New Zealand is having a VERY good food moment. 🇳🇿🍴
For years, people have travelled halfway around the world to see our mountains, vineyards, beaches, hobbit holes and approximately 487 million sheep.
But since 2010 The Big Foody Food Tours has been shouting the very best reason to visit New Zealand.
The food.
New Zealand’s chefs, restaurants, winemakers, growers and producers are creating some seriously exciting things. Our dining scene is winning awards, attracting international attention and giving travellers another reason to arrive hungry.
The problem?
You have three days in Auckland, two in Wellington and a list of restaurant recommendations longer than your flight from Los Angeles.
So where on earth do you start?
That’s precisely why New Zealand food tours are such a brilliant way to begin a trip.
At The Big Foody Food Tours, we introduce visitors to the restaurants, people, ingredients and stories that make New Zealand delicious.
Could you ask Google where to eat?
Absolutely.
Could you ask AI?
Of course. It might even produce a colour-coded, geographically optimised, 14-stop eating itinerary before you’ve finished your flat white.
Very clever.
But neither Google nor AI can introduce you to the chef.
They can’t tell you the story that wasn’t written down. They can’t spot what’s just appeared on the menu that morning. And they definitely can’t shove a plate towards you and say:
“Forget what you were going to order. You HAVE to try this.”
We can.
So, here are 10 very good reasons to take a food tour in New Zealand with The Big Foody.
This is our golden rule.
If we wouldn’t happily spend our own money eating there, we’re not taking you there.
There are no stops simply because someone has paid to be included and no mysteriously compulsory visit to a gift shop selling fridge magnets and merino socks.
We choose our restaurants, cafés, bars and producers because we think they’re brilliant.
That’s it.
You know the sort.
Walk in. Sit down. Pre-prepared tasting plate arrives. Guide delivers paragraph 17 of the script. Everybody nods politely. Repeat.
No thank you.
A Big Foody tour is relaxed, conversational and built around what is actually happening in the city.
Menus change. Seasons change. Restaurants open. Chefs move. New dishes appear.
So our tours change too.
Whether you’re joining an Auckland food tour, exploring the capital on a Wellington food tour, or eating your way around another New Zealand city with us, we want you tasting the food that’s exciting now.
This is really what New Zealand food tours should be about.
Because our food tells the story of who we are.
Māori food traditions, Pacific influences, generations of immigration, extraordinary seafood, brilliant produce, excellent wine and a national ability to put almost anything inside pastry and call it lunch.
Yes, you’ll eat plenty.
But hopefully you’ll finish the tour understanding New Zealand a little better too.
This is the bit Google struggles with.
We know our chefs.
We know our restaurant owners.
We know our producers.
We know who’s making brilliant cheese, who’s doing extraordinary things with local seafood and which chef has quietly put something fabulous on the menu.
Sometimes we know what’s coming out of the kitchen before it officially reaches the menu.
Relationships matter.
They’re the difference between simply eating somewhere and feeling as though you’ve been properly introduced.
Eating in restaurants is research.
We will die on this hill.
Our team keeps track of new openings, award winners, seasonal ingredients, menu changes, chefs changing kitchens and the tiny neighbourhood place suddenly serving something spectacular.
It’s a tough job.
Somebody has to do it.
And because we do, you don’t have to spend six hours searching “best restaurants in Auckland” before your holiday.
Search engines have one tiny problem. They remember things. Sometimes for rather a long time.
That fabulous little restaurant mentioned in a “Best Places to Eat in Auckland” article from 2022?
It may have closed. The chef may have moved. The menu may have completely changed.
Meanwhile, somewhere around the corner, somebody has opened a tiny restaurant doing something utterly delicious that the internet hasn’t quite caught up with yet.
We have.
Our food tours evolve constantly because New Zealand’s food scene does too.
We’ve been introducing overseas visitors to New Zealand food for years.
Which means we’ve answered almost everything.
What is kūmara?
What exactly is a flat white?
Why are New Zealanders so obsessed with pies?
What’s the difference between green-lipped mussels and normal mussels?
Do you really eat that much lamb?
And, inevitably:
“Is this spicy?”
Ask away.
We love explaining the strange little details that make eating in another country so much fun.
Food tours aren’t only about food.
They’re also about logistics.
Cruise schedules. Flight delays. Jet lag. Dietary requirements. Tight itineraries. People who took a wrong turn somewhere around Queen Street.
And occasionally somebody who has eaten three courses before casually mentioning:
“Oh, I don’t really eat onions.”
Right.
Excellent time to mention it.
Fortunately, we’ve been doing this a while.
The Big Foody isn’t a global tour company with a head office 12,000 kilometres away.
We’re a privately owned New Zealand food tour company.
Our guides are local.
Our restaurants are local.
Our producers are local.
And the money our guests spend helps support the chefs, hospitality businesses, growers and food producers who make our cities such brilliant places to eat.
We think that’s important.
Possibly more than is entirely normal.
Our guides aren’t actors memorising scripts about restaurants they’ve never visited.
They’re food people.
They know their cities. They know what’s new. They know the chefs. They know the stories.
And they genuinely love that moment when somebody takes a bite, looks up and says:
“Oh WOW.”
That’s the good bit.
Yes! Particularly at the beginning of your stay.
A good food tour gives you far more than a few tastings. It introduces you to local food, helps you understand what to order, gives you restaurant recommendations for the rest of your trip and connects you with local people and stories.
That’s why we always think an Auckland food tour or Wellington food tour works brilliantly on your first or second day in the city.
You spend a few hours with a local food obsessive and suddenly know where you want to eat for the rest of your stay.
Much better than discovering your new favourite restaurant approximately 45 minutes before leaving for the airport.
We’re local, independent and food obsessed.
We choose places because we genuinely rate them, we continually update our tours as New Zealand’s dining scene changes, and our guides bring you into the stories and relationships behind the food.
You aren’t simply following somebody holding an umbrella.
You’re eating New Zealand with someone who knows it.
The Big Foody offers food experiences in cities around New Zealand, introducing visitors to local restaurants, chefs, producers, drinks and regional flavours.
Our Auckland food tours explore one of New Zealand’s most diverse dining cities, while our Wellington food tours dive into the brilliant food, coffee, wine and hospitality culture of the capital.
And we’re continuing to take our particular brand of eating, talking and general food nosiness around the country.
Absolutely. Ask Google. Ask AI. Read the reviews.
Make the spreadsheet. Save 63 restaurants to your phone.
And then come out with us. Because technology can tell you where to eat.
We’ll introduce you to the people who make New Zealand worth eating.
Come hungry.
We’ll take care of the rest.
The Big Foody Food Tours — local food tours, local guides and delicious experiences around New Zealand.
