Restaurant guide’s hidden gems a page turn away

MEDIA RELEASE
22 May, 2006

Restaurant guide’s hidden gems just a page turn away
Cuisine Restaurants –The Guide to Great Eating in New Zealand

Never again will diners have to endure a bad meal in a restaurant or café in New Zealand.

Cuisine has filled another gap in our appetite for good food with the introduction of its first national restaurant guide.

Cuisine Restaurants is a gastronomic ‘bible’, serving up reviews of 437 of today’s best restaurants and cafés. From the far north at Karikari, to the southern reaches of Invercargill and the Catlins, diners can be assured of finding a great place to eat for all occasions whether it is breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner.

The need for a geographic guide to the country’s best dining evolved from the readers of Cuisine themselves. Cuisine Restaurants retains Cuisine magazine’s own standards and assesses each café and restaurant’s style of food, ambience, uniqueness of location where relevant, its price range, wine selection, or been a finalist in the prestigious Cuisine Restaurant of the Year Awards.

Editor Simon Wilson says the selection process was rigorous and the results may surprise some people.

“Whether it’s a top-notch restaurant in Auckland’s Viaduct, a vineyard restaurant in Hawke’s Bay or a quirky café on the West Coast of the South Island, we assessed them in the same way. We had a selection panel of 15 experienced people nationwide, who among them assessed close to 700 restaurants and cafés. It took us almost four months to consider them all and draw up our final list. If it’s in, it has the Cuisine stamp of approval.

“Interestingly, many of the best places to eat are not in the main centres. They might be found in a tourism hotspot with breathtaking views, or buried in a non-descript building along a state highway, but the two common denominators are good food and the overall experience. Among their competitors in any given location, they are the pick of the bunch,” he says.

Lauraine Jacobs, Cuisine magazine’s lead restaurant reviewer and head judge of the Cuisine Restaurant of the Year Awards, was consultant editor for Cuisine Restaurants.

Cuisine Restaurants also profiles 11 of New Zealand’s top chefs, who were interviewed by Lauraine. These insightful features showcase a cross-section of our top talent.

Cuisine Restaurants goes on sale on 22 May. Look out for the handy A5-sized guide, available at supermarkets and bookstores nationwide for $19.95.

ENDS

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