Today is the last day of Restaurant Month. What a month it’s been! On Saturday was Street Eats, a highlight and grand finale event of Restaurant Month. I arrived at Street Eats at 10.30am when it opened, paid $5 admission and set upon documenting and eating my way through the huge selection of delicious food.
As I’ve mentioned before, going early is the best way to avoid crowds at Street Eats. I only had to wait in line for 1 dish and since I got there early before the crowds, I even got to chat to some chefs about their dishes.
Each restaurant, eatery, pop up and food truck offered between 3 and 5 dishes, all under $10.
Shed 10 was filled with restaurants and plenty of seating. In the centre island, drinks could be bought from various wine, cider and beer retailers. With festive bunting and live music it was set for great atmosphere. Food trucks and pop ups lined the outside space between Shed 10 and The Cloud.
I had already eaten at both Mexico and Orleans last week so I skipped them, though their offerings are always popular with the crowd.
I was curious to see what the higher end restaurants had for Street Eats. I usually go for the street food vendors at Street Eats but since I have eaten at Street Collective a lot in the last little while as well as Graze and Feast, I thought it would be good to concentrate on the restaurant offerings.
Harbourside and Botswana Butchery are two restaurants in The Ferry Building in downtown Auckland are part of Good Group, headed by Executive Chef Stuart Rogan.
I tried the pork, prawn and wood ear sausage ($10) from Harbourside. The sausage was house made and available only at Street Eats. With grilled baguette, Asian slaw, saracha mayo, crispy shallots this was bright and zingy. Pork and prawn is one of my favourite combos and reminded me a lot of Cantonese dumplings such as siu mai. The roll was tasty and wonderfully messy.
At Botswana Butchery, Executive Chef Stuart Rogan was personally assembling the peking duck dish ($10) for a growing queue of foodies and the hanging roast ducks were great to see. The queue for peking duck was one of the longer queues but worth it. It also gave me a chance to take a break from eating while Instagraming and people watching.
The Cut on Federal isn’t a restaurant I’m familiar with but I tried their Pork 3 ways: confit pork belly, pulled pork crackle and apple slaw ($7). Perfect for a pork-loving foodie. These were pre-assembled so quick to grab and go.
It was great to see happy foodies, old and young, eating and soaking up the atmosphere. There was really something for everyone. I have to admit, after 3 dishes, I was done. I wish I could have stomached more. If I had room, I might have tried El Faro’s Spanish Paella $5 or iVillage’s prawn tandoori.
Below are photos I took of the day. Enjoy!
Chefs at Harbourside making my Pork and Prawn dog
Harbourside: Pork, prawn and wood ear mushroom with Asian slaw and crispy shallots. The sausage was house made and only available at Street Eats. The flavours were fresh and zingy though the sausage reminded me of yum cha favourites.
Executive Chef Stuart Rogan personally assembling the Peking Duck for Botswana Butchery, Street Eats
Shiny roast ducks waiting to become Peking duck at Botswana Butchery, Street Eats
Peking duck assembly line at Botswana Butchery, Street Eats
Pork 3 ways: Pork belly confit, pulled pork and crackle with apple slaw. The Cut on Federal
Tandoori chef at iVillage, Street Eats
The team at Besos Latinos
El Faro’s Spanish paella
Adding chorizo to the Spanish paella
Fritters and chips
Sweet harmonies for our ears
Lamb Pot Pie, slow cooked shoulder, parmesan mash, heirloom carrot and peas by The Cut on Federal
Fritz’ Wieners
Judge Bao crew
Ryan’s Kitchen
The Food Truck
Bunny Eats Design 
This is epic stuff Genie !! The pork 3 ways and yum cha sausage got me going. So many good pics too !
Yep, pork seems to be a favourite 🙂
ERMAHGERRRDDD so much food. My kind of event – wish I’d gone 😀
It was quite kiddie friendly too. There’s always next year…Just 12 months to work up an appetite 😀
Loving the look of that paella!
I don’t know how many times I went “Aww man, I should have tried those!” while reading your post.
Loving the pics Genie! Sounds like the higher end restaurants all did Asian influenced dishes. I’m always a bit wary of these restaurants joining in on making ‘street eats’. Good job on getting there early and missing the crowd and lack of ventilation!