From Essence to Amisfield: What it’s like dining at NZ’s first Michelin starred restaurants
Wednesday, 1 July 2026
New Zealand’s dining scene has had its first taste of Michelin recognition, with the inaugural local guide awarding stars to some of the country’s most celebrated restaurants.
Essence led the honours with two stars, while 14 other restaurants were awarded one star, spanning Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Queenstown, Wānaka, Arrowtown and Waiheke Island.
From Pacific storytelling and vineyard dining to fire-led menus and refined seafood, here is what reviewers and food writers have said about the Michelin-starred restaurants.
Essence - Two Michelin stars
Essence was the only restaurant to earn two stars, while no restaurant received the Michelin Guide's top accolade of three stars.
The restaurant described itself as the place where “New Zealand's finest produce meets European culinary artistry” and it offered “fine dining through two evening tasting menus” at $450 or $295 per person.
Dishes on offer from the two sample menus include oyster with kiwifruit and cultured cream, crayfish with kūmara and vanilla, snapper with persimmon and Pinot noir, duck with beetroot and cacao, quince with yuzu and jasmine, and buckwheat with apple and miso.
According to Financial Review, the restaurant opens for breakfast, then at night “becomes a stage for Froggatt’s playful tasting menu, which is equal parts magic and mischief.”
During writer Natasha Bazika’s visit, one playful snack was dubbed a “dinosaur egg”, a small egg-shaped bite filled with broken rice and egg-yolk yoghurt, and a glossy cherry that was actually chicken liver parfait.
The following restaurants were awarded one Michelin star:
Tala, Auckland
At Tala in Parnell, the meal is built as a Pacific story told course by course.
A Sunday Star-Times review in 2025 described chef Henry Onesemo drawing on his Samoan background through dishes such as fa'apapa, pisupo and vaisu, turning memory, history and hospitality into a degustation. Snacks including keke pua'a with scallop, quail eggs and taro crisps were praised for the thought behind each bite.
The menu moved from pineapple, chilli and smoked green apple to coconut, koko Samoa and a theatrical whole-coconut dessert.
The Estate, Waiheke Island
The Estate is a restaurant, attached to the winery Tantalus Estate where visitors can choose a seasonal tasting menu in an elegant dining room, or a more casual bite with beer brewed on site, according to The House of Wellness magazine.
The Michelin Guide describes The Estate as a merge between textbook French technique with a distinctive New Zealand sensibility by its chef, Axel Curtet-Latreille, who hails from Western France.
“Traditional Gallic classics like pâté en croûte and chocolate crémeux rub shoulders with iconic Kiwi dishes like seafood and lamb. Alfresco dining on the patio,” Michelin Guide reads.
Ortega, Wellington
Ortega Fish Shack was already a Wellington favourite before Michelin arrived, winning the supreme award, best restaurant and best front-of-house team at the 2022 Felix Wellington Hospitality Awards.
Michelin Guide has praised its nautical dining room, seafood-focused menu and catch-of-the-day dishes prepared with European and Latin American influences, including yellowtail kingfish ceviche with avocado and crayfish oil.
Ahi, Auckland
Ahi was marked out by RNZ as one of the country's strongest Michelin contenders.
The Commercial Bay restaurant had already been named Cuisine's 2024 Restaurant of the Year, with three hats and a near-perfect score.
Led by chef Ben Bayly, it was described as a place built around an authentic New Zealand food story, using produce including vegetables from Ahi's own south Auckland kitchen garden.
The four course and four snacks 'New Zealand Food Story' menu at Ahi is $180 per person.
Rātā, Queenstown
Rātā was described in by Stuff Travel in 2021 as a relaxed but refined Queenstown restaurant focused on New Zealand cuisine.
Its setting, with an illuminated forest mural and earthy tones, nods to the native tree that gives the restaurant its name.
The menu was framed around regional produce and familiar local flavours, including Fiordland venison, blue cod, pāua and a gourmet Southland cheese roll made with Kiwi dip and Speight's mustard. It is a restaurant that leans into place, landscape and a distinctly New Zealand sense of comfort.
Jano Bistro, Wellington
Tucked inside a historic cottage in Te Aro, Jano Bistro has built its reputation on refined French cuisine with a strong focus on seasonality.
Michelin Guide praised owner-chef Pierre-Alain Fenoux’s precise technique, local produce and changing menus, while Cuisine Food Guide highlighted the thoughtfully matched drinks and personal service, with dishes presented by the chefs themselves.
Sturia Oscietra Caviar, Conscious valley beef tartare and 'Tartiflette' with Reblochon Mousse, Onion, potato, Bacon and Chives are some dishes included in the restaurant’s sample menu.
Logan Brown
A 2018 Stuff review called Logan Brown one of Wellington’s best, praising its grand former-bank setting on Cuba St, informed service, strong wine knowledge and food that remained current.
The review described it as innovative, using modern ingredients and techniques without losing the polish that made it a capital institution. A truffled goat’s cheese entree was singled out as pure art on a plate.
“Of course it also helps that this interior, uniquely, is a transplanted European palace – a Greek temple surmounted by a classical dome, which served as a branch of The National Bank right up until 1996,” the review read.
Michelin Guide also praised the restaurant’s signature ravioli filled with pāua abalone in lime beurre blanc and topped with fried kūmara sweet potato shreds.
Tussock Hill, Christchurch
Michelin Guide describes Tussock Hill as a boutique organic vineyard restaurant in Cashmere, with views over its grounds and across Christchurch.
Open for lunch only, it serves a small menu of sharing plates shaped by seasonal local produce and designed to complement its wines.
The guide points to house-made sourdough, beef carpaccio and wild-caught fish, saying the food connects closely with the craft of winemaking.
Sherwood, Queenstown
A review by Stuff’s chief travel correspondent Emma Stanford put Sherwood's garden at the centre of the experience.
The Queenstown restaurant's organic pantry, once a sparse plot, supplied ingredients that appeared almost immediately on the plate, from nasturtium leaves on a woodfired oyster mushroom flatbread to produce-led breakfast dishes.
“The star of the meal, however, is the Southern market fish—gurnard tonight—with snap peas and sorrel in an ocean of vermouth beurre blanc,” Stanford described her dinning experience.
“It is served, quite rightly, with a spoon. The sauce is so deliciously drinkable, I don’t want to leave a single drop behind.”
Kika, Wanaka
In a Neat Places guide from 2022, Kika was described as a dark, refined Wānaka dining room suited to an intimate meal.
The menu drew inspiration from Italy while allowing other flavours to appear across starters and mains, including fried chicken and elote.
Desserts were singled out as a reason to stay, with vanilla creme brulee and almond cookies and cream among the options.
Inati, Christchurch
Inati's chef's table format was described by Stuff’s Travel reporter Brook Sabin as one of Christchurch's best dining experiences, with diners seated around the kitchen and able to watch the team work.
The review focused on the boeuf-nut, a golden-fried brioche filled with braised beef cheek, finished with hazelnut praline and puffed beef tendon.
Its balance of salty beef and sweet outer layer made it one of the best dishes Sabin had eaten. The dish captured Inati's mix of theatre, confidence and clever comfort.
Paris Butter, Auckland
Metro magazine's review of Paris Butter described a restaurant that shows what fine dining can do when technique, experimentation and care line up.
The Herne Bay dining room was seen as refined without being stuffy, with snacks, bread and butter, hāpuku with scampi-filled pasta and koji beurre blanc, duck under a nori cracker and a citrus palate cleanser among the details.
Mudbrick, Waiheke Island
A Waiheke travel guide described Mudbrick as one of the island's most iconic and romantic destinations, perched above the Hauraki Gulf with views back towards Auckland.
The Michelin Guide describes the beetroot course in the menu as the highlight of it’s dinning experience “for its layered flavour, intriguingly varied forms and subdued earthiness. Opt for the wine pairings, which truly elevate the meal.”
Amisfield, Queenstown
A visit to Amisfield in 2022 by Stuff Travel found a fine-dining restaurant that could also work for a family lunch.
The a la carte menu was cooked largely over fire using Japanese coal, with dishes finished at the table and the outdoor setup visible from the dining area.
Pull-apart brioche came with truffle and cultured butters hidden among river stones, while smoked eel, wild tahr sausage, green-lipped mussel taco, flame-cooked asparagus and lamb carried the meal.
The children's mac and cheese was also praised as one of the country's best.