Stolen Bike Catering opens Rotorua restaurant

Stolen Bike Catering has announced the opening of its new restaurant, ‘Matai’, based at the 5-star Regal Palms Resort in Rotorua. 

Rotorua locals and tourists should prepare themselves for a new flavour in town. Multi award-winning company Stolen Bike Catering has announced the opening of its new restaurant, ‘Matai’, based at the 5-star Regal Palms Resort on Fenton Street. Opening for diners on Monday 6th April, Matai Restaurant aims to position itself among New Zealand’s top restaurants and further promote Rotorua as a top-quality culinary destination.

Since its inception, Stolen Bike has created a strong following in the Rotorua culinary and catering area. Ryan Gregorash (pictured), owner and executive chef of Matai Restaurant is excited about the opportunity to partner with Regal Palms and with the next step in the evolution of his company.  

“Many of our clients have asked us when we planned to open up a restaurant. Opening a restaurant has always been part of our long-term plan but finding the right location has taken quite some time and we were delighted to be approached by the Regal Palms owners some months back.

“But Matai itself is a vision that’s been a number of years in the making – we’ve been building menus, testing out ingredients and planning for a long time now, and the team and I are looking forward to sharing this vision with our guests,” says chef Gregorash.

Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, Matai will produce outstanding, well-presented seasonal food that is flavoursome, tells a uniquely New Zealand story, and aims to be the best food of its kind its guests have ever tasted Gregorash explains.

“We believe that simplicity and an unfussiness in our food preparation is the only way to maintain freshness and to uphold the characteristics of each individual ingredient. At Matai, we aim to create powerful tastes and appealing aromas that our diners will always remember.”

Gregorash has a vision for Rotorua – for the city to be recognised for its culinary excellence in the same way it is renowned internationally for its mountain biking and tourism industries.

“Rotorua has been a must-do destination for tourists for many, many years. Tourists have traditionally come for our cultural tourism, our spa treatments and more recently our world-class mountain biking. Wouldn’t it be great if Rotorua could create a similar reputation for culinary excellence? At Matai, we want to create a benchmark dining experience for both tourists and locals that builds on our city’s wonderful reputation for great hospitality.”