Meet the Supreme Winner of Viva Top 50 Restaurants 2025.
“Choosing a Supreme Winner usually takes hours of discussion and negotiation, but I will be honest and tell you that this year it only took a few seconds,” says Viva dining out editor and Top 50 judge Jesse Mulligan.
Tala,
Jesse delivered the news in person to Tala’s unsuspecting co-owners Henry and Debby Onesemo.
Viva arranged the interview under the guise of a new video series talking to Auckland’s top chefs.
Henry, Tala’s executive chef, looked genuinely concerned as Jesse admitted why he was really there.
“I haven’t been completely honest with you...” he began.
Any confusion quickly morphed into peals of delighted laughter as Jesse revealed Tala had been judged Viva’s No 1 Auckland restaurant.
“Our ultimate test when we’re choosing a Supreme Winner is we ask, ‘where would you be excited to send someone?’, and we would just be so, so excited for anyone to come and sit in this beautiful restaurant,” Jesse told an emotional Henry.
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Advertise with NZME.The accolade tops off a successful year for Tala. The restaurant was awarded a prestigious three-hat rating at the 2025 Cuisine Good Food Awards in August, and Henry won a “knife” at The Best Chef Awards in Milan in October. He travelled to Italy for the ceremony.
But life could have looked very different for Henry, who tried three other career paths before becoming a chef. He says cooking was never something he aspired to when growing up in Samoa.
“It was a chore. It was something I hated,” he says. “Waking up in the morning to do chores and cooking was not a fun thing for me... I had younger brothers at home I had to take care of, I had to cook and prep their lunches, and I hated it.”
He pursued other avenues. He moved to America and joined the military, then became a dancer in a Hawaiian luau show, followed by six years dancing at Walt Disney World in Florida.
That’s where he met his wife, Debby, who he says is instrumental in Tala’s success.
“I always say, and I’m not joking, if Debs wasn’t around, this restaurant would shut in two days,” Henry says. “I can’t book a flight or pay a bill to save my life. She does a lot to make this work for us. I’m lucky to have a partner like her.”
Talking to Viva in 2023, while preparing to launch Tala, Debby said she and Henry wanted to create “a unique experience” for guests.
“I want people to be able to shut the world off for a few hours and to let us take care of [them].”
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Advertise with NZME.For Jesse and his co-judge, food writer Kelly Gibney, Tala was an easy choice for Top 50 Supreme Winner.
“From the non-alcoholic welcome drink that is handed to you upon arrival, to the first few courses that are eaten without cutlery, you very much feel that you are in Henry’s home,” says Kelly in her judging notes. “This is his vivid vision of what modern Samoan cuisine can be.”
Debby told Viva earlier this year, in a story about how Auckland restaurants got their names, that Tala means “story” in Samoan.
“Tala was never about opening a restaurant but rather starting a conversation about Samoan food and telling its story,” she said. “That’s why it’s an important part of the Tala experience that guests hear the Samoan stories about the food they are eating.”
Henry credits his childhood in Samoa for developing his “very distinct palate”.
“I can always rely on those childhood memories to bring back the flavours. A certain smell, a certain texture, a certain flavour, that I can put back into the dishes I create today.”
The nostalgia he creates with his menu has been known to bring guests to tears. Such as Tala’s take on fai’ai eleni, which traditionally would be made with mackerel or sardines (tinned or fresh), onions and coconut cream.
When it was on the menu at Tala, Henry made it with whole, deboned herring.
“A couple of times, people just started bawling because it reminded them of eating fai’ai eleni in Samoa,” he says.
There’s a strong emotional connection to his food for Henry, too.
“My dad, he just passed away last year... He used to take me to the fish markets early in the morning on Sunday mornings. He loved to pick the fish that we were going to eat, and then we would go home, he would get ready for the umu, and making the palusami was one of his favourite things.
“Since we’ve opened, we’ve always had a palusami dish on the menu.”
This year, Henry brought in a new head chef, Tommy Hope, a Kiwi who has worked at The French Cafe in Auckland, as well as Melbourne’s The Town Mouse, Embla and Attica. At the latter, working under New Zealand-born chef Ben Shewry, menus showcased native Australian ingredients and indigenous culture, a good foundation for his move to Tala.
“It’s nice working with people who are aligned in their vision,” Tommy told Viva’s Kim Knight earlier this year. “And we’re very fluid in the menu – we’ll change a dish mid-service because Henry has this idea and it’s great. We kind of bend the rules. Some dishes are very traditional and then there are others that we just evolved. There are no rules, it’s an exploration.”
This “no rules” approach should give comfort to anyone who thinks a “fine-dining” restaurant will be too formal, too stuffy for them.
As Kelly writes in her judging notes for this year’s Top 50, “this is fine dining, without a doubt, but there is a generosity and playfulness here, not always readily associated with that level of dining”.
Now the main barrier to Tala will be getting a table – being named the 2025 Top 50 Supreme Winner means a reservation here will be the hottest booking in Auckland this summer.
But do try. The Onesemos have filled Tala with love, writes Jesse.
“For food, for each other and for the rituals of communal eating. The evening feels special from the moment you walk down their cobbled lane and somebody opens the door to welcome you in.”
For everything the judges thought about Tala, as well as the full list of top 50 Auckland restaurants, read the story here.
More on Tala
Read more about our Viva Top 50 Supreme Winner
Inside Tala, The New Auckland Restaurant That’s A Samoan Sophisticate. At contemporary “fun dining” restaurant Tala, Henry and Debby Onesemo’s long-held vision of bringing refined Samoan food to the table is finally being realised.
Jesse Mulligan Restaurant Review: Tala, Parnell’s Beautiful New Samoan Spot, Is Unlike Anything Else In This City. The food is exceptional, without exception.
Tala Has A New Head Chef. What Will Tommy Hope Bring To The Samoan Table? He’s never been to Samoa, but he can’t wait to put its sea worms on the menu in Parnell.
Why Are You Called That? The Stories Behind The Names Of Your Favourite Restaurants. Auckland is a city rich in restaurant names that are anything but generic.
