Hugo’s Bistro restaurant review - Auckland, New Zealand

Odettes Eatery has been a stalwart of Auckland’s dynamic food scene since local restaurateurs Clare and Joost Van Den Berg introduced its modern Levantine menu to a converted warehouse in the heart of Auckland City in 2014.
 
It’s with great anticipation, therefore, that a sister restaurant opens up on historic Shortland Street. Hugo’s Bistro will take on a more masculine aesthetic than Scandi-styled Odettes, with an invitingly dark colour palate of deep forest green offset by light New Zealand cedar wood panelling and banquettes upholstered  in a teal and navy geometric fabric by London fashion designer Emilia Wickstead, a friend of Clare’s. Combined with softer colours and textures including marimorino blush plaster and terazzo flooring that glints with a unique pink marble from the South Island’s Hamner Springs, the place is warm and inviting.

The ‘Earlier’ to ‘Later’ menu – which takes inspiration from regional cuisines across Europe and features dishes of kingfish pancetta, radish, and grapefruit or brisket, creamed spinach, dijon and rye bread – can be marvelled upon from behind the marble-topped open kitchen bar, while sipping a cucumber gimlet or fig sour.