Eight seats, two hats: The Green’s winning recipe

Tuesday, 23 September 2025

Some gave it six months. Two years later, The Green is fully booked until January and now carries two Cuisine hats.

When chef-owner Karl Martin-Boulton opened The Green in Hamilton East — an eight-seat chef’s table with one group a night and no rush to turn the table — plenty doubted it would work.

As he puts it: “We were only given 6 months, by quite a few people, to survive.” Instead, the tiny room overlooking the Waikato River has become one of the hottest tickets in the region and now sits among just 32 two-hatted restaurants nationwide.

In Waikato, it’s one of three, alongside The Bistro and Embra in Taupō.

Martin-Boulton didn’t want a conventional fine-dining set-up. He wanted a conversation. Guests sit with the chef, watch service unfold, and eat a six-course menu that often runs close to three hours.

“It’s been like a social experiment every night,” he says. “We want people to use their hands and lick the plates. I like to think of it as fun dining.”

Demand arrived quickly and snowballed. “We’ve been full since August 24th, 2023,” he says.

Diners started booking return visits before dessert. By October 2023, reservations stretched so far ahead the team paused new bookings to avoid inevitable cancellations. That only fuelled the frenzy. Around 600 people now sit on the cancellation list, hoping to slip into one of eight seats.

More than 3000 diners have come through the door, with many nights seeing more than half the room driving from Auckland. Others arrive from Wellington, Hawke’s Bay and Taranaki, and there’s a steady trickle from overseas too.

For Martin-Boulton, the restaurant’s success is tied to Hamilton’s momentum. “There's a potential for tourism around food industry in Hamilton,” he says.

“We look at the tourism in Wellington, it's got an incredible food scene, they've got great restaurants, they've got people pushing the boundaries and those people don't stop there. I go to Wellington to eat, it's fantastic, why not?

“I can't see why we can't do that. We have New Zealand's largest growing city.”

The hats, he adds, help make the case: “if we get recognition, the area gets recognition, and if the area gets recognition, more people are going to come here.”

On the plate, it’s unapologetically Waikato. The Green sources within a 100km radius wherever possible, dealing directly with small producers who phone to talk weather, seasons and what to plant next.

The menu holds steady for six to eight weeks so produce can shine, but stays nimble as crops ripen and fade.

There are two friendly fixtures: a playful pie course — sometimes oyster mushroom and black bean from a Hamilton farmers’ market regular, sometimes a cheeky take on mince-and-cheese — and a frozen whipped marshmallow pre-dessert that shifts with the seasons.

Recent highlights have included trevally sashimi caught the previous day, paired with pickled turnips from Matangi and Thai-green buttermilk made from the restaurant’s own butter; and Granny Smith apples from Newstead Orchard — the Waikato’s oldest — matched with pasta crisps, sorrel mayonnaise and a glossy “black apple” caramel that takes 12 weeks to make.

Regulars — about 30% each week — rarely get the same dish twice.

Vegetarian plates often steal the show, converting sceptics mid-meal.

“I don’t like mushroom normally, but I like that mushroom,” is the kind of thing he hears often.

Martin-Boulton’s journey started in his parents’ pubs in the UK — clearing glasses at four, bottling crates by eight — before stints in Michelin and rosetted kitchens, including his time at the Old Downton Lodge.

After returning to New Zealand six years ago, he worked at Ahi and Huka Lodge, then backed his hunch that Hamilton would embrace a slower, more intimate way to eat.

The Green serves one group per night at its chef’s table in Hamilton East. The tasting menu is $175 per person (food only).