Dear Beasty —

Our Winter menu is live this week (albeit with one typo…..gahh!) and we’re excited to bring you our classics, delicious new dishes and see the return of seasonal favourites. These beautiful clear Autumnal evenings are special, we’ve fired up the heaters and have made things cosy once again.

Summer was a blast — it was great to see so many of you out and about. Thank YOU for your patronage ! Conversations with folks from far and wide always fill our cup in the summer. We’re very grateful.

We heard a lot from international visitors this summer about how kind and gentle New Zealanders are overall — we heard this so consistently that it seemed relevant to share this feedback with you — folks might be struggling, and these are divisive times for sure, but you are nice people and it shows.

Having fallen down onto Customs St East last Saturday I can attest to this generosity. I fell so hard off the curb (“Where tf did that come from?!”) onto the road in front of traffic I actually couldn’t get up by myself. Knocked the stuffing right out of me. One young guy helped me up so I could get off the road and sit down on the footpath, then he returned a minute later with a pack of plasters from the Convenience store. Another offered to get me water, and a father and daughter combo stopped to ask if they could help too. The kindness of these strangers…. Whoever you were, thank you.

A few months back we made an addition to the dining room, and our large central wall is now entirely made up of acoustic paneling — absorbing some of the echoing reverb we get a bit of stick for. We confess Stu and I do like things noisy at Beasty, we like our music good and loud in restaurants, we like a top-notch sound system too (we were 90’s rave kids after-all), and this addition has taken a lot of that vibrating noise echo out of the space….it’s nice.

Wherever you are, however you like to dine — thank you for supporting your locals, your independents, and your owner-operators. There’s much good eating + drinking to be had below…. We hope to see you.

(Apologies for all the words, can you tell one of us is couch-bound?)

— Emma + Stuart (the best Chef-nurse) X

^ Above, Chef Kiahn plates the roasted Hapuka. With hokkaido scallop, scampi + chive ‘sausage,’ caramelised cauliflower puree, umeboshi, capers, pine nut dressing

Island Life at Beasty, with Planteray —

We’ve said it before, Planteray is hands down one of our favourite rum producers — the quality + depth of flavour is incredible. For all of May we’re celebrating Planteray’s amazing products a menu of delicious new Beasty cocktails by Craig and our bar team. Think toasted coconut daiquiris, a yuzu + lemongrass martini….and a delicately spiced Jungle Bird….So GOOD.

Highlights for winter —

Our light-as-air, warm, confit-garlic Japanese ‘Shokupan’ is back on the menu for winter — with a generous quenelle of miso brown butter. Baked daily there is not a lovelier garlic bread in the city, promise. And speaking of good, our Kushiyaki is NZ grain-fed eye-fillet steak, cooked over the hibachi coals and basted in Japanese tare seasoning — served with a hot mustard, wasabi chimichuri and black pepper shallots, it’s a bit of heaven on a plate.

One of our favourite takes on a vegetarian dumpling is back, the spiced tofu, savoy cabbage + spinach dumplings with a Schezwan tomato + sesame sauce, peanuts + chickpea furikake — comfort food at its finest. Pro Tip: Eat them as soon as they hit the table, while they’re piping hot !

Speaking of vegetarian — our Head Chef Giann has created a brilliant new Okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake). The roasted eggplant + kimchi Okonomiyaki appears on our Vegetarian menu and is mungbean based with savoy cabbage, spring onion, Japanese mayo, spicy bulldog sauce, togarashi emulsion, + sesame seeds….it’s deeply flavoured with smoky eggplant, perfect for the new season. This dish can be DF, GF and Vegan.

A warming hit of Neo-soul to take you into the cooler months —

I’ve been obsessed with Tems for a while, here’s another mix of her fantastic ‘Avoid Things’ with a mashup of some of my favourites by Badu + friends. Short and sweet, it’s a bit of a work-in-progress, and I’ll take suggestions if you know what else to add to it. — ER x

We’re open 7 Days from 12pm till late.
Bookings are recommended. Walk-ins always welcome.
Book online for 1—7 guests here.

Message +021 554 496 or email us at: eat@hellobeasty.nz
We are located at 95-97 Customs St West, Viaduct Harbour.

We’ve sent you this email as you’ve previously dined with us. If you prefer not to receive emails from us we totally get it — hit the ‘unsubscribe’ link below and you won’t hear from us again :)