Legendary food critic David Burton honoured for King's Birthday

Monday, 2 June 2025

A legendary restaurant critic has been recognised for his decades spent writing about the capital’s hospitality scene.

David Burton has been named an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to food writing.

Over four decades, Burton wrote hundreds of reviews on Wellington’s restaurant scene. Some were more well received than others, Burton joked.

In a review of Wellington’s first licenced fine dining restaurant he called the quail he had ordered tough and gristly ‒the chef had been less than happy at the write up, he said.

It was the right of the restaurant critic to express an honest opinion, provided it wasn’t done in malice, Burton said.

That’s all his work was: the expression of his honest opinion, he said.

“If told you anything different from what I've written, in my view, about a place, I wasn't doing my job. When I said a place was excellent, I meant it was excellent. When I said it was shit, I meant it was shit.”

Although the writer was hauled up before his editor a few times ‒ Burton remembers four legal threats in response to his reviews - that’s as far as it went, he said.

Burton told The Post he was delighted and humbled to be named a recipient of the royal honour, saying it was the proudest moment of his life ‒ aside from his wedding day.

He thanked his wife, Andrea Bailey, and former Dominion Post editor Tim Pankhurst for navigating him through waters both calm and stormy, alongside his current editor Kelli Brett and publisher Faber & Faber.

Burton also thanked the capital’s hospitality industry, for having fed him ‒ and suffered him ‒ over the past 40 years, he joked.

“It is true that I have already received recognition in the form of journalism and book awards, but these 28 squares of cardboard are nothing beside this promise of an exquisitely enamelled piece of male bling from King Charles III himself,” the writer said.

Having grown up in Nelson, Burton was influenced by his father, who owned a catering business, he said, providing French cuisine to locals who were unused to that sort of food.

His father had been exposed to fine dining and bistro culture while stationed in Egypt during World War II, he said.

Burton worked as a chef for four years, in New Zealand and London, before landing a press gig with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which eventually led him to a role at the Evening Post.

He started as a food columnist and one of several restaurant critics for the Evening Post, Burton said, eventually becoming the only one, serving at the masthead (which became the Dominion Post) from 1982 to 2018.

There were relatively few restaurants that were irredeemably awful, Burton said. If the fish was fresh and the steak frites were perfect, in the interest of honesty it was only fair that he let people know about it.

The rise of the internet may have eaten into the role of restaurant critic, but Burton is still going strong, working for foodie mag Cuisine.

He has also published a number of books on food history, exploring New Zealand’s cuisine as it developed over the years.

While Wellington’s hospitality scene had greatly changed since its 1980s heyday, Burton said the industry was filled with people who loved food.

“People go into it because they're passionate about it, and they really do want to provide a good experience for people. It's not just about money.”