Kisa, Wellington

This uber-cool restaurant brings sophisication paired with a relaxed culinary vibe – and stunning dishes – to the Wellington dining scene.

Kisa, brought to you by the talented team behind Wellington’s beloved eateries Mr Go’s and Ombra, offers a refined yet relaxed culinary experience with Turkish and Middle Eastern-inspired cuisine.

Dean White is the visionary entrepreneur making his mark with this, his third local restaurant. Hospitality has been Dean’s calling since childhood – starting with a Saturday job at just 12 years old, washing dishes at the Dowse Art Museum. Eventually he moved to front-of-house, and continued working in hospitality until doing a Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in tourism and hospitality. Since opening Mr Go’s in 2016, he hasn’t looked back.

Funnily enough, as Dean explains, Kisa was never meant to be a long-term project. “Kisa was originally designed to just be a pop-up! So much so, it is in the name – ‘Kisa’ is Turkish for ‘short’! We started it in our event space LTD. I had a bit of an idea to do Middle Eastern cuisine and was very lucky to hire our chef, Jonny Taggart, to execute it. His food is phenomenal and the pop-up was a big success, albeit in a more fast-casual setting.”

Despite being an instant success, like any venture in hospitality in New Zealand in the last few years, the path to its opening was not straightforward. Dean shares the original strategy and talks of the grit and determination required to bring it to life as well as the inspiration behind the interiors: “Kisa is a story of perseverance, backing the concept and a lot of luck. The LTD. event space was born out of our old private dining room, Ruyi Room, for Mr Go’s. Post lockdowns, private events were pretty fragile and variable, so LTD. was born for us to take a bit of a lead and run our own events and pop-ups.”

“In lockdown I watched an interview with Sydney’s hospitality king, Justin Hemmes of Merivale Group. He said something that really stuck which was about building space you want to spend time in, and hoping then others do too. When we did the Kisa fit-out, I kept thinking about this, quizzing my senior team. Justin then said, in that space, serve good food and drinks with good service and chances are people will come. So, in terms of what it means to me as a restaurant, it’s a place I like spending time, and I hope guests do too.”

The resultant travel photos and mood boards put together as a brief certainly did the trick. The interior, designed by Buster Caldwell and Abi Phillips of Auckland studio Wonder Group, is breathtakingly gorgeous. With the attention to detail of a Wes Anderson movie, there is a sense of style and élan throughout.

The floor consists of hexagonal travertine tiles custom-made in Peru, the wooden tables are graced by 1960s French bistro chairs and the soft ochre-coloured walls are cleverly made to look like weathered concrete despite being plasterboard. With antique urns, minimalist art and symmetrical corduroy banquet seating on the design menu, I was immediately besotted – and did indeed want to spend more time there.

We arrived early for dinner, and once settled at our table by the warm and helpful staff, quickly ordered the obligatory (for me) Marmara Negroni and a Sumac Mule for PD. In between jumping up and down to photograph the irresistible interior, we managed to order our sumptuous feast, starting with Hummus with red zhug, crispy chickpeas and parsley oil. The smooth hummus was rich and satisfying while the zhug (originally from Yemen), was a spicy, garlicky, chilli-based delight served with house-made pita on the side. It must be the Dutch-girl in me, but I can’t resist anything fried, so next up was the Mozzarella boreks with tomato butter, black olive and toum. The oozing, melty mozzarella encased in crispy fried dough was stunningly good with a generous scoop of cloud-like toum. With a myriad of meaty options to choose from, most prepared on the charcoal grill in the open kitchen, we went with the Wild tahr Adana kebabs with pickled green tomatoes and za’atar. Himalayan tahr, found in New Zealand’s Southern Alps, has a gamier- than-goat flavour that works perfectly with the smokiness of the grill char and the zingy tang of the za’atar. There were so many more options we would have loved to have tried but will save until next time. Dean’s favourites are the Date labneh and the Lamb Urfa kebabs, which must be added to the list!

Dean and chef Jonny have done a wonderful job bringing this restaurant to life with its casual, sophisticated and soothing interior and flavour-packed menu, and just as importantly, with amazing service.

A big shout out to our wait-staff, who were friendly, efficient and absolutely delightful – thanks Kisa... we’ll be back!

Menu Recommends

• Lamb Urfa kebab with marinated tomato and parsley yoghurt
• Date labneh with date jam and dried orange
• Hummus with red zhug, crispy chickpeas and parsley oil
• Mozzarella boreks with tomato butter, black olive and toum
• Wild tahr Adana kebabs with pickled green tomatoes and za’atar
  
  

 195 Cuba Street, Te Aro, Wellington
https://kisarestaurant.co.nz/kitchen/
@kisa_wgtn