Heritage Hotel- Vegan Tapas- Auckland, NZ

This post is long overdue, but better late than never! While in Auckland, I had the pleasure of dining at the lobby bar of the Heritage Hotel, where they served a stunning array of vegan tapas. As if that wasn’t exciting enough for me, I got to enjoy those vegan tapas with the amazing Rika + Doni of vegan miam. it was so cool to be able to meet up with them as they spent a few days in Auckland. I have been following their travels and recipes through vegan miam for quite awhile, and they are just as awesome as you would imagine!! Hope we can meet up again soon 🙂

The Heritage Hotel is a pretty amazing place. I first stumbled upon it as I was looking for work in Auckland and noticed a chef position in the hotel which featured an entirely raw-vegan breakfast bar. The location was too far from Rhys and I’s home base to consider applying for the job, but I knew I had to try out the food at some point during the year!

I learned more from Rika + Doni, as they told me about the Heritage Hotel Group’s “Good Food Project” which had been rolled out across 20+ hotels! The aim is to introduce plant-based dishes to every menu (including raw breakfasts), use local and seasonal produce, use only healthy vegetable-based oils, ensure that guests with unique dietary needs are looked after, and keep kids options healthy. How awesome is that!? I wish every hotel could do this… Of course a project like this requires a talented chef, and chef Jinu Abraham is absolutely killing it in the kitchen! While he isn’t a vegetarian or vegan himself, his respect for plant-based foods is really awesome. His kitchen is so careful about keeping vegan food away from any tools, counter space, prep stations etc. that have come into contact with non-vegan foods.

The tapas menu is on from 5pm to 11pm and offers a large variety of vegan tapas, ranging from $8 NZD to $12 NZD.

The menu had so many things I wanted to try, and we ended up ordering “truffled mushrooms on sourdough”, “baked tempeh and cauliflower filo”, “mini arancini”, and “polenta crumbed artichokes”. This was definitely enough food for the three of us- I think we were all pretty full afterwards!!

We thought the polenta crumbed artichokes were perfectly crumbed with a nice crispy coating, and the eggless aioli was good, too. The truffled mushrooms on sourdough were beautiful, and a favourite among all of us. The mini arancini tasted very nice, but we all missed the flavour of the homemade vegan mozzarella- something we had been looking forward to tasting, but didn’t come through very strong in the dish. My ultimate favourite was actually the baked tempeh and cauliflower filo. Now, that is tempeh done RIGHT!