What “Local and Organic” Actually Means at Our Table

“Local, organic, seasonal” is the most over-printed sentence in hospitality. We try to earn it one breakfast at a time, with eggs that came from a coastal farm rather than a flavour description, and produce that was in the ground this week.

Breakfast at Zen Garden begins with the egg. Fresh farm eggs and organic produce are the basis of everything we serve, and the menu follows what the season actually offers rather than what a supplier can ship. In June that might be a soft herb omelette and the first berries; in October, a warm grain bowl and roasted squash from a farm up the valley.

We would rather serve you four things that are perfect this morning than twelve that are merely available.

However you eat

This matters to us, so we will say it plainly: we cook for omnivores, vegetarians, and vegans, and for gluten-free, salt-free, and high-fibre diets, without making it a production. Tell us how you eat when you book, and again the evening before, and your breakfast will simply arrive the way it should. No one should have to negotiate their own table.

Where you eat

There is no dining room full of strangers here. Breakfast comes to you — privately, in the sitting room of the Hiroshige Suite, in the Bistro beside the Zen Room, or out on the patio when the weather earns it. You choose the evening before from what we're cooking, and we bring it at the hour that suits your morning.

The idea behind it

A good breakfast is the same discipline as a good garden: a few right things, attended to closely, in their season. That is the whole philosophy. The rest is just the kettle coming to the boil and the smell of toast drifting out into a cool coast morning.

---

— With warmth, from the garden.
Come and stay →