tl;dr – Ah, Aotearoa – is the food as good as the wine?
Earlier today, I wrote about the drop of Michelin’s New Orleans restaurant guide. For the first time, the tire company that has graduated to restaurant ratings has started to award stars to restaurants outside of the well-known megalopolises of the world, venturing to cities like New Orleans, Boston, Birmingham, and Charleston. Recently, Michelin announced that it would publish the Michelin Guide Aotearoa New Zealand, which is set to debut in mid-2026.
Oftentimes, folks (myself included) who think of Oceania tend to think of Australia and New Zealand as a pair (I’ve been guilty of it). So the natural question is, why New Zealand and not Australia?
A small bit of the behind-the-scenes here. Michelin often partners with local tourism bureaus to publish its guide. As such, the simple answer is that Tourism New Zealand bit the hook and Tourism Australia said ‘no thanks.’
As far as which restaurants are contenders for a star? I won’t pretend to know anything about the New Zealand fine-dining scene outside of Amisfield Restaurant & Cellar Door. The restaurant, located in Queenstown, was on my list when I visited what might be one of my favorite wine regions in the world – the Central Otago – last in 2024.
Though I was unable to secure a reservation there, which isn’t surprising, given that the restaurant has been featured on several ‘best restaurants in the world’ lists, checking in as high as 3rd on Food and Wine Magazine’s best restaurants of the world list. These lists are what they are, mostly fodder for discussion, so it’ll be interesting to see where Amisfield lands with Michelin.
