Goldie's — Restaurant in Napier

If you can, give this new joint some love. We are staying in town for two nights in the early stretch of our 7-week NZ vacation. This place is not far from our hotel and looked like the funky family-owned places we prefer to visit. Their stripped-down menu makes it easier to focus on high-quality preparations with steady consistency. And for us, they nailed the lamb kebab starter and cacio e pepe main (good call using bucatini to hold all that unctuous sauce). While I feel like the annoyingly ubiquitous IPA should be fading from taps sooner rather than later, I found the two on offer were the ideal accompaniment to our sunny, spring afternoon meal. Our hosts were relaxed and friendly and the playlist paired nicely with the skater kids easing down the sidewalk, a bride and her pals coming out of the seamstress’s shop next door, and clusters of friends chatting along on their way to somewhere not...

There should be a queue down the street waiting to get into Goldies! This casual French bistro style restaurant delivers true quality and value. Perfect butler steaks, foccacia bread with burnt butter, authentic spaghetti, whole flounder, hot honey chicken.....choosing from the simple menu is a challenge. Had to have desert - the salted chocolate terrine with olive oil was my choice. The owner's goal is to make this restaurant "accessible." Well mate, you've achieved that with bells on! A must try for foodies...

We’ve been in New Zealand over two weeks and this is the best meal we’ve had here so far. The taquitos were phenomenal - great mix of spice and flavor. The lamb also had great flavor. I don’t normally love pasta cacio e pepe but this one was delicious - not overly peppery and not too oily, just right! But best of all was the eggplant dish. My husband (who is more carnivore than omnivore) wanted me to ask if we could get the recipe. Everything was fantastic and it was a casual, comfortable space....