Wellington restaurant Hiakai announces closure, chef Monique Fiso says times have changed

Famous Wellington restaurant Hiakai will close its doors for good in March, citing a changed world — and a landlord selling the building.

Opened initially as a pop-up by chef Monique Fiso in 2016, Hiakai’s bricks-and-mortar restaurant opened its doors in 2018 and was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Things to Do in the World.

Fiso was one of only 24 internationals (and the only New Zealander) selected to compete in Netflix’s The Final Table, filmed at a reported cost of $2 million an episode. When Gordon Ramsay came to Aoteatoa to shoot his television show Uncharted, it was Fiso who took the British chef to Stewart Island to hunt goat, dive for pāua and forage root vegetables and berries.

Hiakai focused on fresh, innovative Māori cuisine and people loved it. As a result, Hiakai was booked out a year in advance as people flocked to try what Fiso was cooking up.

Chef Monique Fiso foraging for Wellington's Hiakai restaurant. Photo / Supplied

However, six years on, Hiakai is shutting up shop.

“The world has changed since those doors opened, and so have we,” reads a post on the restaurant’s Facebook page.

“The landscape for owning a small business is incredibly tough and running a restaurant of this magnitude is all-consuming. A passion project. Every single day we gave it everything we had, and so did our team.

Now we are ready for change. At a time of unprecedented global food crises, we want to be part of the solutions.”

But the closure is also due to rental changes. The landlord is selling the building in which Hiakai resides, which showed the “time was right” to close, according to the Facebook post.

“We will truly miss the building and the whenua on which it stands. There is a rich tapestry of history here and we have felt protected by the energy of this place. We are honoured to now be a part of that history.”

Hiakai is fully booked until the doors close in March — but there could still be a shining light of hope for those who haven’t managed to get a booking.

“Please know that there will be opportunities in the future. Hiakai is evolving, not coming to an end.”

Vita Molyneux is a Wellington-based journalist who covers breaking news and stories from the capital. She has been a journalist since 2018 and joined the Herald in 2021.