Wining and dining in Hawke’s Bay

Thistles and Kiwis,

If you enjoy good food and wine, Hawke’s Bay is the place to go. There are excellent restaurants, interesting shopping, farmers’ markets and, of course, it is home to some well-known vineyards.

A wine tasting tour

The region is New Zealand’s oldest and second largest wine region and now has around 75 wineries and 35 cellar doors (according to a leaflet I picked up). We have done a few wine tasting tours here, and as we were uncertain what the weather was going to be like, we booked another one this time.

Our first stop was Mission Estate, the oldest winery in New Zealand, established in 1851 by Marist Brothers. The top left picture below is the view from the gardens, and the white building you can see below is the restaurant, tasting rooms and other parts of the winery. There is a fascinating story about how the building was moved to its present site, which I think should be on their website if you are interested (it was cut up into bits and moved then put back together).

We then went to Brookfields Vineyard, where we also stopped for lunch: see pictures at the top right and the smoked salmon dish (Karl had pork belly). The fun notice Treat Yo’self was spotted there – very apt! We also went to Paritua (bottom left), Junction Wines, Trinity Hill and Ashridge.

Time for fish

A favourite place of mine to eat in Napier is Hunger Monger, situated in the city centre on the water front. It is a seafood restaurant, serving food with wonderful fresh flavours. Since we were on holiday, I treated myself to half a dozen oysters to start, and then yellow curry with grilled sweet corn, potato, roasted eggplant (or aubergine), peas, cashew buts and basil topped with the grilled fish of the day. Karl had fish and chips, and we both thoroughly enjoyed our food.

And more fine dining

On our final evening, we headed over to Central Fire Station Bistro, which was awarded two hats in last year’s Cuisine magazine awards. It had been on my list of places to go to for a while, so I was pleased it was open on this trip. Dear readers, I could not help it, but had oysters again. Karl had the manchego croquettes which got a rave review. For my main dish I opted for the market fish (flounder) with smoked fish gratin, peas, courgettes and a tartare beurre blanc. This was absolutely divine. Karl had the confit duck leg with chicken sausage and pickled cherries which he also enjoyed. I drank chenin blanc and Karl malbec, both from Hawke’s Bay producers.

Food shopping

As well as eating, we also went food shopping, filling up bags for the back of the car. I picked up a small bag of organic Canadian cranberries and these amazing dried apricots from Otago that are so superior to supermarket ones (also reflected in the price…) from Chantal in Napier. When we were in Havelock North, we popped into Bellatino’s Food Lovers Market, a gorgeous little deli with a lot of local produce. I picked up some interesting looking house made tamarillo vinaigrette and some olives from Telegraph Hill.

We also went to one of my favourite food shops, Vetro, where I could have spent a fortune, and take a good hour just browsing. The shop sits behind this fountain and citrus tree.

I limited myself to three different types of sardines, a tube of anchovy paste, one packet of pasta (I was very good), a bag of farro (which I want to try cooking with), a jar of roasted red peppers (I have half a jar left in the fridge, but, you know….), some flaked almonds and some pink peppercorns which I decanted into a jar when we got home.

Now we are home, and the menu for this week looks like pasta, sausages and something with chicken. Ah well….we can but plan our next treats!

Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer, good food and pretends to garden.

You can find Thistles and Kiwis on Facebook, and also on Instagram @thistlesandkiwis.

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Published by Thistles and Kiwis

Loves summer, sunshine and cats. Beginner gardener, likes eating, cooking and reading about food

24 Comments

  2. I’ve never been but sounds like a great place to put on my list. I would be in a dilemma about what to choose off the menu as it all sounds delicious 😋

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  4. A delightful post as always. I enjoy planning our meals for the week – and am duly impressed with your encounters with food and wine in Hawkes Bay!

    Liked by 1 person

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  5. What a fantastic food adventure you had! Oysters sound delicious. Gosh, it’s been so long since I had some. Maybe on a special occasion, I can get some.
    The history of the building being transferred bit by bit and put together sounds interesting. That kind of information should be added on their website!!

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    1. These were oysters from north of Hawke’s Bay and were very good. The best oysters in NZ are considered to be from Bluff down south.

      The Mission building was cut into eleven sections and rolled on logs and pulled by traction engines. The journey, just under 5kms took two days – I found that on their website but you have to search a bit!

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  10. Gosh last time we were in Napier it was very brief, only for the day. Can’t say I’ve tried pink peppercorns though but they would be nice in cooking.

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