We\u2019re always at San Ray in the morning, but on a rare day off our favourite breakfast\u202fis at the Lebanese Grocer on Pitt St. It\u2019s almost en route between Cazador and San Ray, so I make the excuse to stop there when I can. I order the shawarma, Rebecca orders the fattoush salad, and we stock the pantry with hummus, labneh, spiced nuts and pickles on the way out.<\/p>\n
Favourite restaurant for dinner with friends?<\/p>\n
We love Beau in Three Lamps for a casual\u202fcatch-up. Its wine list is one of the best in town, a table for two inevitably grows to an impromptu\u202fgroup; it\u2019s a perfect weeknight spot.<\/p>\n
Favourite place to take a visitor to?<\/p>\n
Cocoro on Brown St. Without doubt, one of New Zealand\u2019s most memorable dining experiences. Makoto is a wizard, and the menu is a celebration\u202fof local protein and seafood. He\u2019s most likely your favourite\u202fchef\u2019s\u202ffavourite chef.<\/p>\n
Favourite spot to finish a night out?<\/p>\n
Deadshot, every time. There are welcoming dark corners, and they fix the classics to the highest standard.<\/p>\n
Favourite place to get coffee?<\/p>\n
Blackbird in Ponsonby Central. Tomas knows your name and order by heart, and he serves eighthirty which is my go-to specialty coffee.<\/p>\n
Favourite fish-and-chip shop?<\/p>\n
Nate\u2019s Plaice in Grey Lynn. All food is deserving of real care and focus \u2013 and all too often we forget how good the simple stuff can be when you apply a chef\u2019s care, knowledge and respect to the ingredients.<\/p>\n
Favourite trail for a hike?<\/p>\n
I spend a lot of time in Fiordland with WithWild, a conservation-led meat distribution business I\u2019m involved with. The hunting and hiking are unbeatable there,\u202fand I do a\u202fbit of\u202fduck shooting in Waikato and Canterbury. But closer to home, I love an afternoon hike in the Wait\u0101kere Ranges. We love the Kakamatua to Mt Donald McLean track, it\u2019s a full day if you make time for a picnic and a swim. I feel a world away but it\u2019s less than 45 minutes from the kitchen.<\/p>\n
Favourite venue for a gig?<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve had a lot of fun at the Powerstation, and always love a small gig at the Hollywood Avondale.<\/p>\n
Favourite place to find a bargain?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m anti-bargain, sorry. I\u2019m a \u201cbuy once, buy well\u201d kind of guy. Shopping isn\u2019t a favourite pastime\u202f, so I\u2019d rather visit Crane Brothers, where they know my fit and style and sort me out. That being said, a Crane Bros archive sale is a treasure\u202ftrove to scroll through.<\/p>\n
Dariush Lolaiy is a chef, cookbook author and restaurant owner based in T\u0101maki Makaurau, where he co-runs Cazador and San Ray.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019re always at San Ray in the morning, but on a rare day off our favourite breakfast\u202fis at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[95,51,22398,138,22394,169,2199,22395,22397,10938,293,78,22396,4977,111,139,69,22399,22393,15553,22392,9095,1963,180,10041,10809,1120,223,165,1961,208,686,12025],"class_list":["post-21378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-and","tag-auckland","tag-aucklanders","tag-business","tag-cazadors","tag-chef","tag-city","tag-dariush","tag-favourite","tag-herald","tag-his","tag-in","tag-lolaiy","tag-my","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-places","tag-ray","tag-restaurateur","tag-san","tag-secret","tag-series","tag-shares","tag-spots","tag-sunday","tag-takes","tag-the","tag-their","tag-this","tag-tour","tag-week","tag-wellknown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}