Our Favourite Businesses Dishing Up Māori Cuisine

The Hāngi Shop has created a menu that combines both traditional Māori cuisine with a contemporary cooking style. They expertly replicate the authentic flavours of Māori cuisine throughout their menu. The Hāngi Shop cooks up both a hearty boil up as well as beautifully smoked hāngi dishes. For your hāngi, choose between pork and chicken or lamb and chicken. This dish is served with potatoes, kumara, pumpkin, cabbage and stuffing. For the boil up you have a choice between brisket or pork bones; alongside potatoes, kumara, watercress, doughboys and broth. The Hāngi Shop also has Nanny’s rēwena bread; the perfect companion for both the boil up and hāngi. There’s also toasted sammies available, an ideal snack if you’re on the move but can’t resist a drop-by. 

Ahi is a sophisticated yet laid back restaurant celebrating the traditional cuisine of Aotearoa while embracing a modern approach with their innovative menu. Each dish is created using locally sourced produce, meaning the menu is likely to change with the seasons. Every change to the menu brings new and exciting options to dive into. Kaimoana (seafood) plays a large role in Ahi’s menu with plates like the scampi corndog with Brody sauce, and natural oysters served with granny smith and chardonnay ice, or the hāngi pāua with smoked kahawai and sour cream. These are just the snack options; the mains are even more indulgent. One stand-out dish is the BBQ’d quail with kiwifruit kasundi, artichoke and crispy cabbage.

Blue Rose Café specialises in the fusion of Pacific and Māori cuisine with a twist, their menu celebrates the distinct flavours and styles from both cultures. Blue Rose Café has incorporated our favourite traditional Māori cuisine into their famous pies. Imagine a buttery, flake-y pastry containing hāngi-cooked pork stuffing, perfectly smoked alongside potatoes, kumara and pumpkin – it’s everything we’ve ever wanted. Blue Rose Café also has a boil up fashioned pie made with bacon bones and watercress, unreal!

Our Land is Alive celebrates all New Zealand has to offer, from their modern interior of native fauna to a menu that boasts exclusively Kiwi produce. With a large selection of dishes from both the land and the ocean you can experience everything our country has to offer. Begin the evening with a light snack, the Waiheke oysters are freshly shucked and incredibly creamy. In the Big Plates section of the menu, you’ll find many standout dishes like the 12-hour slow roasted lamb, however it’s the down to earth pumpkin that catches our eye. This dish is created using the Hāngi-style of cooking, providing a distinct earthy and smoky flavour. The roasted pumpkin is served with silver beets, coconut cream, chilli and coriander.