Taste of tradition

One word sums up this Tauranga restaurant: Classic. A classic setting, classic cuisine, and classic vibes make it a local favourite for a reason.

words Hayley Barnett

Mention Harbourside to a Bay local and you’ll hear nothing but good things. As the pinnacle of traditional fine dining here, it offers everything you need from a waterfront eatery – stunning views, great food, friendly service, and a refined yet unpretentious vibe.

Having bought the restaurant back in 2011, husband and wife team Peter and Anita Ward know how lucky they are to own such a perfect spot on the Tauranga Harbour. There’s nothing else quite like it.

Peter had been managing Harbourside for four years when they jumped at the offer to purchase the restaurant. In that time he’d learned exactly what their clientele expected, mainly because they’d tell him.

“Consistency is key,” says Peter. “Even now, if you take something off the menu we’re nearly run out of town.”

The menu is full of classic dishes with a blend of Kiwiana and South Pacific tastes, as well as time-honoured European fare. Only slight variations are made during the change of menu each season.

“Many people here have traditional values and tastes and they simply want consistent quality,” explains Peter. “We provide that quality and consistency without throwing anything out there that’s too left field. It’s important to meet your market.”

Known for its simple fish and chips, these days other favourites consist of agresto crusted lamb backstrap and the popular Harbourside Seafood Chowder. This isn’t the place to come for an experimental, risky food adventure. Here you know what you’re getting every time.

It's all in the family for Harbourside, with Peter, Anita, Nicole and Cameron running the show.

And most of the staff stay consistent too. These days, it’s a family affair with Peter and Anita’s son, Cameron, running the kitchen as head chef, Cameron’s wife, Nicole, as maître d', and their son, 18-year-old Taylor, running the bar. Mixing family and business aligns with their ethos of providing a warm, welcoming atmosphere, where they treat their guests like family. It’s a formula that works and owner Peter isn’t about to do anything silly like change it.

“For us when we first arrived in Tauranga, Harbourside became our staple,” says Peter. “We’d get a table outside, order a wine and fish and chips. It was our favourite spot to be.”

That’s exactly what they want to continue offering to diners: a perfect experience in a tranquil setting, where you’re comfortable enough to order the fish and chips.

Harboursidetauranga.co.nz

On a roll

The Mount’s favourite sushi fusion restaurant and bar, Satori Lounge, has moved across the bridge to bigger, better and far more modern premises on The Strand.

Words Hayley Barnett

Lisa Wilson never pictured herself in hospitality, let alone owning and running one of the most popular sushi restaurants in the Bay. She didn’t even like raw fish. But, 13 years ago, that’s exactly what happened, and now she can’t imagine doing anything else.

“It was an accident, really,” says Lisa, gesturing towards her expansive, modern eatery on The Strand in Tauranga, which is right now heaving with the inner-city weekday lunch crowd.

“My ex is Chilean and sushi is huge in South America, so he talked me into giving him some of my savings to start a sushi restaurant in the Mount. Of course, he kept needing more and more money until eventually I didn’t have any savings left. And then we broke up!”

Lisa found herself having to quickly take the reins, all while working her day job in banking to stay afloat. 

After one too many reviews stating that the food was great but the service needed some work, Lisa realised she’d have to quit her day job and take on the restaurant full-time – and to stop responding to those reviews with “If you want quick service, head to McDonald’s.”

“It took me a while to learn that the customer is always right,” laughs Lisa.

Today is Tuesday – gluten-free day – at her new premises. It’s always been popular, but now that Satori Lounge has moved across the bridge, every day is popular.

It could be the new office crowds that she’s catering for, but I suggest it might be the fact that Satori Lounge has such a great reputation for fresh (and fast) sushi with a difference.

All the best dishes are still on the menu, like my personal favourites, the Citrus Sushi Roll and the Ceviche Sushi Roll,as well as the Honey Chicken Sushi Roll and, well, everything else.

“I don’t like to change the menu,” explains Lisa. “Chefs have tried but people know our menu and they like it, so why change it?”

It was the Citrus Sushi Roll that was responsible for Lisa’s about-turn on the raw fish front. She added more raw salmon little by little until her tastebuds agreed, and now it’s one of her favourite foods.

Though a change in menu won’t be on the cards, it seems the change in scenery is working to the restaurant’s advantage. Lisa even has plans to landscape the back into a garden area for diners with the help of Blair, her landscaping partner and father to her twin boys. 

So, whether you’re a hardcore sushi fan, or just keen to try the Honey Chicken Roll (the most popular dish), you’ll definitely find something to love about Satori Lounge. And say hi to Lisa if you see her fumbling around the bar area.

“I wasn’t cut out for hospitality,” she assures me. “I love talking to people too much!” Which is, funnily enough, what makes a restaurant so hospitable. That could be part of the reason this not-so-new eatery is really hitting the spot.  

satorilounge.co.nz

Rolling in the deep

Mount Maunganui welcomes a restaurant that really is worth its salt.

 WORDS Hayley Barnett

Walking into Saltwater, you can practically smell the sea air and hear the gentle clanging of the docks. Its nautical theming, all clean whites, crisp blues and deep wood instantly reminds you of where you are, and really gets your stomach grumbling for some of Aotearoa’s finest seafood.

There’s a lot to take in and the vibe is buzzing. Diners chatter, the open kitchen is a hive of activity and the lengthy ice bar tempts with a salivating range of freshly caught fish, oysters, scallops, mussels and other seafood delights. 

Everything about this seafood grill and oyster bar, that’s located in the middle of the main strip of Mount Maunganui, feels premium. Everything, that is, except the prices.

“We wanted it to be approachable. We didn’t want a pretentious seafood restaurant that most of the country
can’t go to,” co-owner Nick Potts says. “We wanted fish n’ chips, fish burger, Coromandel mussels. These are all great dishes but we didn’t want a price tag that was unattainable by the public.”

Along with his business partner Jay Thomas, they’ve given classic Kiwi kai an upmarket makeover while keeping a relaxed and welcoming vibe to the restaurant. Along with those favourites, there’s also more exotic dishes like grilled octopus, a soft shell crab burger and freshly prepared sashimi on offer.

And if fish isn’t your dining partner’s bag, there’s a range of non-seafood dishes to try, including Eye Fillet Carpaccio, a beef burger and a coconut curry.

But it’s hard to see your appetite returning to land after grazing the menu and its ocean treats. The calamari came in a jovially light batter and was served with Cajun mayo that had a delicious bite to it. My fiancé enjoyed the prawn po-boy so much he seriously considered ordering another and I couldn’t get enough of those ocean-fresh oysters and mussels. 

“We’ve tried to keep the seafood as the hero of the dish. We haven’t tried to overcomplicate it with huge flavours,” Nick explained. “It’s about the quality of the seafood we’re using. It’s about great food that anyone will enjoy.”

Nick also owns fine-dining restaurant Solera down the road so, as you’d expect, everything here is mouth-wateringly delicious. And, now that it's opened, it’s hard to believe there wasn’t a seafood restaurant of this quality here already. It seems such an obvious fit for the sea-loving folk who live in and around the Mount. 

saltwaterseafood.co.nz

Creating and innovating

Hospitality really is at the heart of this restaurant.

Words Nicky Adams Photos supplied

Bethlehem’s Somerset Cottage has something of a multi-faceted footing in the food world. In addition to offering an unforgettable dining experience, it runs cook schools and provides the option of accommodation in an architecturally designed adjoining studio. It is unique not just because of its ‘dine, learn, stay’ ethos, but also because, under owner/operator husband and wife team Anne and Rick, Somerset Cottage has been creating cherished food memories for over 36 years, which in hospitality is monumental. 

Anne and Rick are respectively front of house and chef, and a mutual respect of the importance of each other’s roles goes a long way in their recipe for success. Anne has a unique gift in that she combines an efficient professional manner with friendliness and open humour. Rick is reserved, with modesty masking his mastery and expertise. He is miles away from the stereotype of bullish, egotistical chefs – in fact the thought of him raising his voice, throwing a tanty or melting down over a split sauce is frankly laughable. 

This calm, understated vibe is what defines Somerset Cottage, and the fact that Anne and Rick actively shy away from the limelight is in some way what has allowed them to seamlessly evolve from the small BYO restaurant that started in July 1986, to offering the symbiotic foodie experience that they excel in today. 

With a keen eye on the advances in dining expectations, they understand the need to move with the times. As Anne points out; “We’ve evolved on a food front, but also on a wine front – the drinks are no longer just about wine, increasingly it’s about cocktails and non-alcoholic options. Food has progressed immensely: people’s dietary requirements have necessitated that. We’ve embraced a vegan menu – as a long-established restaurant you have to offer the dishes that you are strongly associated with, but at the same time if regular customers don’t see change, some of them critique that - hence our weekly menu that accommodates the seasons.” Ironically, a regular diner I spoke to tells me, she often feigns delight at the array – then circles back to the tried-and-tested favourite dish, Sauteed Squid, every time.

While the food is exquisite – so much so that my visiting best friend smuggled vacuum-packed items back to Melbourne with her – the cook schools are at once informative, interactive, engaging, and entertaining. Held with Rick demonstrating and Anne explaining, the intimate vibe and the wealth of knowledge means that even the most timid home cook comes away with tips and the know-how to recreate restaurant-quality dishes. After the cooking demonstration the group together enjoy a long lunch and paired wine: the bonhomie and jokes flow as freely as the wine, and Anne remarks with obvious pleasure that “it just works.”

With the cook schools attracting participants far and wide, Anne and Rick made the decision to build a loft-style studio next door. According to Anne, “We had a vision – a small, intimate space that’s all about the bush - a space to decompress.” Whether just for a ‘staycation’ or to visit the restaurant or cook school, it’s a stunning stand-alone experience.

With a stubborn determination to remain under the radar, Somerset Cottage is a beguiling mix. It offers world-class food yet prizes the relationships with its customers above any accolade. While moving with the times – you’ll find Anne gleefully telling tales of sourcing the latest New Zealand distilleries – some things haven’t changed for 30 years; you will no more find yourself charged for your side dish than be allocated a restricted dining time slot. You are here for the experience – and the team will do its best to ensure it’s an unforgettable one.

Somersetcottage.co.nz

Modern hearth cooking at Solera - Mount Maunganui’s exciting new restaurant in a wine bar setting

Truffle oil is being drizzled over cheesecake, polenta skewers toast happily on the hearth and a Jerusalem artichoke is being crowned with shards of fire-dried aubergine purée.

It’s all go in the kitchen at Solera, Mt Maunganui’s newish restaurant within a wine bar setting. And, if you (wisely) opt for one of the seats at the chef’s pass, get ready to watch a whole host of such culinary wonders unfold. Plus, the chefs are more than happy to dish up information about what they’re working on.

Solera is the baby of Chloe Ashman and Nick Potts – the result of an idea born out of lockdown. The couple moved to the Bay of Plenty a few years back, armed with years of impressive hospitality experience, Chloe as a sous chef at some of Melbourne’s best restaurants and Nick as a front-of-house manager. Managing a team of 60 in restaurants with serious credentials (among them those owned by top New Zealand chefs Nic Watt and Sean Connolly) was all in a day’s work for Nick. Initially, the couple had no intention of owning a restaurant, so worked at local establishments including Clarence and Fife Lane, but with last year’s lockdown came a lot of time for thinking. They thought it was time for a leap, noticing a potential gap in the Mount market. “We thought we may as well have our own place,” says Nick. “We knew what we wanted to open – we just gauged that by where we’d like to eat ourselves. We knew we wanted a wine bar setting, but Solera is very Melbournian in that it’s not just a bar. There’s something great to eat here too.”

It appears the multitudes concur. Solera bustles. Nick felt a restaurant with seating for about 40 was the way to go. “We have three chefs and three – and sometimes one more – working front of house, and with that number of seats, regardless of how busy you are, the same team can manage. Also important is the fact we’re open only five days a week, because I want the same chefs delivering their same food every time, so we can control consistency.”

Solera’s offering is described as “modern hearth cooking” and the menu is created around sharing plates. Head chef Neil Sapitula tells me the hot faves appear to be the ash-cured kingfish with ginger, coconut, kawakawa and lime; the roasted cauliflower with camembert, walnuts, parmesan and pine nuts; and the apple and pear tarte tatin with ginger and kaffir lime ice- cream. As for Neil’s favourite – that’d be the Jerusalem artichoke with aubergine, kimchi and chili. Neil hails from the Philippines and has also worked in restaurants of high repute, in Hong Kong and Indonesia. He’s ably assisted by Kiwi chef Cameron McKenzie, with Nicolo Batani adding some Italian to the mix. The trio is united in prioritising flavour over technique and presentation. There’s also a focus on fermentation – cases in point being the inclusion of the aforementioned kimchi, and the shiitake mushrooms that are pickled, smoked on the fire, then added to the pork belly skewer. Most items on the menu have a slight Asian influence – the wagyu beef, for example, is marinated with soy and togarashi spice mix.

The kitchen’s big open fire is fed with mānuka and oak timber, and incorporated as much as possible in the cooking (which is also a delightful spectacle). The kingfish cured by ash from the night before is but one example. There’s a strong commitment to local ingredients and the menus are printed in-house, so they’re easy to alter to suit what’s in season. There’s certainly plenty to raise your glass to at Solera, and of course that includes the incredible wines. The unique list celebrates New Zealand drops and includes grape varieties many diners may not be so familiar with, exclusively from smaller wineries. Chenin blanc, malbec and viognier are joined by chilled red wine and an orange wine (white wine made the same way as a red.) All are offered as a standard 150ml pour and as a 100ml pour, with the latter geared towards those who are driving or wishing to try a larger variety of wines. There are cocktails too. Solera has been in business since Easter, but word has spread, and Chloe and Nick are happy to report that “it’s going very well for us.” Diners like me can only say, “Thank you very much.”

SOLERA.NZ

The Inaugural Bluff Oyster Bash at Clarence Hotel

What: Bluff Oyster Bash

Where: Clarence Bistro, Tauranga

PHOTOS Pablo Creative

At this inaugural event, guests enjoyed free flow live shucked Bluff Oysters and a selection of seafood finger food along with champagne and entertainment throughout the night. UNO Publisher Mat Tomlinson attended; calling the event an absolute must-do next year.

“It ran through the afternoon well into the evening; everyone was dressed up and there was a real sense of fun and glamour - there must have been over 100 dozen oysters the team were shucking like maniacs, it was amazing!”

CLARENCETAURANGA.CO.NZ

From plot to plate at The Orchard House

Food, flavour and the environmental footprint come first at café and restaurant The Orchard House.

WORDS Monique Balvert-O’Connor PHOTOS Salina Galvan

Thanks to its owners’ kitchen wizardry and the expansive areas they’ve dedicated to growing fruit and vegetables, popular State Highway 2 food stop The Orchard House boasts both great food and an admirable environmental footprint. The journey from plot to plate is a mere 80m or so, or about 10 steps in the case of the herb gardens. The menu is seasonal, strongly influenced by what’s flourishing on home turf. 

Eco-conscious Frances and Josh van Loon love how their prolific garden and mini orchard just north of Katikati enable so many homegrown inclusions on their menu, like the red capsicum relish that accompanies their gluten-free crumpets made on site and served with spinach, grilled halloumi, a soft-boiled egg and avocado purée. Comprising greens from the garden and house-made vegan sausages with port gravy, their bangers and mash are vegan and gluten free; Tangled Greens and Plant Lovers are among the other options up for grabs. Josh, who trained as a chef, enjoys adding some “left-field” items to the menu – and intrigue to their names too, such as the Sweet As Bro burger and Pear of Nuts salad. 

They’re all options on the daytime menu, but the licensed establishment now offers a dinner service as well, much to the pleasure of many locals and passers-by. Although other eateries have operated on this site, which started life as an orchard and vege market, the à la carte dinner menu is a first.

All this means weekends look a whole lot better up Katikati way, with The Orchard House open for dinner on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Takeaway roast meals are available on those nights too, and tapas served from 3-5pm. Brunch and lunch are a seven-days-a-week thing, there’s a catering service that gives patrons the opportunity to order cakes, and the venue is available to hire for functions.

The space has a vintage-meets-modern aesthetic appeal and a cosy ambience destined to please over the cooler months. On warmer throw-open-the-doors days, there’s alfresco space aplenty in the courtyard and at the tables under the trees. Children wanting to stretch their legs are well catered for with a fort, and games including swingball and croquet. They have to share the grass area with Krumpet, though, the resident pet goat.

Frances and Josh thoroughly enjoy their slice of rural life and the fact there’s room for Krumpet and their two cats, kitten and chicken. Josh’s parents, John and Therese, relish having their family close by and help out by maintaining the gardens.

For Josh, the eatery offers a return to his craft. He’d taken a break to operate a car valet business and work in sales. Frances also worked in sales and has waitressing experience, so has a strong customer service background. Today, the two are united in their commitment to offering quality food and service, being mindful of their business’ environmental footprint and being a cruelty-free zone.

Where possible they use free-range meat and their menus feature a variety of vegetarian, vegan and dairy-free dishes. They use sustainable and environmentally friendly packaging, charge for takeaway packaging and offer discounts when customers bring their own containers. They reuse as much plastic as possible and have recycling nailed. Their drinks fridge is filled with glass bottles only and they refill any bottles brought in by customers free of charge. And as far as they’re concerned, local produce suppliers – and their gardens – rule!

ORCHARDHOUSECAFE.CO.NZ

New restaurants Fire and No.8 bring an international influence to the main Mount strip

WORDS Jenny Rudd PHOTOS LOTTIE HEDLEY

There’s a casual glamour to both the Mount’s newest restaurants Fire and No.8 and their owners Lloyd Rooney and Mike Fraser.

Lloyd and Mike are dashingly handsome men, and their stories about life before owning a string of six restaurants dotted around the North Island are memoir-worthy. Lloyd joined the hospitality industry as a waiter at what was then one of the hottest spots in London, Café Delancey.

“I was 23 years old,” he says. “It was the place to go on a Sunday – there’d be a queue an hour-long down Camden High Street. I loved it and it came very naturally to me. I knew how to give every customer a great experience while turning the tables over quickly and keeping everyone in the kitchen on side.”

The Brit subsequently went on to run famous Primrose Hill gastropub The Engineer for Tamsin Olivier, daughter of Sir Laurence, then bought his own pub next to Lord’s cricket ground. While studying law by day, he worked full-time in a theatre in the West End at night, looking after celebrities and the Royal Family in the box. After running an interior design business with studios in upmarket Chelsea and Islington, Lloyd met Kiwi Mike. The couple eventually moved to New Zealand and bought a farm in the Waikato, called Highgate.

“One minute I was styling the interior of a three-storey London townhouse, the next I was drenching calves in my welly boots!” says Lloyd. “I remember one day rescuing a heifer that’d got stuck down the road, with my dog Jetson and my goat Crusty, and thinking how much things had changed.”

“We had Highgate for eight years, and it took a while for the Waikato farmers to get used to Lloyd,” says Mike. “In the early days, we organised a fancy-dress party at the local club, and Lloyd turned up in head-to-toe white glitter and angel wings!” This morning, Lloyd has arrived at the Mount with a car full of vegetables and meat. “Mike grows herbs and vegetables for all our restaurants; the boot’s full of coriander, chillies and capsicums,” he says. “Our head chef at The Dune in Mangawhai is smoking meat round the clock now to keep up with all the restaurants. That gate-to-plate aspect is important to us. It’s certainly not the easiest way of doing things, but we know that it elevates the dining experience.”

I’ve eaten at both Fire and No.8 (not to mention Lloyd and Mike’s Whangarei eatery The Quay – I know, tough gig), and each has its own pretty cool thing going on.

Fire serves European-style brasserie food in elegant surroundings with more than a touch of ’70s glamour. Upstairs in the two- storey restaurant, copper lights hang like clustered planets from the ceiling. The view up here is pretty special; because it’s a new building, this outlook of the main street and Mt Drury hasn’t been seen before. By day, the glass facade lets the blue sky set off the rich gold and chocolates of the interior. Lloyd has designed all of his and Mike’s restaurants himself.

“After 12 years spent designing beautiful homes in London, I had the opportunity to bring some of those elements into my restaurants,” he says. “In fact, Fire looks a lot like one of my client’s houses in Islington. I think he’d feel very at home if he came for dinner!”

“With Fire, we wanted to create a beautiful, glamorous and sophisticated restaurant that offers a casual dining experience,” says Mike. “Here, you can dine in a group where one person orders duck confit and another orders a pizza. We want everyone to feel welcome here.” Head chef Shane Kearns, who oversees the kitchens at both Fire and No.8, has recently changed the menu for the winter months, so you can look forward to dishes such as lamb rump with smoked aubergine and cashew parmesan, and my favourite, the entrée of pork rillette with marinated prawns, orange purée and coriander shoots.

Whereas Fire’s menu envelops you in the delicious warmth of decades of nostalgia, No.8’s Asian fusion wakes you up by looking to the future. From Europe to Asia in about 20 paces, Lloyd has had some fun designing this restaurant. The bamboo-print wallpaper and pops of red in the lighting and glass candle holders feel mysterious yet modern. Located on the building’s ground floor (with Fire next door and on the floor above), No. 8 spills out onto the long terrace that it shares with Fire. It’s covered and has heaters running its length, so you can eat and drink outside whatever the weather.

No. 8’s menu includes all sorts of exciting goodies and you’re encouraged to order plates to share. I have a friend who doesn’t like sharing and always keeps his satay chicken thigh with peanut sambal and lime slaw to himself. Fair enough – we’ll just order more. If you don’t want to be in and out in a hurry, I suggest you book the banquet. You won’t need breakfast the next day. “With Asian fusion, there’s still so much experimenting to be done,” says Lloyd. “You can take it in so many different directions and Shane can innovate to his heart’s content.” The stand-out dish for me happens to be a vegan creation: eggplant tempura with vinegar Sichuan caramel. It’s a crunchy hit of sweet and sour that my brain tells me I need more of.

Every one of the staff at Fire and No.8 looks happy to be there, and it shows in how well each diner is looked after. Lloyd and Mike have just taken the Mount food scene to the next level.

You’ll find Fire and No.8 on the main Mount strip at 113 Maunganui Road. To find out more, visit: FIREATTHEMOUNT.CO.NZ NO8MOUNT.CO.NZ @FIREATTHEMOUNT @NUMBER8ATTHEMOUNT

You’ll never want to leave: Clarence Hotel + Bistro

WORDS Jenny Rudd PHOTOS JARED DOBBS + TRACIE HEASMAN + QUINN O’CONNELL

It’s almost worth going to the Clarence Hotel & Bistro simply for the experience of walking up the grand steps that dissect the long, green-fringed veranda. You just know there’s something significant at the top.

Clarence’s owners Kim Smythe and Noel Cimadom recall feeling the same a few years ago when standing outside what was once Tauranga’s post office. “The building has been in Kim’s family trust for a long time,” says Noel. “We’d already transformed the beautiful old post office in Cambridge into our first restaurant, Alpino, so it’s become a family joke now we’ve done the same here.”

Walking in, you can turn left for the bistro, an elegant dining room serving European brasserie-style food with a Kiwi slant; head up the stairs to the 10 individually styled hotel rooms; or hang a right to Iki, the bar and eatery that sees a constant flow of people from morning till night. With an art deco nod to the building’s heritage, Iki is an opulent scene filled with hints of gold, pops of neon purple and dark velvet. It’s like stepping into another world; you’ll feel miles away from the city.

The heart of the space is arguably the ancient coffee machine at the end of the bar. She’s a grand old dame, too old to make coffee these days, but nevertheless loved for her stately aesthetic.

“I had the same machine at a café I ran when I lived in Munich,” says Noel. “It was designed in Venice and made in Portugal in the ’70s. When we were looking for pieces for Iki, I went on eBay to find it and discovered there were two in the entire world – one in Las Vegas, and one in Taupo. I drove down to Taupo the next day to pick it up.”

At lunchtime, local suits drop into Iki to enjoy its quick and easy Eurasian street food menu, starring favourite dishes like barbecue pork belly skewers with apple and fennel salad. At about 3pm, the after-work crowd begins to pour in, spilling out onto the deck under the blue sky, green palms and glass roof that keeps the rain out and warmth in, giving you the choice to socialise al fresco year-round.

When the sun’s shining on Friday nights, you’ll find a DJ outside playing smooth beats. And should you end up slightly over-served after an evening at Iki or in the bistro, simply book yourself into one of Clarence’s designer rooms and enjoy eggs and pancakes on the veranda in the morning. You’ll never want to leave.

For the hotel, book online; for the bistro, book online; for Iki, just turn up! Visit: CLARENCETAURANGA.CO.NZ