New Zealand's only two-MICHELIN-star restaurant
When the first MICHELIN Guide to New Zealand was announced in June 2026, one restaurant in the country took Two Stars, and it was this one. Essence is also the first two-star restaurant anywhere in Oceania.
Paul Froggatt runs the kitchen as Director of Culinary. The dining room sits on the hillside at the ROKI Collection hotel, and it is deliberately understated — a long view down to the lake and very little else competing with what is on the plate. The evening tasting menu is called The Journey, built on what is seasonal and good in New Zealand at the time you sit down, with wine and mocktail pairings run alongside it. The list is deep in Central Otago Pinot Noir, which is what you would want twenty minutes from Gibbston.
It is open in the evenings to hotel guests and to anyone else who books. This is a meal to build an evening around rather than squeeze between other things — dinner only, five nights a week, and book a long way ahead.
Award: Two MICHELIN Stars, MICHELIN Guide New Zealand 2026.
- Special occasion
- Date night
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