Restaurant Recommendations
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@canefan I was there early one morning winding down with some cocktails after a very long session and the guy I was with for some reason thought that the garnish was pineapple and a cherry.
So when he chewed down on the fiery chilli he thought to cool his mouth down with a knob of ginger. Barman and I were not sympathetic at all.
Akl has some very SE Asian fusion restaurants. Le Vietnamese Kitchen opposite Ponsonby Central is good in that area. Indochine Kitchen (more of a bar) in Fort St across from Ima's is also worth a visit.
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@jc said in Restaurant Recommendations:
@hooroo No Culprit tonight, my mate is making dinner for us instead. She better be a fucking great chef, is all I will say...
I do have a nice bottle of gin we're going to drink though.
Veddy nice!!! Mrs Hooroo is a gin fan and we have plenty of nearly full bottles as she tries to find her favourite.
I’m not a massive fan of gin but was given a Malfy Blood Orange gin with Tonic and it went down a treat.
We ended up doing a restaurant crawl instead of just eating at baduzzi. We had a starter at baduzzi and it was bangin. I had the shaved squid with white bean. Perfect. Then we scootered to about five other restaurants, finishing at gusto for dessert and we ended up sending it back and just having a couple of affogattos which are always a hit with me.
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@jc said in Restaurant Recommendations:
@snowy Myself and Mrs JC stayed at Huka about 2 years ago, in the Pye Cottage. Really nice but the butler service made me really uncomfortable. Good food though, as you say.
Didn't do the butler service thing, and yes I get that it would be a bit weird but fantastic food, as is Blanket Bay.
We have designed our house around Pye cottage. One of the Huka chef's to go with it would be nice.
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@snowy said in Restaurant Recommendations:
@hooroo Sounds like a good night.
These aren't really restaurants as such and I'm not sure whether you can book if not staying, but if you want to break the bank - Blanket Bay and Huka Lodge. Seriously good food.
It’s on the list to do. Netflix just finished a “Luxury Stays of NZ” type of program and we have marked a few down. We did treetops near Rotorua and while it was nice it wasn’t amazing.
Where is Blanket Bay?
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@hooroo said in Restaurant Recommendations:
Where is Blanket Bay?
Queenstown - well Glenorchy really. It was on "Lap of luxury" show as well. Owned by Tom Tusher who also used to own Amisfield vineyard. He was CEO of Levis jeans for years and is a really nice bloke. The whole story is interesting as he bought a large farm back in the 70's and has created a really lovely "subdivision", used that term loosely - they are large properties, and donated all of the high country stuff back to NZ as a national park I think. That might have been a condition of the sale as an overseas buyer, not sure, but it was a win win really and the Lodge is awesome. Mostly made from recycled bridges, wharfs, old wool sheds, etc. Beautifully done.
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@snowy said in Restaurant Recommendations:
@jc said in Restaurant Recommendations:
@snowy Myself and Mrs JC stayed at Huka about 2 years ago, in the Pye Cottage. Really nice but the butler service made me really uncomfortable. Good food though, as you say.
Didn't do the butler service thing, and yes I get that it would be a bit weird but fantastic food, as is Blanket Bay.
We have designed our house around Pye cottage. One of the Huka chef's to go with it would be nice.
I was a bit unnerved by getting up in the morning and there's someone else in the house. We couldn't just schlep through to the kitchen in PJs like we would have done if we were on our own. I get that that's our hangup, not their expectation. Maybe billionaires are used to ignoring staff... @Hooroo , that true?
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@jc Yeah that would be a bit off putting for me too. Kind of feel like you need to put a suit on to go and get some toast and a coffee.
The staff at both Huka and Blanket Bay were just so relaxed, just people. Happy to have a laugh, chat, etc, none of the "yes sir" type obsequious crap. Nobody wearing ties and jeans are fine. Very cool. The Robertson Lodges (Kauri cliffs, Cape Kidnappers - haven't stayed at Matakauri) are also great, with excellent food but I found them a little more formal. Only a bit though.
I know people complain about foreign ownership of these places but we wouldn't have them otherwise and they all have environmental policies, eco developments, etc. Even predator fences to help Kiwi populations at Kauri from memory.
Was nice to see that the Lodge was full of New Zealanders spending their overseas airfare money on a treat at home.
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@JC I don't know why that made me laugh but it did.
I'm unemployed as of 30th of April. Decided after nearly 12 years in the same business it was time for a change. I resigned a month or so ago to give them plenty of time to get organised.
I am not going to think about another job until I have had some time off to evaluate what I want to do as I have to enjoy my job
I haven't felt this relaxed in years! Pity I am sans $1b
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@jc said in Restaurant Recommendations:
@snowy said in Restaurant Recommendations:
@jc said in Restaurant Recommendations:
@snowy Myself and Mrs JC stayed at Huka about 2 years ago, in the Pye Cottage. Really nice but the butler service made me really uncomfortable. Good food though, as you say.
Didn't do the butler service thing, and yes I get that it would be a bit weird but fantastic food, as is Blanket Bay.
We have designed our house around Pye cottage. One of the Huka chef's to go with it would be nice.
I was a bit unnerved by getting up in the morning and there's someone else in the house. We couldn't just schlep through to the kitchen in PJs like we would have done if we were on our own. I get that that's our hangup, not their expectation. Maybe billionaires are used to ignoring staff... @Hooroo , that true?
Yeah, we had 4x staff during our 3mths in Bali last year. Beautiful people, and awesome to provide employment for them, but we HATED having people around the whole time. Ended up making them stay home on Sundays (fully paid) so we could at least have 1 day where we had the house to ourselves.
1st world problems!
