Hillside Kitchen and Cellar in Tinakori Road is one of Wellington's top restaurants.

Top Wellington restaurant Hillside Kitchen and Cellar is dropping meat from September 4.

It's a striking move that underlines big changes to eating habits as more people turn away from meat.

Owner and chef Asher Boote admits as much.

Asher Boote is taking meat off the menu off his Wellington restaurant.

He says while there are a number of reasons for his established restaurant to make such a bold change, following the growing vegetarian and vegan market is one of them.

READ MORE:

* Hillside restaurant is textbook perfect

* Why restaurants are changing so dramatically

* What niggles us most when dining out

"No, it wont be everyone's cup of tea, but I think this is a chance to improve on what we are doing," he says.

"I don't necessarily see it as a negative stepping away from something. I think it might reach a few more people who wouldn't have thought about us and it kind of sets us apart."

He says no-one else is doing a vegetable focused menu at the higher-end like Hillside in Wellington.

"The growing conversation around these things is huge and the stats are that more and more people are eating a lower amount of meat or no meat, so we are just moving with the times really."

He agrees there is some risk, even if the tiny 24-seater size helps minimise that.

"There's always worry. I'm in the restaurant business and it's a pretty harsh game anyway. But we are not changing our philosophy, just our ingredients."

Will he call it a vegetarian restaurant?

"Technically it definitely is a vegetable-driven restaurant. It's vegetarian, we are not serving meat. Whether that's the term we are going to pick up on, or just the 'meatless' one, or 'these are the products we have and this is what we are cooking' ... " It's not been decided yet.

Boote is looking forward to the tighter focus making the kitchen more creative and innovative. And there will be a closer connection to the ingredients of which many will come from an expanded kitchen garden.

Hillside is three years old, has a Cuisine hat, and featured in a glowing 5-star review from Stuff food critic David Burton this month, who called it: "a perfect example of bistronomy, that French-led rebellion against pompous haute cuisine".

He said Hillside presented "high-end gastronomy in a low-end bistro setting, away from the expensive centre of town. Hillside fits the model in every respect".

Boote owns two other Wellington restaurants The Ramen Shop and Tinakori Bistro, which continue to offer menus packed with (free range) meat-based dishes.

﻿

* Comments are now closed on this article.