Fifteen Restaurants Dropped From Metro’s Top 50

Press Release: Sunday 19 April, 2009

FIFTEEN RESTAURANTS DROPPED FROM METRO’S TOP 50 — BUT EURO MAKES IT

Changes are afoot in the Auckland restaurant scene — Metro magazine’s annual list of the Top 50 restaurants in Auckland has 15 names that weren’t on the 2008 list.

Metro has been judging restaurants all over the city during the last three months, and releases the list this week.

Euro Restaurant and Bar, which took a full page newspaper advertisement to run a recipe for “Metro Restaurant Critics Testicles” after missing the Top 50 last year, is among several big names reinstated after this year’s judging. Sails, Prime Bistro, Cable Bay and Kermadec, are also back on the list.

Three big name hotel restaurants — White at the Hilton, Q at the Westin and Kabuki at the Stamford Plaza — have been dropped. Partingtons at the Langham also missed the cut for a second year although Dine by Peter Gordon in the Sky City Grand and Kitchen in the newly refurbished DeBretts are two hotel restaurants that bucked the trend.

Kitchen was one of three completely new restaurants in the Top 50. The others were Sake Bar 601 in Morningside and Two Fifteen in Mt Eden.

The CBD has nine restaurants on the list, Parnell six, Ponsonby four and Herne Bay five. There are seven in the general Mt Eden/Kingsland/Morningside area, although only one of them (Tabou) is actually in Kingsland. The Engine Room in Northcote Point is the sole North Shore restaurant in the Top 50, although several others missed out narrowly. Waiheke has four restaurants on the list, one more than last year.

Metro editor Bevan Rapson says the restaurants in the Top 50 deserve to be congratulated on maintaining standards while adapting to tough economic times. “Special congratulations to newcomers on the list and those that earned reinstatement.”

Metro’s judges got a good laugh out of last year’s “testicles” ad but weren’t swayed by it, says Rapson. “Our list is decided entirely by the experiences our judges have in each restaurant and how they compare. Euro and the others on the list all earned their places in the Top 50 by delivering a better all-round experience than those that missed out.”

He says the judges found that some big hotel restaurants “seemed to be going through the motions”. Some of the Asian restaurants on last year’s list have also failed to keep up. Eight Asian restaurants have dropped off the list this year, while only three have been added.

Metro’s restaurants awards are the longest-running in Auckland, and also the most thorough.
Most of the restaurants on the list were visited twice and some three times. “None of the decisions to omit, or include, was made lightly,” says Rapson.

The supreme winner and category winners of the Metro/Audi Restaurant of the Year awards will be announced at a special awards dinner on April 27. All the winners will be named in the May issue of the magazine published the following day.

See below for the full list of restaurants in the Top 50.

METRO / AUDI RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR: THE TOP 50
ANDIAMO, Herne Bay.
ANTOINES, Parnell.
BOWMANS, Mt Eden.
BRACU, Bombay.
CABLE BAY, Waiheke.
C.A.C., Mt Eden.
CHOW, Viaduct.
CIBO, Parnell.
CLOONEY, Freemans Bay.
DELICIOUS, Grey Lynn.
DINE BY PETER GORDON, City.
EURO, Princes Wharf.,
GRAND HARBOUR, Viaduct.
JAVA ROOM, Parnell.
KERMADEC, Viaduct.
KITCHEN, City.
KURA, City.
MEREDITHS, Mt Eden.
MOLLIES, St Marys Bay.
MOLTEN, Mt Eden.
NON SOLO PIZZA, Parnell.
NUMBER 5, City.
O’CONNELL ST BISTRO, City.
ONE TREE GRILL, Epsom.
PALM BEACH CLUBHOUSE, Waiheke.
PASTIS, City.
PREGO, Ponsonby.
PRIME, City.
PURE, Herne Bay.
RICE, City.
ROCCO, Ponsonby.
SAKE BAR 601, Morningside.
SAILS, Westhaven.
SATYA, Newton.
SOTO, St Marys Bay.
SOUL, Viaduct.
SPQR, Ponsonby.
TABOU, Kingsland.
TOTÓ, City.
TE WHAU, Waiheke Island.
THE ENGINE ROOM, Northcote Pt.
THE FRENCH CAFÉ, Eden Terrace.
THE GROVE, City.
THE JERVOIS STEAK HOUSE, Herne Bay.
THYMES TABLES, Waiheke.
TRIBECA, Parnell.
TWO FIFTEEN, Mt Eden.
VBG, Parnell.
VINNIES, Herne Bay.
WINEHOT, Kingsland.


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restaurant reviews and incisive comment on city life.

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