New Zealand has its first Michelin stars. The famous restaurant guide arrived in the country for the first time on Tuesday night, handing out stars to 15 restaurants stretching from Waiheke Island to Queenstown and turning a long-running rumour into a genuine moment of national pride for the hospitality trade.
The launch makes New Zealand the first country in Oceania to be covered by the guide, which has been rating restaurants around the world for more than a century. Inspectors had been quietly working their way around the country for months, eating anonymously and paying their own bills, before the results were revealed at a ceremony attended by chefs, owners and officials.
The biggest winner was Essence in Queenstown, the only restaurant in the country to be awarded two stars. The fine dining room sits inside the ROKI Collection luxury hotel and has only been open since September last year, which makes the result even more striking for such a young kitchen.
A further 14 restaurants were awarded a single star. In Auckland the list took in Ahi and Paris Butter in the city along with Tala, plus Mudbrick and Tantalus Estate over the water on Waiheke Island. Wellington picked up three stars through Jano Bistro, Logan Brown and Ortega Fish Shack. Christchurch was recognised with Inati and Tussock Hill, while the wider Queenstown and Central Otago area added Amisfield, Kika, Rātā and Sherwood.
One result drew attention well beyond these shores. Tala, an Auckland restaurant serving modern Samoan food, became the only Samoan restaurant anywhere in the world to hold a Michelin star. Co-owner and executive chef Henry Onesemo said it was \”such an honour for all of us at Tala\” and added that \”the world is ready for Samoan food\”. The win lands as a marker for Pacific cooking, which has often been celebrated at home but rarely placed on a global stage of this kind.
For some of the names on the list the recognition caps years of work. Rātā, the Queenstown restaurant founded by acclaimed chef Josh Emett, was among the one-star winners. Founder Fleur Caulton called it \”an incredible honour and a proud moment for everyone connected to Rātā\”. Logan Brown in Wellington, a fixture of the capital’s dining scene for decades, was another familiar name to feature.
The stars sat on top of a much longer list. Alongside the starred restaurants the guide handed out more than 30 Bib Gourmand awards, a category that rewards places offering very good food at a reasonable price rather than top-end dining. Dozens more were included in the wider selection, taking the debut selection to more than 100 restaurants across Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown.
Michelin’s international director Gwendal Poullennec said the inspectors judged every restaurant against the same five points used everywhere else in the world. He listed them as \”the quality of the ingredients, the mastery of cooking techniques, the harmony of flavours, the personality of the cuisine and the consistency both over time and across the menu\”. The guide stresses that a star reflects what is on the plate, not the tablecloths or the view, which is why a casual room can outscore a grand one.
Hospitality New Zealand chief executive Kristy Phillips described the arrival of the guide as a significant moment for the sector, noting that more than 100 restaurants had been recognised in the debut selection. For an industry that has had a hard few years through the pandemic, rising costs and softer spending, the timing of an international spotlight is welcome.
The government is hoping the stars translate into visitors. Tourism Minister Louise Upston said being included in the Michelin Guide was \”a mark of professional recognition\” for the restaurants involved, and the wider bet is that food-focused travellers will now add New Zealand to their list the way they already plan trips around restaurants in Tokyo, Paris or Singapore. Tourism remains one of the country’s largest export earners, and a strong food story gives the sector something fresh to sell.
There is a note of caution that comes with the celebration. Stars are reviewed every year, and the guide is just as willing to take them away as it is to hand them out. The pressure to hold a star can be intense, and kitchens overseas have spoken openly about the strain it places on staff. New Zealand’s winners now join that cycle, with inspectors due to return and judge them all over again next year.
For now though the mood is one of quiet pride. A small country at the bottom of the world, long used to sending its best chefs overseas, has had its own dining rooms judged against the same yardstick as the rest of the planet and come away with a handful of stars to show for it. You can read the full list at the 1News report on the awards and on the official Michelin Guide announcement.
Have you eaten at any of the starred restaurants, or is there a place you think the inspectors missed? Tell us in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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