Tala – Auckland, New Zealand

Had the pleasure of dining at Tala while visiting Auckland. Tala is a Samoan fine dining restaurant by Chef Henry Onesemo, we ordered Chef's Journey with the wine pairing which came out to roughly 9 courses and 5 glasses of wine.

We began with a welcome drink of Hibiscus tea with pineapple and Manuka honey which was a refreshing start to the evening.

The first course was a spiced pineapple slice similar to what Chef Henry would have eaten as a kid, this was served with a smoked applejuice which was surprisingly complex. Great start to the meal.

The next course was 3 snacks. The first of which was a taro chip topped with curry, pomelo, and seaweed – the curry shined through on this. The other two dishes were a soft boiled quail egg coated with what I believe may have been charcoal and a sauce made from quail egg yolk – absolutely delicious.

Following this was the Palolo course which was made with Foccacia and New Zealand Whitebait, this was up there as one of my favorite courses of the night.

Next was their take on Pisupo, which was a hardened shell of fermented carrot and celery (which we enjoyed cracking with a spoon) covering their sirloin and creme fraiche.

The course after this was a flatbread topped with cumin butter and a stracciatella-mushroom sauce which also had lion's mane mushrooms. We were instructed to tear open the bread and stuff it with the mushroom mix like a pita bread. This was the favorite course of both of the people I was dining with, another fun and delicious course.

The next course contained a fish broth and coconut mixture, a tuna ceviche with coconut, lime, and yogurt, and a Wonton Crisp topped with scallop, chili paste, and mango sorbet. The Wonton Crisp and Scallop was my favorite of this course, however all were enjoyable

The next was their main course which contained their take on roadside barbecue, a spiced pork rib that was brushed with honey, and Ume chicken served with a potato and leek puree. This was also served with a cup of the Ume chicken bone broth. This was without a doubt my favorite course, the rib had such an amazing flavor and was cooked to perfection. The ume chicken was similarly amazing, and the puree felt like a nice home cooked soup.

The next course was Copra, a coconut dessert dish which was freeze dried Coconut, Lychee, and Pavlova. This was served in a coconut and was our favorite dessert of the evening.

The final course of the night was a selection of desserts served in a woven basket. In order from left to right they were: Pavlova, coconut/coffee/dark chocolate, donuts in banana ice cream, meringue with coconut filling, and finally a pandan and coconut gummy.

This was an amazing time, what Chef Henry is doing to elevate Samoan food gave us such a fun evening and a chance to experience a cuisine that I was previously unfamiliar with. Definitely check out Tala if you're in Auckland for an amazing evening.