Foodies rejoice: there are plenty of diverse culinary options right on your doorstep! West Hills is located right by a wonderful range of eatery options. Find your new favourite cafés, restaurants, and wineries right around the corner, whether that’s an award-winning restaurant, quality café, takeaway, bar, local brewery or beer garden, or one of the heritage wineries in the vicinity. If you’re after a market experience, popular boutique Catalina Bay Farmers Market is close by, right on the waterfront at Hobsonville Point, or head a little further afield for Te Atatu Night Market or Coatesville Village market. Enjoy your choice of nature’s best on your doorstep, picking fresh sweet berries during the ‘pick your own’ strawberry season at local strawberry farms for a quintessential Kiwi summer activity in nearby Taupaki, Riverhead, and Kumeu.
Be spoilt for choice when it comes to great places to eat, drink and enjoy what West Hills and its surrounds has to offer. Whatever style or cuisine you’re after, West Hills has you sorted.
Source café
Handily located just behind the NorthWest Shopping Centre in Westgate, Source café is a family-friendly spot serving up eats that prioritise provenance. The team focuses on sourcing ethically and sustainably produced produce, and are always interested in building relationships with like-minded local suppliers. Open seven days, enjoy a broad offering of delicious breakfast, brunch and lunch options from the menu, or have a hard time picking from a cabinet positively groaning with goodies if you need to grab and go. Once your appetite’s been satiated, why not gather some treats from the cabinet to take home, or even another takeaway coffee before you hit the road.
Little Creatures Brewery
Down the road on Hobsonville Point, Little Creatures Brewery is housed in an epic-scale waterfront venue all set to share the love of great craft beer and warm hospitality with you. Named after its famous pale ale with the distinctive cloudy appearance and unique flavour, Little Creatures offers an impressive menu of eats, from bar snacks to full meals, plus caters well to vegetarians, vegans, and families with its on-site indoor play area and kids menu. Situated within the soaring historic Sunderland Seaplane Hangar originally built in 1939 to house the gargantuan Royal New Zealand Air Force Short Sunderland aircraft, the space features a number of different drinking and dining areas for you to pick from to enjoy your hoppy adventure. Don’t forget to check out the five massive fermenters on site.
Visit Little Creatures Brewery website
Hallertau Beer Garden
Nestled nearby in the rolling hills of Riverhead on the Coatesville Riverhead Highway, the Hallertau Brewery and Biergarten brews hopping good beer from locally sourced ingredients. But their exceptional craft beer selection is not all that’s on offer: the outdoor kitchen serves up fresh and local food, with small plates to share, more hearty options to complement your beer of choice, and an array of wood-fired pizzas. Sit back and enjoy your chilled beverage and food selection on the large wooden communal tables in the beer garden, under a colourful retractable canopy roof surrounded by lush tropical plants. If caffeine’s more your thing, grab yourself a cup of organic Kokako coffee served in unique handmade cups by Muriwai local, Lily Weeds. There’s plenty to keep the kids entertained with a playground on-site, plus giant wooden connect four game. This is casual weekend dining to soak up all afternoon.
Visit Hallertau Beer Garden website
The Hunting Lodge
Head up the road on a countryside escape to award-winning Hunting Lodge restaurant, winery and vineyard: New Zealand family-owned and situated on a site in Waimauku rich in history. Home of New Zealand’s original Sauvignon Blanc vines and once a real hunting lodge for the Kerr-Taylor family, this working winery includes a restaurant, lawn bar and cellar door, featuring wine crafted from small parcels of grapes. Enjoy boutique wines and locally crafted brews alongside gourmet sharing-style food in the restaurant, where you can design your own menu, or Trust the Chef for the full experience. The food philosophy is inspired by the changing seasons and local produce. Sit back and relax at the Lawn Bar, or grab a picnic blanket and take in the scenic views of the 80-acre vineyard and the rolling hills of Waimauku. Don’t want to leave? Just book the Wildernest tent, for an overnight glamping experience.
Visit The Hunting Lodge website
The Riverhead Tavern
Dining at New Zealand’s oldest riverside tavern (established 1857) presents the delightful choice of arriving by road or by water: The Riverhead has its own jetty. Whether you bring your own boat – or the car – enjoy the airy outside deck surrounded by 100-year oak trees at The Landing Restaurant, providing a relaxed dining setting and premium pub fare whether you’re settling down for a romantic meal, catching up with friends, or treating the family. The Portage neighbourhood bar is the perfect spot to unwind with a cool beer and good old chat, with pool on offer, live sport, historic memorabilia on the walls, and hearty food to be savoured. The Riverhead offers Sunday live sessions during summer.
Visit The Riverhead Tavern website
Huapai and Kumeu heritage wine region
Right on the doorstep of a heritage wine region, West Hills boasts plenty of options when it comes to a boutique cellar door visit. The Huapai and Kumeu heritage grape growing region is an area steeped in tradition and home to some of the oldest established vines in New Zealand, with diverse wines that reflect New Zealand’s outstanding cool climate viticultural conditions, many of which have gained international acclaim.
Soljans Estate Winery has been family owned and run since 1937, with a cellar door and bistro for a bite to eat, plus themed dinners on offer.
Kumeu River Wines, still run by the Brajkovich family from the 1930s to today, produces internationally recognised Chardonnay. The vineyard has become the globally recognised benchmark for non-Burgundy produced Chardonnay.
Coopers Creek Vineyard, a family-owned winery producing fine wines from grapes in New Zealand’s top wine-growing regions since 1980, hosting popular events such as afternoon jazz on Sundays during the summer months.
Westbrook Winery, established in 1935 and still family-owned, features a winery, vineyard and cellar door with wine tasting, platters, pizzas, and grapes sourced from their home vineyard, twenty acres of park-like grounds set in picturesque Waimauku.
The Hunting Lodge Winery offers a lawn bar and cellar door, so you can try their boutique wines and locally crafted brews alongside gourmet yet casual sharing-style food.
Visit The Hunting Lodge Winery
If craft beer is your tipple of choice, Little Creatures Brewery and Hallertau Beer Garden offer plenty of options to keep you happy with a chilled beverage in hand.
