Category: behind-scenes

Marcus Lin spent six years cooking in three-star kitchens in London and Singapore before answering the call back home.

“Auckland has the produce. It has the diversity. What it needed was someone willing to be a little crazy,” he says. Jungle 8 — with its lush plant walls, ambient soundscape of tropical birds, and menu that changes with the seasons — is the result.

Wellington has been asking for Lucky 8 for two years. This March, we delivered.

The Courtenay Place space — formerly a 1920s theatre lobby — was the right canvas. High ceilings, gold leaf restoration, red lacquer banquettes. Same menu DNA as Auckland but tuned for the Wellington palate (more seafood, lighter sauces, a serious wine list).