VANUA
01 · The tasting room
Nine courses.
One fire.
Twenty seats
Thursday to Saturday
Suva, Fiji
scroll · dinner as theatre
02 · The idea
A twenty-seat room on the edge of Suva harbour, built around a single wood fire. No gas line enters the building.
Est. MMXXIVWood Kadavu vesi, onlyMenu turns with the reef and the rain
03 · Tonight
The procession
01Kokoda, undoneRaw wahoo, coconut cream charred in its shell, lime ash.cold
02The first fireFlatbread blistered over coals, smoked roe butter.warm
03Reef fish, wholeWood-fired, dark cane glaze, pickled shallot.fire
04Taro, three waysCrisped in tallow, whipped with kava honey, burnt.earth
05Duck and breadfruitAged over the hearth, bitter greens, its own fat.fire
06Wild honey, black iceFrozen over smoke, sea salt pulled at Navua.cold
...and three the fire decides on the night.
Nine courses · $190 per seatwine procession +$110
Reserve a table04 · The fire
Everything passes through the flame.
Mataiasi Rokovuni cooks the way his grandmother did on Kadavu: wood, salt and patience. The hearth is lit at noon and read all evening like weather. Even the water for the kava is warmed over it. Even the ice for the last course is smoked above it before it freezes.
“The fire is the only clock in the room.”
iThe hearth is lit at noon, read all evening
iiKadavu vesi wood, nothing else
iiiNo gas line enters the building
ivNothing meets a flame under four hours old