The top NZ restaurant bringing a taste of the Pacific to the plate
Wednesday, 22 October 2025
I’m the kind of person who checks the menu before I go out to eat. What sounds nice? What do I feel like?
At Tala in Auckland’s Parnell, I don’t recognise a single dish. With names like fa’apāpā, pisupo and vaisu, I have no idea what’s to come.
But I trust head chef Henry Onesemo, who trained in his home of Samoa and worked under renowned Kiwi chef Michael Meredith. Now acclaimed in his own right, Onesemo’s Tala earned three Hats in the Cuisine Good Food Awards in August.
The word ‘tala’ means story in Samoan and the Fāgogo Journey degustation menu tells one as we go through the courses.
It begins with a wedge of pineapple with sumac and chilli, a delicious juxtaposition of sweet and spicy. The accompanying smoked green apple juice surprises my taste buds with its savouriness.
Onesemo tells us that the pineapple reminds him of his childhood, picking fruit before it was ripe and eating it with sugar or salt.
An assortment of snacks follows: keke pua’a, a Samoan steamed bun traditionally filled with pork, reimagined with scallop, nduja and lime; quail eggs rolled in hay ash with carrot sauce; and taro crisps topped with curry and citrus bursts of pomelo.
‘Wow,’ we keep saying as each dish blows us away. So much thought has gone into each little morsel.
Samoa’s history is also charted through the menu. The inclusion of pisupo, which means corned beef, harks back to the German occupation of Samoa pre-World War I. Onesemo’s elevated take on it involves us cracking an ultra-thin red pepper and charcoal crisp to get to the 55-day dry-aged Sirloin tartare beneath.
From the same roots comes kopai, a dumpling inspired by the food Chinese labourers ate in the plantations. Tala’s mushroom version hides under a Parmesan mousse and is topped with fa’apāpā: a coconut and pineapple bread. What a flavour explosion in such a little dish.
Minutely-diced oka, Samoan raw fish is next, along with vaisu, a mussel cooked in caramelised coconut milk with pineapple vinaigrette, puffed buckwheat and seaweed. A “roadside BBQ,” served on a coconut leaf, closes the savoury chapter.
Before dessert, we pause for apa fafano, the Samoan tradition of water being poured over our hands in a sign of respect and hospitality. The water at Tala has essential oils added so our hands come out ultra soft.
The sweet story begins with pani popo - a coconut bun paired with banana ice cream, and koko Samoa - roasted koko beans served with macadamia cream and coffee meringue.
The grand finale arrives in a whole coconut, copra. Lifting the coconut lid, smoke comes out and all the flesh has been made into ice cream with lychees and a hint of liquorice running through.
It’s just more of the innovation Onesemo sprinkles into his dishes, making for a captivating plot twist.
Fact file
The Fāgogo Journey dégustation is $165 per person. Tala is at 235 Parnell Road, Auckland See tala.co.nz
The writer dined at Tala courtesy of Mastercard.