ABOUT PALATE

Palate was founded in 2005, it is a keeper on Hamilton’s menu of great places to eat,  independently owned and operated by locally trained chef Mat McLean and his business partner (and sommelier) Larissa Muller.

In 2024, Mat and Larissa moved Palate to the SkyCity building, in the heart of the CBD. This was an opportunity for them for to offer a more flexible menu, and four different dining spaces. There is the street-front courtyard, two indoor rooms, and another casual nook in the SkyCity atrium, directly under the unique (and magnificent) glazed roof dome, a design feature of the building that was once Hamilton’s Chief Post Office. The atrium seating includes Palate’s chef’s table, in direct sight of the kitchen, the engine room designed by Mat where the South American-style asada grill occupies prime real estate.

Mat cooks from scratch each day on the grill, his menus influenced by local availability. If boxes of white asparagus, globe artichokes, or whitebait, flounder, or similar, unexpectedly turn up from a supplier, he’ll tweak the menu and put them straight on his customers’ plates.

He has visited farms, horticulture blocks and beaches to learn first-hand about the food he cooks and his dishes showcase the best of the Greater Waikato’s fruits, vegetables, truffles, meats, seafood, and cheese. Other quality suppliers from the rest of the country are brought onboard as needed.

Mat describes his food as “complicated simplicity”, produce-driven and highly innovative but not fine dining: he wants customers to feel at home, to pick up a lamb cutlet in their fingers, to mop up the last bit of sauce with sourdough, to laugh out loud, and to enjoy Palate’s perfect mix of excellent food, drinks and service.

Palate’s longevity and creativity is particularly notable in a hotly competitive industry, and top hospitality commentators commend it for this. Mat and Larissa say it’s down to them valuing their staff, customers and suppliers, listening to feedback, and adapting to changing times.  And Palate is exactly the kind of place that they’d like to eat at themselves.