Ragtag is a small neighbourhood restaurant at 162 Garnet Road in Westmere, Auckland, opened in December 2022 by chef Dan Freeman after he had spent his weekends serving Ragtag tacos at temporary spots around Auckland. Freeman cooked in London and then at Alma in Britomart before settling here, and the place was modelled on the neighbourhood wine bars he and his wife had loved overseas. It spreads over two storeys, with a dark timber bar, cream and teal walls hung with framed London maps, bar seats and an open kitchen at the back. Dogs are welcome, an outdoor area sheltered by awnings holds long shared tables, and an upstairs room seats up to eighteen for private dining, while the biggest table downstairs takes seven.
Everything revolves around the tortillas. The team makes more than four hundred flour tortillas by hand every day, enriched with duck fat to a soft, fluffy texture, using a dough they learned from friends at Sonora in London. Ragtag happily calls itself one hundred per cent not authentic, and rather than chase Mexican tradition its flavours lean towards Taiwan, Southern barbecue and the classic English pub. Tortillas are treated as the star rather than a wrapper, arriving in stacks of six with each large plate so the table can build its own. The menu shifts often, so a favourite from one visit may have given way to something else by the next. Even the crisps get attention, dusted with hot chicken seasoning and kiwi onion.
Small plates might include a torched raw fish tostada with apple salsa and nam jim, an octopus tostada with chilli jam and fresh herbs, smashed cos with basil ranch, chilli crisp and egg, and barbecued asparagus glossed with green curry butter. Beef nuggets with spicy green chilli sauce and duck carnitas tacos with beetroot salsa sit on the same list. The large plates are where the tortillas earn their keep: smoked lamb with korma and mint chutney, market fish with green zhoug and crisp potatoes, crispy aubergine with baba ganoush and pickled onion, and a hefty 600 gram steak on the bone with hot sauce and a soy egg. Sticky toffee pudding, Basque cheesecake with boysenberry and a lemon meringue bombe Alaska with Ritz crunch close things out.
Drinks keep the same playful tone. Cocktails might include a salted cherry sour, a plum collins, a margarita lifted with kaffir lime and a paloma with a Sichuan edge, and wine pours straight from the tap, including a rosé made with Three Fates under the Ragtag name and a chilled red. Tiger Milk IPA flows from the beer tap alongside Garage Project brews, and a cellar list runs from Kenzie albariño and Craggy Range pinot noir to Bollinger. The kitchen can amend most dishes for dietary needs, though tortillas made in house mean traces of gluten cannot be ruled out, and children can have the quesadilla with cheese alone. Vegetarian mains get particular attention, with the aim of making them every bit as satisfying as the meat.
Address: 162 Garnet Road, Westmere, Auckland 1022
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