July 2026

With just a flick of the wand, it seems 2026 is already disappearing right before our eyes. Thankfully, we’ve been busy in the kitchen casting a few new spells to ensure the second half of your year begins deliciously.

The magic of winter cooking is that it allows us all to slow down. I love how vegetables become sweeter, the stocks become richer and our connection to what we eat gets deeper. 

Our new menu begins this Thursday and the curtain rises with freshly shucked Te Kouma Bay oysters, served with mandarin granita, yuzu koshou cream and fennel oil. Bright and vibrant, it’s an opening act designed to awaken the palate and prepare you for what comes next.

From there, we venture into a beetroot soup built around konbu and peanut, finished with smoked quince, cultured buttermilk and sesame. It looks deceptively simple, but there are plenty of tricks beneath the surface. Earthy, smoky, savoury and sweet, it’s my take on a heartwarming borscht I once ate at a Ukrainian restaurant in a mid-winter visit to Moscow.

The ingredient bringing the most enchantment to our kitchen at the moment is New Zealand truffle. We’ve sourced some extraordinary truffles from the Wairarapa and can’t wait to share them.

Our Whitianga snapper is paired with cauliflower cream and a truffle dashi that fills the dining room with aroma the moment it reaches the table. The goal isn't to make you taste the truffle, but to use its real superpower of making everything else taste more like itself.

For the main course, we’re serving beef rump cap, aged for fifty-five days before being lightly seasoned with shio koji and cooked over high heat. Alongside are creamed onion, shiitake béarnaise and a beef jus infused with liquorice root. A little alchemy, perhaps, but one we’re very happy to share.

To finish, we have one of our favourite desserts. The Chestnut Opera brings together coffee, dark chocolate, blood orange and cardamom. The blood orange keeps things bright, while the chestnut provides the kind of warmth only winter can summon.

Alongside the menu we've also spent a lot of time refining both our wine and non-alcoholic pairings. One of the things we love most is seeing guests discover how a thoughtfully chosen drink can completely change how a dish tastes. Whether that's the mature Gewürztraminer with our wild hare, the Central Otago Pinot Noir with aged beef or our house-made Beetroot Bombshell made with black garlic and apple that goes with every dish.

​​​​​​​As always, thank you for your support. Every booking, recommendation and return visit means the world to us. 

​​​​We look forward to welcoming you soon,

Helen and the 50-50 team xoxo

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