Review Pasture - Auckland Central

A beautiful meal at Pasture. The menu is innovative and unique - many dishes challenge the thinking on flavour combinations, but were delicious and truely an experience to consume. The wine pairings all matched the dishes well and were generously poured. The service was attentive without being overbearing and the ambience was great. Looking forward to returning some day.

Decided to come here because it was my last chance before I left Auckland. They were very supporting of my last minute booking, considered I booked only 8 hours before service. First impressions were excellent, decor was very cost, introduction was great. The chef made the ambience very friendly. For me, considering it's my first experience in these kind of high number of courses with drinks matching, it wasn't to my expectations. I had heard high reviews from colleagues about this place, but out of the 14 courses I had, I like only 5-6 of them. That said, considering it was my first experience, it could be that I just wasn't used to the unique flavours that the chef wanted to present. The high rating was for everything else. I'm not that picky about my food, I just about eat everything that's not green. I did surprisingly like the greens that were served in most courses. Overall, would recommend to others to dine in Pasture.

Unbelievable, Ed and the team always take it to the next level. Pictures really don't do the amazing quality, attention to detail or sheer gumption of the team. The food is excellent, the drinks match are excellent. I haven't been so satisfied by a meal as I am when I come here. I can't wait to come back for .y third time.

A very different dining experience but amazing. Exquisite ingredients prepared and served in ways you would never image. Wine matching was excellent. Staff were amazing. On the pricey side for dining but definitely worth every cent.

Epic experience, have been 4-5 times now, planning on going back for the next seasonal menu. Pasture isn’t just the food, it’s also the service, the conversations, and the sheer creativity. It’s a “food experience”, and there’s certainly nothing in NZ that can compare.

Oh, my. The most exquisitely personally curated meal I've had in NZ. The service and attention to detail throughout is extraordinary, and it's clearly based on the tastes and interests of a singular mind who is exploring ideas that they like. GET THE DRINKS MATCH - the meal is only half complete without the matching beverages. Best dishes: The Pig Crumpet (cooked in pork fat, topped with pig liver pate and house pancetta), the sourdough with the blue-cheesy 13 month aged butter, the house made chilli liqueur that tastes like distilled capsicum. Lots of interesting drinks - raw and fermenting wines are a favourite - lots of sour and simple flavours. Less salt than I might prefer, less greenery than I might prefer (but it is winter), less acid than I might prefer - but these are MY preference; that's not what we're here to have. We're here for personable chef Ed Verner's preferences, and they are EXCELLENT. Thanks for sharing them with us, Ed!

We had the fish sandwich and the salmon on rye. We really enjoyed the balanced and comforting flavors. There were also some tempting donuts (smoked raspberry, sorrel cream options), pastries and bread to buy on the spot.

With one set menu designed for the season and talented chefs using various techniques such as cooking with wood-fire, fermentation, dry-aging and cheese making, your meal at Pasture is one of its kind. The restaurant only seat 6 and takes two seating times at 5:45PM and 8:15PM. Instead of seating at secluded tables hidden in the dining room, you’re in the middle of it all at the Chef’s Counter where you can directly engage with the kitchen. Booking a table pre-COVID has always been a hard task with the weekends being taken up as soon as bookings become available. We managed to get a table as soon as they started taking reservations under level one - Understandable as this award winning restaurant is well praised in the dining community (3 Hats in Cuisine, 2019 Metro Restaurant of the Year,  Best Chef & Fine Dining Restaurant) My meal at Pasture last Sunday was exceptional. We paired our meal with a non-alcoholic pairing and was thrilled at the creative choices of matches of beverage to dish. Each dish is surprising and innovative, creative with attention to detail. Watching the chefs elegantly assemble and prepare your meal right in front of you is a real treat. If you have any dietary requirements, this might not be suitable for you. I haven’t eaten a banana in 20 years and have managed to avoid red meat for the last 6 months. This changed last night and I have no regrets. The set menu also sets you back $250 and the non-alcoholic pairing is another $70 per person. It’s not a cheap meal. Do I love and recommend it? Yes! Would I be back next season when the menu change? When my wallet recovers

always a treat Pasture will always feels like a celebration the passion and the dedication of the people behind it speaks to how wonderfully curated the experience is very well thought out dishes and beverage pairing something about your food being prepared Infront of you is a bold call that I always want Pasture provides a fully orchestrated experience from the moment you enter Boxer you have been taken care of

Really excellent, thoughtful meal. Clever mix of fresh and unusual flavours. Wonderful grey mullet, superb aged wagyu. All prepared by Ed and team while you watch. Restaurant only seats six and is only going to get busier!! Go while you can. This is a fabulous experience. We had 1x wine pairing and 1x non-alcoholic pairing. Clever housemade drinks and combinations really made the night.

It was amazing food and ed was a great chef with amazing talents and very friendly while cooking we got a little spoiled because it was the last day of season so we got a little more steak but overall amazing restaurant.

Nice and exciting restaurant in Auckland. Updates their menu every season. Great food quality and warm atmosphere. Happy to go again.

We spent the evening here last weekend after having our first experience back in 2020 and it was as amazing as we remembered, if not even better. Every single dish is absolutely extraordinary, the chefs put their everything in to every dish and it is worth every dollar. The service and atmosphere is beyond fantastic. A perfect evening for two new parents who don’t get to venture out very often these days. We cannot wait to return.

There are simply no words that can explain this dining experience. We have eaten all around the world and this surpassed anything we have ever tried before. The precision and dedication the chefs put into every single morsel you eat is out of this world. Every single bite is full of flavour. Everything is fresh and worth trying, even if you never liked that food before. Not only is the food amazing but the whole experience is a one of a kind. If you consider yourself a foodie, you need to go to Pasture. The food, the experience, just everything is perfect. From the curve of the spoon to the beautiful glass wear, everything is perfection.

This was out singular Auckland culinary experience. From the moment we arrived, Pierre and his chef-led operation made us bite after bite and served us glass after glass of superb taste, texture and titillation. We are up to 25 Michelin stars at this point. We can easily suggest two stars for Pasture. Many thanks for a wonderful evening.

This was one of the best tasting menus I have had, plus an exceptional drinks pairing. With 15 courses presented only a fool would expect everything to their exact taste, but this came damned close. A superb experience, thank you

One of the best dining experiences I have ever had in Auckland. Beautiful presentation of exceptional quality food. As the menu changes almost daily it's not possible to make recommendations but the wagu beef was unbelievably good. Very expensive but totally worth it if you have something special worth celebrating.

Just phenomenal. High expectations surpassed. Consistent as well though the service. Drink pairing matched so well with the food

With one set menu designed for the season and talented chefs using various techniques such as cooking with wood-fire, fermentation, dry-aging and cheese making, your meal at Pasture is one of its kind. The restaurant only seat 6 and takes two seating times at 5:45PM and 8:15PM. Instead of seating at secluded tables hidden in the dining room, you’re in the middle of it all at the Chef’s Counter where you can directly engage with the kitchen.<br/><br/> <br/><br/>Booking a table pre-COVID has always been a hard task with the weekends being taken up as soon as bookings become available. We managed to get a table as soon as they started taking reservations under level one - Understandable as this award winning restaurant is well praised in the dining community (3 Hats in Cuisine, 2019 Metro Restaurant of the Year, Best Chef & Fine Dining Restaurant)<br/><br/> <br/><br/>My meal at Pasture last Sunday was exceptional. We paired our meal with a non-alcoholic pairing and was thrilled at the creative choices of matches of beverage to dish. Each dish is surprising and innovative, creative with attention to detail. Watching the chefs elegantly assemble and prepare your meal right in front of you is a real treat. <br/><br/> <br/><br/>If you have any dietary requirements, this might not be suitable for you. I haven’t eaten a banana in 20 years and have managed to avoid red meat for the last 6 months. This changed last night and I have no regrets. The set menu also sets you back $250 and the non-alcoholic pairing is another $70 per person. It’s not a cheap meal.<br/><br/> <br/><br/>Do I love and recommend it? Yes!<br/><br/>Would I be back next season when the menu change? When my wallet recovers<br/>

One of my best food experience so far. A great team, great products and innovative way to cook. If I wasn’t leaving on the other side of the world. I would love to try every new menu to discover with which new idea the team at Pasture came.

Auckland's very own Wuhan esque wetmarket selling live lobsters for DIY slaughter at home. This is cruel and gross.<br/><br/>Responsibility needs to be taken by this establishment to support clean and ethical food standards. To continue this practise despite backlash is arrogant. Legal does not always mean ethical.

New Zealand’s fine dining scene has come a long way. When I grew up in Auckland circa late 80’s – early 90’s, haute cuisine meant the local Chinese restaurant (and honestly, we weren’t complaining). Fast forward to 2020 and Auckland boasts a chef’s counter restaurant extraordinaire with a mere six seats per sitting, accommodating a total of just 60 fortunate diners per week…that restaurant is Parnell’s Pasture.

Had an amazing, unique and memorable experience tonight at pasture. The food was incredible, the team definitely pushed limited and experimented with their ingredients. I lovely how their menu is a secret, purely because they use the most seasonal ingredients when designing their menu. I’d love to go back in a different season to try out the difference. I would say, go with an open mind and be ready to explore.<br/>Ed and his team had excellent service. They were attentive and very accommodating. Watching them work in the kitchen was fascinating. Everyone can and would step in and be part of the process to prepare each dish.<br/>Lastly, I cannot say which is my favorite dish as it cannot be described with a singular. As the menu is kept secret I would not spoil it for you, but attach photo as an indication of what to expect.

Liked the first impressions, ambience, and service. Very friendly, very welcoming. Was my first experience of this kind, and was an eye opener in a good way. Food wise, I LOVED the select few, and could make do with the rest. Didn't hate any of it, maybe just 1 course (steak was a little too raw for me, and chewy). Surprisingly enjoyed the greens that some courses served with, considering I avoid greens.

Had the most amazing dining experience @pasture_akl this week. It was a 3-hour culinary show, 🐼enjoyed every second of it! Some of my favorite dishes are photographed 1️⃣ Smoked Blue Mackerel 2️⃣ Rock Lobster 3️⃣The Pig Crumpet 4️⃣New Zealand Wagyu 💯 Seating only six people a session, make sure to book with them early! The chef said he loves his seafood and I absolutely agree, his seafood dishes were mind blowing! Head to @pandadrools on Instagram for more honest food reviews!

Definitely a culinary experience. A very intimate setting with you sitting at the bar overlooking the chefs prepare all the food. They kept the food a secret until it was served which was quite exciting. Definitely on the more expensive side but I’m glad I did it. Has been for my list for the last 1 year

Can I give 6 stars?! Without doubt this is the best food experience in NZ and based on my travels, would rival anything available elsewhere in the world. The imagination, the creativity, the understanding, the technique, the precision and the passion on show makes for an incredible experience. Faultless.

Went here with friends for the degustation meal. Best birthday shout ever.A truly amazing dining experience that completely knocked my socks off. Taste and Presentation were superb. The staff were courteous and looked after us in a way that transcended the overall experience towards divinity. Thank you for a really memorable night, Pasture!

Wow. How can one describe this amazing. The food is just outstanding! Unexpected, fresh, seasonal. The highlights are the year old aged butter and fresh sourdough bread, then comes the crumpet that is so delicate and tasty. And then we have the dream wagyu steak that is best steak you will ever taste. Service is impeccable. And love watching all the prep and cooking happening right in front of you

We've been lucky enough to eat in some really nice restaurants around the world and this absolutely stands out in our memory- New Zealand dining really has come of age :)<br/>Not inexpensive (but still perhaps by international standards) but totally worth it as both "culinary theater" and for the taste experience - what a treat for the senses! <br/>For that special occasion we just couldn't fault this establishment - the ambiance was warm, inviting & very comfortable: the hosts at the very top of their professional game and the food (& beverage matches) innovative & magnificent.<br/>Just loved it!

Sophisticated and mind-boggling brilliant. <br/>Pasture is the only restaurant of its kind in Auckland, if not New Zealand, with a style reminiscent to Japanese Omakase, where you sit at the kitchen counter with the courses decided by the chef and not disclosed to you before hand.<br/><br/>I have been eyeing this place up for a while now, but have never been able to get a reservation due to the sheer popularity and the small size of the restaurant, however, I somehow managed to get a last minute reservation due to a cancellation, (otherwise the earliest available booking was in two months time). One thing to note is that upon booking a deposit of $50 per person is required and the drinks pairing must be picked during the booking.<br/><br/>I loved the ambience of the restaurant, it is cozy and rustic yet chic, as if you were invited to a chef friend's private kitchen. The counter only seats six and I wouldn't have it any other way. Sitting in front of an open kitchen really enhances the dining experience as you can see the next courses being prepared in front of you. There is also something so visceral about sitting in front of an open flame and experiencing the changes in temperature and smell as the meal progresses and meats are being cooked over the fire. This multisensory approach to dining in my opinion really elevates Pasture over its fine dining counterparts.<br/><br/>The service at Pasture is also second to none. Due to the small size of the restaurant, there are no waiters and instead you are served directly by the chefs. The chefs here are amazing - they are friendly, attentive and more than happy to explain all of the dishes and drinks and answer any question you may have. The pace of the meal was also excellent - in total there were 14 courses, lasting just under three hours.<br/><br/>In terms of the food, I do not want to spoil it by revealing too much about the menu as in my opinion the secrecy of the courses only adds to the dining experience. That said, the food at Pasture really challenges your perception of food and flavours. The theme of the restaurant is modern fine dining, incorporating New Zealand ingredients, however, the menu also has an excellent blend of Japanese and Scandinavian influences. Two of the highlights for me were the diamond shell clams with persimmon and buffalo cream, a combination that seemed so foreign to me yet was absolutely genius and also the muttonbird (something I had never heard of before today and apparently only available for 2-3 weeks per year from Stewart Island) which tasted nothing like what I expected it. All the other courses were also of excellent quality - they were presented simply yet tasted wonderfully complex.<br/><br/>Likewise, the non-alcoholic drinks pairing really challenges your sense of taste and worked wonderfully with the dishes served. The pairing featured a mixture of pressed juices, imitation wine and mocktails; utilising ingredients that I had never before seen in drinks such as artichoke, celeriac and hay. On paper, this might seem slightly gimmicky, but I thoroughly enjoyed the taste of each of the drinks and the complexity they brought into the menu.<br/><br/>One of the potential downsides to this resturant is that there is a particular focus around ageing and fermenting foods and drinks. This means that if you do not enjoy the subtle sour tang and umami that the ageing process incorporates then this restaurant might not be for you.<br/><br/>Overall:<br/>Ambience 5/5<br/>Service 5/5<br/>Quality 5/5<br/>Portion size 5/5<br/>Presentation 5/5<br/>Value 5/5<br/><br/>Pasture has set the bar extremely high when it comes to high end fine dining in Auckland and I feel that the restaurant of the year title was well deserved. This restaurant is really pushing the boundaries of modern haute cuisine in New Zealand and I hope more restaurants will follow in its path of downsizing and providing a more intimate dining experience with exclusively kitchen counter seats (one can only dream). That said, the experience does not come cheap - for us, the course menu with non-alcoholic drinks pairing came to $670 for two people, which is well above its competitors in Auckland. Even so, I still wholeheartedly think that it is worth experiencing the offerings at Pasture at least once if you are into fine dining and modern cuisine.

What a unique dining experience... truly something you should experience if not on a special occasion then just for the sheer experience. It didn’t seem right to take photos so I didn’t but they did give everyone a copy of the menu as well as a sourdough to take home. Didn’t realise we tried so much!! <br/>With only 6 people at a time in this restaurant sitting in front of the kitchen was an absolute pleasure/delight to be part of the fine dining while taken on a journey of NZ cuisine.

Pasture takes your fine dining to the next level.<br/><br/>A deposit is required on reservation. The courses were confidential until arrival at the dining bar. <br/><br/>You are seated at the bar towards the open kitchen, where you observe the team preparing for the courses; Whilst, the owner will indepthly explains the origins of the ingredients and the process of the preparation.<br/><br/>The owners of the restaurant certainly goes through the extra miles to maximize your palate. They source exquisite ingredients and use aging to intensify their flavors. The wagyu was probably the best I’ve ever had, rich and buttery with the perfect savoriness. The abalone was divine. We also tasted the white asparagus during its fleetingly short season. Even the simple bread and butter tasted amazing, their sourdough takes a few of days to cook and the butter was ages over many month.<br/><br/>We went home with a satisfied palate and a sourdough loaf. <br/><br/>It’s a premium to pay but the experience and food you encounter is definitely worthy.<br/><br/>Food taste: 10/10<br/>Food presentation: 9/10<br/>Service: 10/10<br/>Location: 8/10<br/>Ambience: 9/10<br/>Price $200 per person (excl alcohol)

10/10 <br/><br/>The owners of this restaurant are truly special, humble and fantastically gifted people and their restaurant would easily be in the top ten list of any western city on the planet.<br/><br/>The food is sensational and experimental but at no point does it feel like a gimmick - these guys aren't trying to impress for the sake of it; they genuinely want to challenge conventions and provide a great experience.<br/><br/>Whilst the food is experimental, its clearly based on Michelin star levels of technique and respect for food. I do not want to say to much about the menu as it would ruin the surprise but one dish was simply two types of beetroot wafers with cherry blossom and almond oil and it boggles my mind with its excellence. <br/><br/>The non-alcoholic juice matching should be mandatory as each drink is just as good as the food – the strawberry and toasted buckwheat juice and the sough dough beer were of mind-blowing quality; and the others weren’t far behind.<br/><br/> If there is ever a master of juice qualification Laura and Ed will be the first graduates in NZ<br/><br/>I do have to note that they ask a lot of guests - unlike some other restaurants, deposits are required, the menu is kept secret until you arrive, you are asked to order your drink preferences in advance. However, do not be put off as your faith is more than rewarded with an intimate and exquisite experience that will last in the memory for months<br/><br/>The claims of NZ food magazines that Auckland is a culinary hotspot are way off the mark compared to AU and European cities, but with restaurants like this we truly stand a chance. Please support this restaurant and recognise Ed and Laura for the pioneers they are.

The food at Pasture was unlike anything else I've eaten. They push the limits in terms of trying to bring out maximum flavour, like the triumphant tomato slow roasted for hours or the slow wood fired baby corn served in the husk. Other dishes were fresh and light using tastes I've never seen before such as the cucumber apple and borage dish and the peach sorbet with tarragon. The main dish of beef shoulder was as well cooked a piece of meat as any I've had for a long time. Soft and rare all the way through the slice with a fine dense smokey crust. Along with the highs there were some dishes that I felt missed the mark, but that's what you get when a restaurant is trying to give you a new experience. Serious grown up eating.

Pasture is an amazing food and beverage experience where Ed and Laura care deeply for flavour, sustainability and experience. A unique point of difference is the beverage match of non-alcoholic drinks - they are incredible and so refreshing to have such a sophisticated option for the non-drinkers in the family (I'll be taking this option next time, the drinks were so exquisite).<br/><br/>Every course was delicious, service impeccable. Highly recommend Pasture for a food experience unlike any other in Auckland, probably New Zealand.

Went there a few months ago, really good experience. Great service and fantastic food! <br/>Will definitely go back again on special occasions...

Pasture is a unique restaurant with character, it is not like typical fine dining nor standard bistro style dinner. Saying Pasture amazing would be understatement, Pasture's food are smart, innovative, and plesurable at the same times. Very thoughful about texture and flavour, work with simplicity, championing the ingredients at its truest states, exceptional techniques involve fermenting, pickling, perserving, etc. it is really worth trying if you are foodie, at least once. <br/><br/>We probably would not eat Pasture casually, without any special occasion due to its price. However we thought the price is fare considering how labour intensive and amazing effort are required on every food dish and drink pairing we had.<br/><br/>I should thank Pasture for aging the butter from March, for grinding your own flour, for making the most delicious jerusalem artichoke dish, for giving an options of non-alcoholic pairing, for championing natural wines grown by amazing peoples around the country, for showing us how the snapper should cooked, for creating amazing dessert with quince (humble fruit that is unfortunately underrated), for cooking the BEST lambbbb ever! for creating beautiful food, for ensuring every little elements of our dining experience are perfect, and for setting the standards very high.<br/><br/>Our atmosphere and service were great, we sat by the fire where we can see everything that happens during cooking and preparing which was interesting, then Laura has been so kind helping us to take photos here and there. <br/><br/>The only thing we unsure about is the music in the restaurant.<br/><br/>

My partner and I recently enjoyed an evening at Pasture where we both were surprised and delighted with the offering of Menu 003 with pasture match. The food was playful, innovative and unquestionably delicious, the homemade juices were just something else. We spent the evening wide eyed and grinning at the unique flavours we experienced enjoying every dish served to us. The venue is elegant and cosy and we felt at home straight away, the chef's were engaging and clearly delighted with our responses their dishes. After experiencing other notable high end restaurants  in Auckland that follow a predictable pattern Pasture was an epic breath of fresh air.

We dined at Pasture recently and were impressed with the surroundings, atmosphere and ultra-friendly staff.  <br/><br/>At $140 per person, it matches the prices of top Auckland restaurants. Therefore, the expectation is an excellent experience.  Everything was - except value for money. I don't like feeling like I've been had - and unfortunately I left feeling just that way (and still slightly hungry).<br/><br/>I believe that an increase in portion sizes or making better menu choices would provide customers with a far better value dining experience.

The good news was that there was a new fine-dining contender in town, praised to the skies by well-known critics. The bad news was that the joint derives partly from the New Nordic wave which values trend over taste, and that the chef has worked previously in Sidart and Meredith's - two talented restaurants that in recent years have slipped into promoting surface and style over substance. <br/><br/>Pasture's Scandinavian-chic ambience is spartan (understandably more in keeping with a pasture than a riotous garden) and was pleasantly full with patrons in just the second week of them returning to open-fire action this year. The compact room has the kitchen set to one side, separated from the dining area by a counter, in what has to be one of the coziest all-in-one haute restaurant spaces in town. One can imagine a guest from any corner of the dining room communicating his compliments to the fire-side chef with only a moderately raised voice (Hey! Fine job on the lamb there Chef!) <br/><br/>Chef Ed Verner certainly has a mind for distinctive dishes using few ingredients. Little heirloom vegetables are offered as a gesture of confidence in purity of produce, the wood-fired area with flames, sparks and cuts of carcass are a bold dark kiss in the face of traditional luxury restaurant spaces, a hunk of root vegetable is often simply halved, roasted with trimmings and presented as a karmic doppelganger to meat, while the cherry tree is worshipped top to bottom by annointing its varied flavours onto a layered dessert. <br/><br/>There is no a la carte here. The tarriff of $140 per person for the six course menu with three additional show-opening starters is well justifiable given Pasture is a serious fine-dining restaurant geared towards pleasing the patron. For those that still find this steep, it needs to be said that a place this will not be able to financially flourish with lower pricing (wine sales notwithstanding) - the price tag moreover is in tune with Auckland's haute-dining expenses. <br/><br/>But disquiet looms, even in Nordic-Parnell's paradise. A presentation of cherry tomatoes , blackberries and karengo (NZ seaweed) broth , heavily depends, by its very design, on the first ingredient sporting oodles of sparkling flavour which unfortunately it did not have, continuing the sorry theme of fine-dining Auckland's lacklustre heirloom tomatoes.<br/><br/> Its successor was a luxurious treat - snow-white hunks of crayfish blanketed in white asparagus sauce. The quantity of that deluxe seafood was generous - more than double of that served in a dish from Merediths' tasting menu earlier this year. But the crayfish, for all its tender freshness, lacked that all-important extra touch of innate sweetness, further compromized by misguided flavouring. The white asparagus sauce was cut with tartness which hid the actual flavour of the pureed vegetable, tiny flecks of caviar again added a sharp twinkle which was already present in the sauce, and the juice pairing of an excellent white peach and gooseberry blend, also sported an acidic flourish. The dish needed just one acidic element - it actually had three. <br/><br/>Coming to that juice pairing, it is another enjoyably distinct bonus of this place , thus fulfilling my long-felt craving to have a juice pairing with my degustation instead of wines for a change. Pasture's juice-mixes are concocted in-house by the same bright young lady who becomes your keen sommelier. Three of the juice-blends were flatly forgettable while the other three sported memorable personalities , starting with a raspberry and muscat grape number that had both sweetness and character.<br/><br/>The wines are another feature where Pasture instead of following the cow-herd, invitingly wanders off the beaten track. "I tell people who like Sav Blanc to try our Chardonay and Chardonay lovers to taste our Sav Blanc", the sommelier enlightened me. My Pinot Gris choice of a 2015 'Matakana', left in contact with grapeskin for longer during synthesis, had a surpassing wave of smoothness matched by few of the usual variety I've had this year. <br/><br/>The wheat and rye bread, not only baked but also milled in-house, has been called the best in Auckland and it's certainly a strong contender. With a crackling appropriately chewy crust and a pleasantly yeasty interior, it becomes the complete satisfying package when slicked over with the butter they've cultured themselves (what now remains is for the cow itself to be cloned in-house). <br/><br/>Pasture is perhaps the only fine-dining spot in town where you can have a counter-side cushioned seat, as I did, taking in every bit of the kitchen action at arm's length proximity as the chefs assemble the food on the plate, tweezer-adjust it, spray it with vinegar from a perfume bottle while roasting lamb hunks and cucumber and cabbage by the crackling fire while also fanning its heat. They pride themselves on the various cave-age uses they make of the wood fire and I admit it is more primally appealing than cooking on the stove, though you can sometimes spot wryly revealed signs of fatigue while tending to this strenuous heat-blasted activity. Chef Verner himself would reach over and present most of my dishes - a Noma tradition that deserves to be eternally lauded for its direct chef-to-patron connection. At one point through the bustle , he looked at me with a smile and asked "How are you doing, Sir?" - I appreciated his multi-tasking and concern while also realizing the feeling of being both inside the TV and outside. <br/><br/>The Law of Averages was eventually allowed to slam in before the main. Cucumber, sorrel and lovage were enlisted to form a dense heap of chlorophyll , that rather than wowing the tongue with vegetal zing, appealed with nutritionist-pleasing goodness. Like Mama's Boy, I scoffed it down, consoled that I had fulfilled my quota of healthful eating for both this day and the next. <br/><br/>Last year it was large cuts of roasted celeriac which Chef Verner had the confidence to present as a marquee feature, and this time it was another spheroid root vegetable - kohlrabi - a hemisphere of which was hay-smoked and presented as the main course. Its starch had been rendered to be agreeably tender, its earthy smoothness contrasted with smoke. The missing dimension of flavour was provided by the surrounding sauce - a beaut of herbal umami, with parsely blending into almond milk. Was it similar to Taranaki lad Ben Shewry's "potato cooked in the same earth that it was grown in"? I don't know as I missed a booking at his Melbourne 'Attica' , but I think Chef Verner's dish has the extra merit of being created by a Chef Cooking it in the Same Country that He Was Born In. <br/><br/>Desserts comfortably outclassed the savouries, in addition to being better complimented by the juices. A 'transition' offering of yoghurt granita and its freeze-dried disc provided beautifully refreshing contrast to underlying peas and lemon verbena cream, bringing back partial memories of a bewitching sorrel ice-cream tasted in Clooney's three years ago. A nose-to-tail philosophy was transplanted to the main dessert wherein cherry wood and leaf were used to make whispering flavours of a white ice cream quenelle while actual cherries were channelled into the underlying intense dark red sauce. It was a cherry dessert for adults, distinct from the sugared cherries kiddies like. <br/><br/>  There is no need for Pasture to do any more of the "unique" things which are supposed to set apart one restaurant from another - it already has a distinct personality twice over. What would be certainly welcome is the resolve to create a cuisine where even if you blindfolded the patrons and told them to forget identifying the restaurant and just taste the food so they could focus on the flavour and nothing else, what graced the palate would so move it that they would then declare it to be the loveliest, deepest flavour that any pasture could ever produce. *** More Pics @ Upnworld

Pasture is the unique dining experience we have been looking for since we moved to Auckland, the atmosphere is great , and you can tell that the staff love working there and giving diners this experience and it shows in every little detail.

Intriguing and considered, the tasting menu captures nature's best. Pasture is a new kid on the block but is certain about what it offers, and does it very well. It ferments, preserves, cooks over fire and its points of difference are the beverage and bread programme. The wine list breaks the stock standard Sav/Chardy/Pinot template and instead makes space for interesting drops like a Shiraz Riesling that was both creamy and effervescent. Pasture gives whole grain bread another meaning, literally taking whole grains, milling them into flour before culturing and baking the dough. The secret sauce to all this is time and passion -an intensive labour of love.