What dishes define Auckland? The city\u2019s 100 most iconic eats have just been named. Chef Al Brown shares the story behind one of the most loved \u2013 the Depot fish slider.<\/p>\n
\n Al Brown never set out to make a baby fish burger his signature dish but, 40 years after he
\n ordered his first slider at a Boston sports bar, his version is an Auckland culinary icon.\n <\/p>\n
Depot\u2019s fish sliders join the raspberry lamingtons from Sugar at Chelsea Bay as the only two dishes to have made every Iconic Auckland Eats Top 100 list. <\/p>\n
The event, organised by T\u0101taki Auckland Unlimited in partnership with Restaurant Hub, recognises dishes rather than restaurants.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s Top 100, announced today, included 79 brand new entries \u2013 from the likes of Persian koobideh at Akdeniz in Devonport to the p\u0101ua and palasami vol au vent at downtown\u2019s Trivet, and snapper and chips at Otahuhu Fisheries.<\/p>\n
An Auckland classic \u2013 snapper and chips from Otahuhu Fisheries, new to the Iconic Auckland Eats Top 100 list.<\/p>\n
And while there are high-end contenders (think 1kg of bone-in ribeye at Milenta, macaroni cheese at Soul Bar & Bistro or Advieh\u2019s crispy scampi and crayfish kataifi) around two-thirds sit in the low to mid-price range.<\/p>\n
Three judges selected the Top 100 (scroll down for the complete list) from more than 2400 public nominations.<\/p>\n
Brown said he was \u201cabsolutely thrilled\u201d the Depot slider \u2013 a soft white bun filled with snapper, preserved lemon mayo and watercress \u2013 was making its sixth appearance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about us, it\u2019s about the customer . . . they\u2019re our signature, whether we like it or not. And they give people a lot of joy. They\u2019re nothing extraordinary, but they are extraordinary in their \u2018normalness\u2019. They\u2019re just a friendly, delicious bite.\u201d<\/p>\n
Federal St\u2019s Depot was the first New Zealand restaurant to put sliders on the menu. While the concept of a baby burger was not new, the word \u201cslider\u201d was. Brown remembers encountering it in the late 1980s when he was studying in the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was on a break in Boston and I remember asking the guy behind the bar, \u2018what\u2019s a slider?\u2019 I had my journal and I wrote it down. I thought \u2018what a cool little name\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carmel \u2013\u00a0Israeli Street Food’s falafel pita continues the iconic run that began with its appearance on the 2022 Auckland Eats list. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n
In 2011, when Brown opened Depot with chef Kyle Street (who went on to open Culprit), the pair worked with Loaf founder Sean Armstrong to develop the perfect slider bun.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could go to the moon for five years and come back and it would still have plenty of sponge in it,\u201d Brown says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always joke that essentially, all we\u2019re tapping into are the people who love McDonald\u2019s Filet-O-Fish. It\u2019s the same thing, really, executed with really good ingredients. People love a butty and, essentially, it\u2019s a butty.\u201d<\/p>\n
He thinks the popularity of the slider \u2013 like the lamington \u2013 reflects people\u2019s love of food that invokes nostalgia.<\/p>\n
Raspberry lamingtons from Sugar at Chelsea Bay have made the Iconic Auckland Eats Top 100 list for a sixth time. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n
\u201cIf someone said \u2018you\u2019re at the church hall, name six dishes on the bring-a-plate table?\u2019 Nearly everyone will throw in a lamington. There were always lamingtons and they were always one of the first to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was always in the red camp! I haven\u2019t had the Chelsea cafe one, but I presume it\u2019s bloody great.\u201d<\/p>\n
The final dishes in this year\u2019s Top 100 were determined by judges Karen Thompson-Smith (T\u0101taki\u2019s head of tourism), hospitality industry legend and The Kitchen Project manager Connie Clarkson, and Restaurant Hub\u2019s Mark Gregory.<\/p>\n
The very popular BBQ pork buns from Hong Kong Bakery \u2013 one of 2026’s Top 100 Iconic Auckland Eats. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n
Nomination stories ranged from the superfans \u2013 people who had eaten 20-plus pork and jalapeno sausage rolls at Ashby Pies or more than 300 meals at Ramen Takara \u2013 to those who said the quality of their weekends was \u201cinextricably tied\u201d to whether they made it to Carmel \u2013 Israeli Street Food for a falafel pita.<\/p>\n
One respondent said Giapo\u2019s waffle scent was a \u201ctime machine\u201d back to their childhood and another noted their dad always bought four BBQ pork buns from M\u0101ngere Bridge\u2019s Hong Kong Bakery, \u201cone for himself, one for my mum and two more for him to eat in secret on his way home\u201d. The person who nominated Soul Bar & Bistro\u2019s macaroni cheese said it was their family\u2019s celebratory go-to (\u201cmy daughter has been ordering it since she was a toddler\u201d) and another said they\u2019d walked 50 minutes in a thunderstorm for the \u201cman bun\u201d at Waiheke\u2019s Too Fat Buns.<\/p>\n
Annie Dundas, T\u0101taki\u2019s director destination, said the dishes that made the Top 100 carried memory and meaning. <\/p>\n
\u201cFood is also one of the most powerful ways we share Auckland with the world … this list offers an authentic snapshot of the dishes Aucklanders genuinely love.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iconic Auckland Eats 2026 Top 100: How many have you eaten?<\/p>\n
More Auckland deliciousness<\/p>\n
The eateries making Viva headlines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What dishes define Auckland? The city\u2019s 100 most iconic eats have just been named. Chef Al Brown shares…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3548,2246,51,1558,4057,6256,169,13849,159312,212186,2544,7490,156,8321,2082,305,16569,5511,9066,5338,3025,10136,111,139,69,180,4730,18688,427,3010,6923,379],"class_list":["post-412706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-3548","tag-2246","tag-auckland","tag-been","tag-behind","tag-brown","tag-chef","tag-citys","tag-define","tag-depot","tag-dishes","tag-eats","tag-entertainment","tag-fish","tag-for","tag-have","tag-iconic","tag-just","tag-loved","tag-makes","tag-most","tag-named","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-shares","tag-sixth","tag-slider","tag-story","tag-top","tag-what","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412706","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=412706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}