Milenta is tucked inside Victoria Park Market on Victoria Street West in the Auckland CBD, set beneath a large old pōhutukawa. It opened in 2022 with a South American point of view and a kitchen built around fire, and most dishes are cooked over glowing coals in an open hearth, so the smell of wood smoke drifts across the tables. The space has the feel of a sheltered terrace, with timber floors, woven chairs and hanging plants, and when Auckland weather turns the louvres close and heaters keep the room snug. Diners arrive either through the market itself or up the stairs from Drake Street, and on the nights it is closed to the public the restaurant hosts private functions on request.
The menu changes regularly with the seasons and reads like a tour of Latin flavours told through local ingredients. Raw dishes have included venison carpaccio seared in four peppercorns with tempura anchovies and charcoal miso aioli, a ceviche of the day’s catch in passion fruit and coconut tiger’s milk with purple kumara crisps, and smoked oysters under a smoked tamarillo mignonette. Snacks lean bold: grilled octopus on huancaina potato mousse with smoked chorizo vinaigrette, chicharron of crisp pork belly with agave picante, tajin and atchara, black tiger prawns grilled with aji panca and miso hollandaise, and burrata over purple kumara mousseline with charcoal focaccia. Fried parāoa comes paired with crema tatemada.
Larger plates are made for passing around. The ribeye on the bone, finished with smoked bone marrow and fresh tomato chimichurri, has become one of the restaurant’s signatures, and a wagyu birria short rib arrives with corn and potato crema and a rich birria butter sauce. Half a grilled chicken with pipián verde and turmeric pickled onions, or market fish in an amarillo chilli beurre blanc, offer lighter routes, while potato gnocchi with carrot and macadamia purée and a chipotle sauce suits vegans. Oyster mushroom anticucho and crisp Agria potatoes make strong sides, and codes beside each dish show which plates suit vegetarians and vegans and which avoid gluten or dairy. Sweet options have included a Caribbean suspiro with dulce de leche crema and meringue scorched with a hot iron, or a dark Aztec chocolate mousse enriched with marrow fat.
Drinks follow the same Latin thread. Cocktails have included a Milenta Margarita of chilli tequila, mango, lime and agave with a tajin salt rim, a Negroni Rosa softened with strawberry, a Milenta Tropic of spiced rum, Malibu and passionfruit, and a briny Pickeltini mixed with Pickles gin and a sweet and spicy brine. A limonada made with whole lime and condensed milk looks after anyone not drinking. The wine list travels from Central Otago pinot noir to Chilean carménère and Argentine malbec, with Peroni on tap and Sawmill beers. Next door, The Shy Guy is the restaurant’s private late night cocktail bar, a room of velvet booths, graphic tiles and a dance floor, and the whole of it can be taken over for a function.
Address: Victoria Park Market, 210-218 Victoria Street West, Auckland CBD, Auckland 1010
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