Saturday, November 19, 2011
[Pictures: David Straight] There isn’t much to look at here. There are plastic-covered tables, cheap crockery and some very badly photoshopped images of dumplings. The lighting is too bright and the place is family run; service is well-meaning but very patchy and once there was a voluble argument in the kitchen. We can’t work out why [...]
[Pictures: The very wonderful David Straight] Somewhat disingenuously, Cocoro describes its dinner menu as “izakaya-style”. Cocoro could not be further from the bustling, steamy izakayas of Tokyo or even Auckland. It’s in a back street in Ponsonby, a beautiful bricky space with timber battens and touches of exposed concrete. There is one large table in [...]
[Pictures: David Straight] They say if you want to eat the best French food in the world, go to Tokyo. Now we can see why. Morita is a Japanese-French restaurant. Yes. It’s not for everyone, in an unprepossessing basement on Mills Lane that is painted black and has neoclassical white columns. It’s formal – there [...]
[Pictures: David Straight] This is not a city restaurant, nor does it try to be. And that’s why it works. You’ll find Casita Miro down a gravel driveway in the hills above Onetangi Beach on Waiheke Island. It’s owned by Cat Vosper and Barnett Bond, who have been developing their vineyard, Miro, for 20-odd years. [...]
[Pictures: David Straight] El Sizzling Chorizo is a gourmet foodcart, the kind of thing you find on the streets of New York and Portland, not Waiheke Island. Owner Corra Anselmi sells three types of barbecued sausage (all $9) from the side of his converted trailer. There’s choripan – Argentinian chorizo, which has a thicker grind [...]