Hillside Kitchen & Cellar

Tables available this weekend, Friday and Sunday.

Throughout the month of July we are donating $5 per person who dines with us on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays to a couple of our favourite charities &

EVERYBODY EATS

Everybody Eats is a pay-as-you-can dining concept for everyone. We serve delicious chef-prepared meals that feed bellies, not bins.

Turing perfectly good surplus food into delicious 3 course meals.

We love everything that stands for and encourage you to check them out!

Throughout the month of July we are donating $5 per person who dines with us on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays to a couple of our favourite charities &

KAIBOSH.

Our relationship with has existed as long as Hillside has been a restaurant, over the years we have held and participated in many fundraising events.
We truly believe in everything that Kaibosh is all about and are extremely grateful for the work they do in our community.

Kaibosh rescue, sort and redistribute around 70,000kg food every month, connecting this good surplus kai with 140 community groups who are supporting people in need. In Pōneke, it’s a seven-day operation, including rescuing surplus from the weekend Newtown and Harbourside Markets. The Kaibosh team work closely with Everybody Eats, supplying much of the fresh produce used at the pay-what-you-feel restaurant.

“Kai uplifts, connects and brings people together – especially in these darker months. If you able to dine out this July, it’s a great time to try Hillside Kitchen for an amazing dining experience and help two local charities working hard to feed people this winter.”

Kai uplifts people, connects and brings community together 💚 especially in the depths of winter months ❄️

This July, when you head to Hillside Kitchen & Cellar for a delicious nourishing dining experience, you'll also be helping two important Pōneke charities who are feeding people struggling this winter.

🌟 Hillside will be donating $5 from every customer who dines on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday nights in July to Kaibosh and Everybody Eats (split equally between the two) 🌟

Click here to book your table now ➡️ https://www.hillsidekitchen.co.nz/

🗣 “Asher Boote is a committed sustainability champion, elevating local kai and supporting community. We're really grateful for his ongoing support of our important food rescue mahi – since our early years of operation!”

We’re happy to share this fundraising initiative with our friends at Everybody Eats. We’re so inspired by their creative mahi everyday, using Kaibosh rescued kai to create restaurant-quality three-course meals to nourish everyone in our community. Together, we’re tackling food waste and food poverty and uplifting people in Pōneke.

It takes a collective of good people and groups working together to get kai to whānau who need it. Hillside are a small, independent, sustainability-minded business 🌱 Get out to support your local food producers!

Thanks Hillside team & thanks Wellington foodies 😊

Spoil yourself at these special occasion restaurants Try out these top-tier Wellington restaurants for your next special occasion dinner — whether it’s a birthday, graduation, anniversary, or just feeling fancy.

There’s no smoke and mirrors in the style of food we serve.
Yes we do like to challenge the preconceived notions of where veggies belong in a food hierarchy.
And some times we play with words to start a conversation.
However what we put on the plate for your dining pleasure is simply the best quality ingredients that we can grow or source, cooked in a way that shows them off and celebrates their natural diversity.

What a privilege it was to have the wonderful in house recently to take some beautiful snaps of our little restaurant

Giveaway!!

Yes this is a blatant attempt to gain attention and remind you that we are here and would love to have you in for a meal soon!
At this quieter time of the year supporting small independent businesses means more than you may think.

We are giving away a dinner for two valued at $242!!!

Entering is simple
Like this post and tag who you would bring with you for this special meal. (each new account tagged is one entry and you can enter as many times as you like)

Share this post via your stories to also go in the draw for one of two $50 vouchers.

Winners will be announced and contacted via DM on Monday 1st of July.

-This giveaway is for food only, any drinks will need to be purchased.
-Prize must be redeemed by 1/11/2024
-This prize cannot be used for events.

We pride ourselves on being a sustainable restaurant, and a huge part of this is looking to improve the work life balance for the team, while we’ve always taken a break over the Christmas period this year we are adding a mid winter break to the mix, the seemingly endless challenges of the last four years have taken their toll and the risk of burnout is massive for small independent businesses.

With this in mind we will be closed 28th July to 13 August.

We’d absolutely love to see you in the coming weeks, your ongoing support is so important in being a better business that can make sustainability minded decisions on a daily basis.

Stop, relax and spend time with together.

A meal at Hillside is like a mini getaway, you can forget about everything else and just let us look after you.

Dreaming of those warmer months.

Tomato and Shiso.

“Taco”

To put it simply and somewhat crudely yet very to the point, we give a f**k about what we serve.
Most importantly we make delicious food.

However there’s always a story.

A few years ago Asher got hold of a small handful of seeds, since then he has been growing this corn crop each year selecting the very best cobs to save seeds for the next crop, while also testing recipes with the spare kernals.

This corn is grown in beds with as little soil disturbance as possible, zero herbicide, fungicide, insecticide or irrigation.
Just a layer of compost made from our restaurant “waste” a touch of foraged seaweed and rain water.
As is traditional it’s grown as part of the three sisters with beans and courgettes, beans climb the cornstalks and fix nitrogen while courgettes sprawl and cover the soil through summer.

Once the corn is harvested the roots remain in the ground feeding the biology and the dried leaves and stems add carbon to the soil, all of these gardening steps mean we are actually growing heathy soil rather than continuously depleting it.

The corn cobbs are hung to air dry, before we follow the traditional process of nixtamalization, steeping and cooking the kernals in an alkaline solution.
Nixtamalized corn has several benefits over unprocessed grain: It is more easily ground, its nutritional value is increased, flavor and aroma are improved, and mycotoxins are reduced by up to 97%–100%
the earliest evidence of nixtamalization is found in Guatemala’s southern coast, with equipment dating from 1200 to 1500 BCE.

This is then ground into Masa which we press and cook to order as tortillas.
Because we grew courgettes with the corn we think it makes sense to serve them together, and because we love the multicultural mix of inspirations we see on kiwi tables we’ve been inspired by the spicy acidic flavour bomb of a Kasundi to preserve and serve them.
These two iconic preparations from distant parts of the world work beautifully together.
Oh yes and as if that wasn’t enough we made the plates out of New Zealand clay so make sure each Taco reaches your table looking its absolute best.

🌮 📸 -

A seat at the bar.

This is the best spot to watch everything happen with a clear view into our open kitchen and a great spot to chat to the team throughout your meal.

https://www.smh.com.au/traveller/inspiration/the-world-s-most-underrated-countries-for-food-20240419-p5fl3s.html

The world’s most underrated countries for food If you’re looking for your next great meal in this moveable feast we call life, it might be time to head to these often-overlooked places.

Embark on a culinary adventure like no other with Evans event: Rated - E.

Imagine a full-on movie with 6 exquisite chapters reimagined into 6 delectable courses.

With 20 Seats available each night—immerse yourself in Evan’s journey through a fully meatless banquet.

Join us on the 19th and 20th of May 6:30 PM, as Evan weaves storytelling with gastronomy in an intimate setting at Hillside Kitchen & Cellar, 241 Tinakori Road, Thorndon.

Experience dining redefined for $99 per person, with drinks avalible to purchase on the night.
Worry not, as $15 off every ticket purchase is donated to a good cause by our friends at , reflecting Evan’s value in supporting local.

Ticket go on sale now via www.hillsidekitchen.co.nz

Dietary restrictions can be catered to with notice when booking only.

New to our non alcoholic matches.
Smoked corn cob, cocoa husk & preserved plum.

A really unique depth of flavour, great texture and body.

We really enjoy making these concoctions especially when they don’t really fit any category of your standard non alcoholic drinks.

Upcoming Event Alert!

Presenting:

Rated - E
A Storytelling Project by Eugeneous Evan.

At Hillside, we’ve always been passionate about fostering opportunities for emerging talents in the hospitality industry, and this event promises to be an unforgettable showcase of one of our team members’ creativity, heritage, and culinary prowess.

Evan joined our team last year, and as part of his capstone project at , he is investigating the importance of storytelling in the hospitality industry.

Join us and witness the captivating story of Evan’s journey as he weaves his unique and personal kind of play inspired by movies and narratives in this one-of-a-kind event. Indulge in a dining experience that transcends mere sustenance, and join us in celebrating his emotional odyssey.

Mark your calendars for the 19th and 20th of May, as we are more than proud to transform our space to host this exclusive event.

Stay tuned, as tickets will be released very soon, and this is surely one hell of a play you do not want to miss.

We hope you have enjoyed our little deep dive into the story of Hillside over the last couple of weeks, today marks 9 years since we first opened the doors.
Happy birthday to us 🎂.
So with that we’d like to acknowledge another huge part of us making it this many years and planning on being around plenty more.
So here’s saying a massive thanks to YOU!! To all of you who have supported us and been part of the journey: customers, staff past and present, the producers, suppliers, drivers, growers, admin, marketers, photographers, word writers, repairers, family, friends and a whole bunch more we appreciate you and the part you have played.
We will be having a cold one in celebration, and encourage you to as well.

Ok so here’s a part of the Hillside story that’s not my favourite to talk about, but one that’s a pretty big part of it…. Me.

There are very few people in the world who know what it’s like to create something very personal, put it on public display and open yourself up to the professional and mature critique that comes with being a restaurant.
Not only that but also making it a business that you rely upon for your livelihood while shouldering the responsibility of it also being the livelihood and training ground of others.
I’m constantly in awe of those who do it, and am proud to be their peer.
How the hell does a kid who grew up of sheep and beef farms in rural Nz end up owning restaurants in the big smoke?
I honestly don’t really know how it happened but growing up in that environment I did has a huge influence on what Hillside is today.
Being connected to food, where it comes from, how it grows and what it takes to get to the plate was just a part of everyday life.
Working hard wasn’t optional, that’s just how you work.
Thinking outside the box, finding solutions within the resources you have a necessity.

For me Hillside has become a platform to be the person I want to be, to conduct myself and the business in a manner guided by a moral compass, it’s such a privilege to be in this position.
I truly believe that Hospo crates amazing opportunities, especially for those of us who flirt with living outside the norm, but as an industry especially here in NZ we need to keep building the professionalism while not losing what makes it special.
I regularly still encounter customers who treat Hospo workers as servants rather than service providers and this is a barrier we need to break through.

Being awarded the inaugural Champion for Change award a couple of years ago means was pretty special, my philosophy around restaurant awards has always been to ignore them as much as possible, focus on your restaurant and if you do that well recognition will come.
This award though, probably because of its open ended interpretation is something was special, helping make this industry better is the least I can do for the opportunities it’s given me.

Asher

Our little garden.

Anyone who has dined at Hillside in recent years knows just how important our garden is to us, it essentially writes our menu.

It’s been a journey to get to this point through transforming an overgrown old section into abundant food source with plenty of elbow grease and determination, this was a prep job that took years rather than minutes, and it’s still going.

It’s not the easiest way to go about gardening but we are proud of the circular economy we have created, what would normally be waste products from the restaurant, food scraps, napkins, old menus etc all become compost which feeds the soil.

We use zero synthetic inputs, no fertilisers except compost and seaweed, no insecticides, fungicides, herbicides.
We don’t have a water source aside from a little rain catchment we use to hand water seedlings.

All of these things mean we have to work with nature rather than battling it, saving seeds has massively improved our yields year on year, and as you know the flavours we get are pretty special.

Lastly this is not your idyllic country garden, we are not skipping through the fields singing and laughing, it’s f**king hard work, more often than not pretty uncomfortable, physically demanding, an uphill battle and pretty stressful.
The beauty of this garden is not in what it looks like, it’s in what it represents.

It’s important we don’t devalue the realities of food production, it takes a huge effort to produce, especially the good stuff.

A short few weeks after we opened the doors in 2015 David Burton walk in for dinner on a busy night, the impact of one of his reviews on the Wellington dining scene was well known, we clocked him pretty early but the reality is in that situation all you can really do is continue as per normal there’s no time for special treatment or changing anything up.
I sat down with David at the end of the night to answer a few questions, I was tired and perhaps a little too honest but my first impression was just here’s a guy who likes good food, decent wine and enjoys talking about it.
David was coping a fair amount of flack on social media and blogs around then, some fair, some not so much.
However I’m glad he will always be part of the Hillside story, he gave us a good review, loving the food and ethos and fairly critiquing the parts that come with opening a restaurant on an absolute shoe string.
Not only has David continued to be a champion of Hillside he also helped set my approach to journalists, F**k it, I’ll just be myself.

We are thankful to have been well reviewed in the likes of over the years, especially in good food guide which we have received 1 hat over multiple years.
Through varied conversations with and getting to understand her passion for the industry and drive to see change in areas such as sustainability, ethics and equity in restaurants make this recognition all the more valuable to us.

Gaining a spot in the worldwide edition of Truth Love and Clean Cutlery due to was a special moment, as has been hosting a few international journalists over the years, seeing our little neighbourhood spot gracing the pages of international publications never gets old.

The fact that we have been given enough of a profile to be able to speak up about issues we feel are important is a huge honour, we are hugely thankful to the journalists and publications who have given us a platform.
Given the current challenges the media industry are seeing (many of which are paralleled in Hospo) I think it’s important we remember that while change is important, something new isn’t always better.

Asher

Open for dinner, Wednesday to Sunday.

This year marks 9 years since we opened the doors at Hillside, over the next couple of weeks we want to share a deep dive into our journey, thoughts and general ramblings.

Ah yes, that decision!
Would you believe it’s 6 years ago.

I really do think we need a middle finger emoji available for times like these.
They say you shouldn’t read the comments, but I’m a little bit stubborn ( emphasis on the “little” please) and one of my strongest motivators is often being told I can’t do something.

I’d be happy to invite any of those who made these sorts of comments when we announced that we were going meatless to come in for dinner, because we’re still here and better than ever.

I think there’s a huge lesson to be learnt from our experience through this transition as a restaurant.
When you are planning a concept or just starting out there will be a ton of “advice” coming from all directions, everyone is an expert when it comes to restaurants, it can be pretty intimidating and hard to block the noise.
But when you break it down and really deep dive into the industry very few succeed and for me this is in a large part due to the general attitude above, where man and his dog knows how a restaurant should be run.

I think it’s absolutely vital not to chase the crowd but to create one, when I look at restaurants I admire they always have a strong intently around who they are and what they provide, but still evolve over time.

And overall that is Hillside is for me, it has a strong identity and focus, one that guests can see and identify with.
As they say the proof is in the pudding, near the end of 2023 we saw some of the hardest trading conditions we’ve ever seen, with a string of Hospo closures hitting our city, so in response we sent out a message to our customers highlighting the situation, and in one of the most humbling moments of my career bookings started flowing in, this was our crowd firmly cheering us on and showing their support, we’re so grateful to have them on our side.

We will continue to break the rules of what a restaurant is “meant” to be so we can provide the very best version of Hillside for you.

Asher

Collaboration over competition.

Over the years we’ve hosted a number of amazing people into our little space, sharing ideas and knowledge, creating a space to test ideas and opportunities to flex their muscles from team members testing their own concepts, driven Hospo workers developing their concepts to established restauranteurs.

It’s been a bit challenging over the recent years but we are getting back into this slowly with joining us last year and a yet to be announced thing happening late May.

When I look back at the people who have joined us or just used the space over the years it’s an incredibly humbling experience to look at where they are now especially those who were testing concepts at the time and are now absolutely killing it here and around the world.
So here’s a shout out to those who have been part of the story. (Sincerely apologise to those I’ll undoubtedly miss)
@50.50.restaurant .buenaventura .a.mcleod .popup.nz

This year marks 9 years since we opened the doors at Hillside, over the next couple of weeks we want to share a deep dive into our journey, thoughts and general ramblings.

There’s no hiding from the fact that Hillside is a chef driven restaurant, while I’ve been a constant you don’t do this alone.

Over the years a few amazing humans have earned the role of Head Chef.
I take a great deal of pleasure in being able to give chefs the chance to spread their wings and flex their muscles, all but one of these were taking their first Head Chef role which can come with its own challenges for individual and restaurant alike, I hope this opportunity helped each of them on their path, whether it be in a kitchen or not.
They all have certainly contributed in a positive way to the Hillside story.

Conor Mertens - Here’s a chef who loves to take a deep dive into technique, a thought process that challenges the norm, big flavour king.

- Technical skills out the door, organisation boss plus those baking skills that add a whole other level.

- Passion and enthusiasm embodied, a master of his craft and a drive to succeed that speaks for itself.

From Commis to Head Chef kind of says it all, a huge part of our story. Determination, a passion to learn and a natural leader with flavours on point.

You can always tell the ones who started young, a true kitchen natural with refined quality on the plate, and food with emotion.

The sum of many parts, hugely intelligent and inquisitive with a chunk of old school Hospo grind, modern classics are his wheelhouse.

Thank you all
Asher

This year marks 9 years since we opened the doors at Hillside, over the next couple of weeks we want to share a deep dive into our journey, thoughts and general ramblings.
Given the challenges of recent times this is a birthday that feels particularly important, we’ve seen so many restaurants we admire and respect here in Wellington and further afield close in the last few months.
We don’t feel that restaurants should be as disposable as they seem to be, so often recently we’ve heard the comments such as “oh well, something else will replace it”, this is a sad indictment on where restaurants sit in people’s perception.
It’s concerning that we see very few multi generational restaurants in New Zealand or even restaurants that exist past a few years, this restricts the overall growth of the industry and also keeps up the image that working in Hospo isn’t a true profession.
Restaurant can tell local stories in such a unique way, they’re often used as marketing flagships for the image of a town or city, specifically in NZ restaurants sit at the centre of two of our biggest earners, tourism and primary industry exports, you’ll never convince me that the experience of tourists in our restaurants doesn’t have an effect on their purchasing decisions back home.
It’s not all doom and gloom though, Hillside is a better restaurant than it’s ever been and we continue to forge our own path, even if sometimes it’s a little wonky.
Despite the many tags we’ve been given over the years, Hillside has never tried to be anything other than a Kiwi restaurant, we are incredibly proud to represent our beautiful country and city on a daily basis.
Here you can see the final preparations before opening day April 15th 2015, you’ll note that’s us getting stuck in and doing it ourselves, there has always been a chunk of good old kiwi number eight wire mentality behind this little restaurant.

Asher.

Fine dining but make it vegetarian at Hillside Kitchen and Cellar in Wellington

Current flavours from our garden

Leaving the menu.

Kumara, thyme & plum.

Kumara baked with coconut, very lightly poached fortuna plum, toasted nuts and a thyme ice cream.