Kim Knight For Canvas
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Kim Knight, restaurant critic for the New Zealand Herald’s Canvas magazine, has been a journalist for 29 years. She is a multiple Canon Media Award winning feature writer and is currently two-thirds of the way through completing a Master of Gastronomy at AUT. Along with Restaurant Hub, Kim is pleased to present the Critics' Choice Award, based on her personal choice, according to the places she visited during 2017. |
Best Overall Restaurant
Inti - Auckland CBD
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The temperature is heading for 28 degrees as I type. Now would be a good time to go to Inti and bathe in an icy slurry of cucumber and lemon verbena with sweet pineapple and creamy cream cheese — easily the best dessert I ate last year. Chef Javier Carmona had me at “cactus guacamole with an avocado leaf”, but it’s not just his ingredients that are interesting. Hand-beaten metal platters, earthenware jugs and the Incan wall art by Flox set the tone. The menu is South and Central American (pre and post-Conquistador) and you won’t find anything like this anywhere else in New Zealand because the food, and the place, are the sum of Carmona’s heritage — and his life so far. Discover the wholesome flavours of Inti and Book a table now.
Runners-up
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It’s a little restaurant that’s a little hard to find, but persevere, because the service is impeccable, the fit-out oozes style and the food is insanely good. Cook your own meat Korean charcoal barbecuestyle, but save room for chef Min Baek’s “military stew”. The former Uni-Ko food truck owner has taken an historical one-pot wonder and elevated it to a thing of fine-dining beauty. Book a table now. |
Beast & Butterflies - Auckland CBD
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Sometimes you want to go somewhere bright and breezy, with enough space between the tables to hear yourself think and speak, to order food that is clean and pretty and won’t scare the horses but will impress your guests. For me, that place is Beast & Butterflies, the new hotel restaurant that seriously raises the hotel restaurant bar. Book a table now. |
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Josh Emmett’s harbour-view restaurant turned 5 last year with a bit of a fanfare about a new menu, etc, but what I mostly think about Ostro is that it is a solidly classy joint, where the waitpeople know their stuff and the kitchen is consistently great and quite often stupendous — smoked kahawai omelette, I’m looking at you. Book a table now. |
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SPQR’s sister? Or an elegant older cousin? Augustus Bistro is just as |