From city slickers with a penchant for black, to winery bistros with sweeping views – here are our favourite dining spots in the country, from top to bottom.
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Deco, Titirangi
This eatery has given the historic and architectural award winning Lopdell House in Titirangi a new lease on life.
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Deco, Titirangi
Owners Alex Isik and Nigar Ivgen of Nazar Group conceptualised the project and worked with Pennant and Triumph architects along the way.
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Deco, Titirangi
The original Spanish Mission architecture has been given a facelift with a hand-painted Turkish map on one wall, bespoke upholstery in creams and blue and blonde wooden furniture.
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Clooney, Central Auckland
The owner of award-winning restaurant Clooney, Tony Stewart, collaborated with Fearon Hay Architects to transform a derelict warehouse in downtown Auckland into a luxurious dining room.
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Clooney, Central Auckland
Nothing beats the feeling of parting the long tassel curtains surrounding the curvaceous booths, which make your dining experience feel particularly private.
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Clooney, Central Auckland
The belle epoch private dining room is an exercise in fearless design, including a luxurious gold and black colour palette that offsets a green Japanese anemone art installation.
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Kindred, Central Auckland
Featured in the latest Simply You Living magazine, Kindred restaurant has created a cosy shelter with plenty of character.
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Kindred, Central Auckland
Its delicate colour palette of pinks, olive and grey are matched with custom-made wooden chairs.
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Kindred, Central Auckland
“Organic paint finishes give depth and texture, warm timbers and the green tones of the leather add to the natural feeling,” says Chris Space, owner of and director of Ctrl Space, responsible for the interiors.
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Bistronomy, Central Napier
The chef and owner of Bistronomy, James Beck, gladly accepted the challenge of designing a restaurant in a 1930s Louis Hay building, with high ceilings, art deco accents and a pronounced post-and-beam construction.
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Bistronomy, Central Napier
On a “war against width” in the narrow but long space, Beck and his designers managed to squeeze in an long bar to sit 50. The team then turned to the forest for inspiration. A canopy of threaded timber slats has been fitted to both ceiling and walls.
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Bistronomy, Central Napier
The finishing touches, such as hand glazed herringbone and the ash bar stools, were created with the help of several local craftsmen.
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Elephant Hill, Hawkes Bay
With wine vines for days and the almost iridescent blue waters of the Pacific Ocean for views, Elephant Hill’s interiors has competition for the best looks. The solution? Large glass windows and an uncluttered space that lets Kidnapper Cliffs be the star of the show.
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Elephant Hill, Hawkes Bay
There is a different view tucked in the cellar, the glass Barrrel Room. It is surrounded by wine barrels in the midst of the aging process, as well as the best kind of library we know, a wine library.
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Elephant Hill, Hawkes Bay
“Our desire has always been to build a destination and create facilities of the highest world class technical and artistic,” say Elephant Hill founders Reydan and Roger Weiss.
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Floradiats, Central Wellington
Floridita’s high ceilings have been retained in the original style of a 1920s Parisian café, while the building’s original white floor tiles add even more character to the space.
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Floraditas, Central Wellington
Dark wood was chosen for the chairs, table tops and columns and chocolate-coloured leather was reserved for the banquettes.
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Floraditas, Central Wellington
Cole & Son’s Rajapur wallpaper, features on three walls, and chandeliers beloved by the locals adds to the timeless and cosy feel of the room.
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Logan Brown, Central Wellington
Housed in a 1920s banking chamber, Logan Brown is a sophisticated dining space that makes the most of its octagonal shape, with the kitchen housed in what used to be bank vaults.
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Logan Brown, Central Wellington
It sits 70 diners under the restored ceiling, complete with a state-of-the-art chandelier.
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Logan Brown, Central Wellington
A private dining room on the mezzanine floor, accessed via a spiral staircase, overlooks the main dining room from an impressive height.
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ilex, Christchurch
The design, and location of ilex café in the Christchurch Botanical Gardens makes you feel instantly relaxed. Looking like a greenhouse cut from fresh white paper, it’s a contemporary design by Pattersons architecture studio.
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ilex, Christchurch
“The public spaces are enhanced by sculptural panels on the walls and ceiling that filter light like the dappled shade of a woodland,” writes Pattersons.
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ilex, Christchurch
The award-winning space is actually a functioning greenhouse, with gorgeous plants in bloom right next to the simple, white tables.
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Rata, Queenstown
Recycled rimu walls from a hall in Invercargill, tombstone carving trolleys taken from the morgue and a vivid image of the north Routburn forest on the wall all add up to Rata’s quirky, southern feel.
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Rata, Queenstown
The team said they wanted a “stylish, interesting, warm space that had a busy neighbourhood feel of a New York eatery but all about Southern New Zealand”.
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Rata, Queenstown
A collaborative approach led to scouring junks shops in Invercargill, foraging flora and salt rocks from nearby areas and sourcing flawless designs from Italian stores.
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Amisfield, Queenstown
With Amisfield’s state-of-the-art-winery comes a stylish bistro for wine matched long lunches, and dinners. Large leather chairs, either side of an even larger fireplace, are the best seats in the house as you wait to be seated in the spacious restaurant.
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Amisfield, Queenstown
The building, which took two years to complete, contains some 1,500 tonnes of Glenorchy schist and the sturdy hardwood beams in the entrance and dining room are salvaged from the Riverton Bridge, which was washed away in the 1999 floods.
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Amisfield, Queenstown
Outdoors is a sanctuary of al fresco dining with a stone pond feature, industrial-inspired table and chairs and an art installation set against a natural back drop of the Remarkables Mountain range.
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No 7. Balmac, Dunedin
This Dunedin restaurant in the stylish suburb of Maori Hill has a neighbourhood focus.
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No 7. Balmac, Dunedin
The site was chosen for the space it had for a vegetable garden and patio out the back. It features a Texan wood-grill so large it was installed with a crane.
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No 7. Balmac, Dunedin
Hand blown light globes by artist Isaac Katzoff of Monmouth glass are suspended over large communal tables made of swamp kauri, with thonet bentwood chairs.
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