Delicious fresh salad and free range chicken at Bird on a Wire
Delicious fresh salad and free range chicken at Bird on a Wire
Bird on a Wire is perfect for a pit stop, pre-movies meal or family feast
The buzz On the second floor of the Bay's new mega mall, Tauranga Crossing, which has more than 100 stores and eateries, Bird on a Wire is conveniently located in the spacious Observatory dining precinct outsideEvent Cinemas.
With options to dine in or takeaway, Bird on a Wire has four restaurants in New Zealand, with Tauranga Crossing being the first outside of the Auckland region (the others are in Ponsonby, Takapuna, and Orakei Bay Village).
Free range chicken and salads and warm baguette
Bird On A Wire was started in 2012 by four friends with the aim of creating a delicious, healthy takeaway alternative, and to do so by capitalising on a category that they believed was poorly served in New Zealand, chicken. The plan being to become everyone's neighbourhood chicken shop.
With the convenience of a mall location, Tauranga's Bird on a Wire still has the feel of being an individual restaurant, with options for seating including cosy bench and corner seats with comfortable cushions, or a long table that gives you a view of all the comings and goings of the mall.
It has a fresh and modern feel that matches the philosophy of the eatery which offers dishes based around free range corn fed chicken rotisserie.
Rotisserie chicken
Menu
Although the menu is based around chicken, there are heaps of vegetarian options. In most of the main dishes, the chicken can be substituted for organic tofu or free range eggs and there are many plant-based salad options that you can have without chicken — or add tofu.
The six salad options change according to season, and there is always a seasonal vegetable dish on the menu too.
The salad menu is changed regularly
There's an all day brunch menu which includes the inventive Bird On A Waffle — buttermilk fried chicken on a home made waffle with chilli maple syrup, vanilla icecream, candied bacon and marscapone cheese.
There's sharing options if you fancy a snack with friends before the movies such as buttermilk fried chicken thighs, Hot Wings, Chicken Fat Roasted Agria Potatoes (from 6pm) with optional gravy and Free Range Chicken Liver Pate with Cornichons, Balsamic onions and baguette.
More sharing options include the chicken 'feeds' with baguettes, which basically is the free range chicken served hot straight off the rotisserie, with salad and a warmed baguette and salted butter.
You can opt for anything from a quarter chicken, right up to two whole chickens, according to how many in your group, or how hungry you are!
The kitchen
You can also choose from a selection of sauces to accompany the chicken including gravy, Mushroom truffle butter, Korean BBQ, Confit garlic herb & lemon or Jamaican jerk. There's also a range of burgers and filled baguettes to choose from, as well as a selection of mains including Chicken Schnitzel or Chicken Parmigiana all of which come with fennel slaw and beer battered chips.
We had We ordered all to share a portion of beer battered chips, a side of Roasted Cauliflower with Babaganoush, Za'atar and Lemon — which was huge and would do as a main vegetarian course, with the smoky garlicky babaganoush a delicious complement to the cauliflower.
We also shared a salad of courgette, pea and feta couscous which was decorated with tasty crunchy toasted seeds and a citrus mint vinaigrette.
We then shared a Chicken, Bacon & Pesto Baguette — filled with succulent pulled chicken, a creamy sun-dried tomato mayo, bacon and a slathering of pesto and rocket. My pesto loving friend declared it the best chicken pesto baguette ever.
We also had a BLT burger of grilled chicken, candied bacon, and a scrumptious filling of pickled onion, avocado, cheese, tomato, cos lettuce and garlic mayo. Again wonderfully juicy and fresh.
Bird on a Wire is next to the cinema entrance at Tauranga Crossing
We were too full to eat dessert, but you could always do dessert after the movie — there's chocolate brownie, New York Cheese Cake and fried do nuts.
To drink There's a great selection of New Zealand whites and reds and I liked that there is so much choice for non-alcoholic drinks from teas, coffees, hot chocolate, to kombucha, to smoothies, milkshakes, organic juices, six barrel soda, no sugar cola and coconut water.
We went for a berry smoothie — a refreshingly creamy mix of berries, banana, yoghurt, milk and honey, and a no sugar coke.
Berry smoothie
The verdict
It is great to have an affordable dine in and takeaway chicken restaurant the whole family, and especially the kids, will love, but that in the knowledge that it is free range, organic where possible, and free of nasties and chemicals, and made on site.
With friendly service, a fun, relaxed atmosphere and a variety of filling yet healthy food, Bird on a Wire is a great destination either for a pre or post movie feed, a pit stop when you are shopping, or a meal out in itself. Once you have tried it, you will want to go back.
