In Auckland’s vast dining landscape, there is always something exciting happening. Here, from limited-time pop-ups to new menus and more, we have rounded up four of the bite-sized, food news that we think you should know about this week.
Butter Butter pop-up at Modicum Cafe
If you find yourself with a sweet tooth this Saturday (the 29th of July), you simply must pay a visit to Modicum Cafe on Upper Queen Street, where Petra Galler of Butter Butter will be on site serving a mouthwatering selection of cakes, tarts, galettes and more. There will also be beautiful blooms available from lauded local florist Ruth Fiona and plenty of perfectly-brewed coffee to boot.
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A culinary evolution & new menu at Ada by Head Chef Kia Kanuta
Popular Grey Lynn restaurant Ada (located at the base of The Convent Hotel) has a new head chef and an entirely new culinary approach. Chef Kia Kanuta (formerly in the kitchens of places like Prego, Cafe Hanoi, Mudbrick, Pici and more) has drawn from his cultural background and upbringing, his experiences in the kitchen and New Zealand’s abundant ingredients to reimagine the restaurant’s menu as a celebration of Aotearoa and of the connection between people, food and the land. Not only has each dish been inspired by its creator’s experiences to carry its own story, but the vast and varied scope of this new menu is incredible. In the mouth-watering line-up, standout dishes include hāngī potatoes with chevre and porcini soil, heritage carrots served with buffalo curd, hāngī pork belly with potato mousse, rēwana fried bread with oyster mushrooms and blue cheese, or topped with delicate kingfish, and even a squid ink spaghetti served with paua, cockles, cream and nduja. Progressive, full of flavour, imbued with history and cultural gravitas and promising a thoroughly memorable dining experience, Ada’s new offering is exceptional. Book this restaurant for your next dinner out.
New breakfast dishes and extended weekend hours at Kingi
This delicious restaurant set at the base of Hotel Britomart and helmed by Tom Hishon has recently added a raft of new dishes to its breakfast menu, alongside altering its weekend hours to open from 7am until 2:30pm (so that you can enjoy Kingi’s ‘breakfast’ offering all day).
On the menu, new additions include smoked kahawai with slow-poached eggs, nduja hollandaise and potato rosti, Fiordland Wapiti mince on toast with mushrooms and goats curd and a banana pancake stack with hazelnut, raspberry and white chocolate crèmeux. As Hishon himself tells us, “I’m a breakfast person and there is nothing better than to be able to eat breakfast all day on the weekend! Kingi’s new weekend breakfast hours have been designed with this in mind.“
The Long Weekend’s Takeover at Ooh-Fa
After spending 12 weeks doing pop-ups in one of Australia’s top restaurants, Jay Elbrihi and David Aznar of 2Gather_Lab are embarking on an international tour — The Long Weekend — taking their unique culinary offering (that marries the duo’s Australian/Syrian and Algerian/Spanish backgrounds to focus on Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisine as well as exploring wild food, fermentation and native regeneration) to the world.
Their first stop is an unmissable, one-night-only event at Ooh-Fa, with a dinner designed to showcase wild food, foraged from around New Zealand and Australia, the best local seafood as well as some wild game. There will also be delicious natural wines from antipodean producers, alongside a selection of signature cocktails. Taking place on Monday the 31st of July from 5pm, the whole experience will be rolled out over a five-course menu for $120 per head. This is one you don’t want to miss.
