champagne for $45, because one welcome glass is lovely, but a free-flowing afternoon is how you properly say thank you.
Offering: Sunday 10th May | 12pm–2pm | $89pp | Upgrade to bottomless Prosecco +$20 or bottomless Champagne +$45 Book here.
Stanmore Bay still keeps the easy rhythm of a classic New Zealand seaside settlement. Creosote-stained baches sit alongside newer interventions, and the streetscape feels agreeably removed from the city, a few bends of the Whangaparāoa Peninsula away from Auckland’s gravitational pull.
It is the kind of place you arrive at slowly, which is precisely the point of the house Jessop Architects has quietly evolved here. The project, known simply as Stanmore, began as a young couple’s first home together, bought not long after university. The brief, when it came, was not to erase what they had fallen for, but to let it grow up.
Jessop’s response is a study in restraint. Rather than overwrite the original cottage, additions thread through the site with deference to the mature pōhutukawa, their canopy left to shape both the approach and the outlook. Arrival is deliberately unhurried: you cross the lawn, pass beneath the trees, and only once you are inside does the water reveal itself.
A sheltered courtyard on the inland side is the project’s quiet masterstroke. Where many coastal houses commit entirely to the sea, Stanmore gives itself two considered aspects: the water on one side, a protected, north-facing garden room on the other. It is an unshowy way of doubling the house’s usable life through shoulder-season afternoons and early evenings.
Inside, the palette does its work without raising its voice. Sandy stone tones run through the interiors, grounded and durable rather than decorative, paired with warm timbers and the kind of deft joinery that rewards a second look. Cabinetry is fitted with Powersurge’sEntrada Round Bar Handle and Beam Handle, discreet, well-weighted, the sort of detail you register with your hand before your eye.
Above the island, Powersurge’sLateral Pendant draws a single clean horizontal line through the main living space, a quiet echo of the sea beyond the windows. It is specification rather than feature, which feels right for a house that never tries to perform.
What Jessop has built here is, in the end, a family home that still reads as a first home loved into its second chapter. The pōhutukawa remain, the bach-era rhythm of the bay is intact, and the interiors feel patinated rather than polished. It is a renovation that understands the difference between evolving a house and replacing it.
For more exclusive access to what the city has to offer, engaging content, excellent imagery and thought provoking commentary on the life that surrounds you, subscribe to Denizen magazine now.
