Photo: Unsplash
One year, Cate Grace and her husband Riwai clocked up 50 visits to their favourite restaurant.
That's particularly surprising when you learn their favourite is Inati: the Christchurch fine dining restaurant where the eight-course menu and wine pairing is over $400 per head.
The Graces didn't order the degustation menu every time. Even when they just wanted a glass of wine, Inati is where they chose to go.
Photo: Supplied
Grace recalls one night when, exhausted, she was picked up from work by her husband: "I said, 'just take me home, I'm shattered', so he parked outside Inati."
The chef's table, where they can sit and watch owner-chef and now "friend for life" Simon Levy at work, has become their second home.
A recent survey by the Restaurant Association showed that while the number of Kiwis eating out was in decline, when we go out, we want more from our restaurant experience.
We have less discretionary money, so if we're going to part with our cash, we really want to get something for it.
We want our home away from home to be the kind of experience we could never replicate at our actual home.
"I know it's pricey," acknowledges Allison Kirkman. "But I would sooner go to Logan Brown 12 times in a year than 24 times to somewhere else."
Allison Kirkman on the right, with her friend dining at Logan Brown, where she is a regular. Photo: Supplied
Kirkman reckons the number of times she's eaten at the iconic Wellington restaurant goes "well into the hundreds".
"I have a little table that they always put me at which is lovely, so I'll sit in the same place every time I go there."
Kirkman says dining out is her "hobby". And when she's choosing the restaurant, it will always be Logan Brown, with one exception: "I go to Floridita's for breakfast. Logan Brown isn't open for breakfast."
The idea of regulars at fine dining restaurants might seem incongruous, but restaurateurs say they are essential to their survival, particularly as tourism has dropped off post-pandemic.
"People that come in regularly, they're a friend," says Logan Brown owner Steve Logan.
Logan Brown, owner Steve Logan. Photo: RNZ / Hamish Cardwell
"One of our most important values is the value of consistency. People trust us… they've only got this little pile of money, so they go to Logan Brown, they're not going to be let down."
Regulars are "incredibly important" to Inati, says Levy. "Our regulars have always continued to support us."
In 2021, Levy and his wife Lisa opened a second restaurant. Seafood-focused Hali was a bistro, described as "relaxed" and "accessible".
Mid-pandemic, it seemed a shrewd move, but Hali failed to find the support it needed. It closed abruptly just two-and-a-half years later, while Inati lived on.
In January last year, Sid and Chand Sahrawat converted the entire Symonds St dining room of Auckland fine dining stalwart The French Café, which they bought in 2018, into a new, more casual eatery called Anise.
The French Café occupies a special place in Sid Sahrawat’s heart. Photo: Babiche Martens
Relegated to less than half its former covers in what used to be the private dining room, it seemed the death knell may have sounded after four decades for The French Café.
In fact, a scant year later the Anise concept was put "on hiatus" and The French Café reinstated to its former glory.
"There was a little bit of confusion for the diner," says Sid Sahrawat, but ultimately: "The French Café had more demand than Anise."
Kavita Deobhakta finds it hard to even ballpark how many times she's eaten at The French Café, dating back to before the Sahrawats took it over.
"Sometimes it's for a special occasion, but sometimes it's on a whim," she says. Her visits might be "at least four times a year," or perhaps "every couple of months". Suffice to say, she has dined there many, many times.
Deobhakta describes herself as a "keen cook" who also eats out often. "But when it comes to the standard of care and attention, and love, and food, and the whole package, The French Cafe would be my pick. From the minute you walk in the door it's like you're being transported."
Fine dining does not come cheap, and the regulars interviewed for this article are people of means: Kirkman is a Professor Emeritus, Deobhakta a partner in an Auckland law firm, and the Graces owners and operators of a tourism company.
But over the last, difficult, five years, the fine dining restaurants that remain standing have introduced ways of giving customers the experience without the hefty price tag.
Often when the Graces go to Inati, they share a couple of small plates from the à la carte menu, most of which are under $35. Those wanting to try Logan Brown's famous paua ravioli could book for Friday lunch and have that dish and a glass of wine for under $50.
The French Café now offers an eight dishes for $80 tasting menu on Tuesday nights (the four course degustation menu is $145), and a $75 prix fixe on Sundays and Mondays.
Not cheap, certainly, and far more expensive than cooking at home.
But, as more and more Kiwis seem to be saying, if you're going to pay to go out, you might as well get some bang for your buck.
And to anyone nervous about the idea of fine dining, Grace's advice is: go for it.
"I hope if they did walk in that Simon would treat them like he treated us, and then they would be hooked."
* Emily Brookes is a freelance lifestyle and entertainment writer.
