Have you been to The Birdwood restaurant?
REVIEW: The food gods were listening and they might just be Italian.
A couple of months ago I reviewed Somerfield Italian restaurant Piccolo and bemoaned the lack of similar establishments.
"In a perfect world, every suburb would have a neighbourhood Italian restaurant," I wrote.
Weeks later, neighbourhood Italian restaurant The Birdwood opened in Beckenham, and after giving them a chance to find their feet, I subjected the staff to the cruelest of tests: bringing four ravenous boys on a wet Saturday night.
When we booked, we had been warned that we would be at a high bar table and when I saw how packed the restaurant was when we arrived, I had to apologise as three boys had turned into four. Would that be a problem? It took some scrambling to find a spare chair but we were seated, no problem.
-- Read the full review by clicking the link below.
Share your favourite main crop potato recipe and win a copy of our mag!
Love potatoes? We will give away free copies of the May 2026 issue to readers whose potato recipes are used in our magazine. To be in the running, make sure you email your family's favourite way to enjoy potatoes: mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz, by March 1, 2026.
Poll: 🤖 What skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?
The Reserve Bank has shared some pretty blunt advice: there’s no such thing as a “safe” job anymore 🛟😑
Robots are stepping into repetitive roles in factories, plants and warehouses. AI is taking care of the admin tasks that once filled many mid-level office jobs.
We want to know: As the world evolves, what skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?
Want to read more? The Press has you covered!
-
52.6% Human-centred experience and communication
-
14.8% Critical thinking
-
29.8% Resilience and adaptability
-
2.8% Other - I will share below!
Some Choice News!
DOC is rolling out a new tool to help figure out what to tackle first when it comes to protecting our threatened species and the things putting them at risk.
Why does this matter? As Nikki Macdonald from The Post points out, we’re a country with around 4,400 threatened species. With limited time and funding, conservation has always meant making tough calls about what gets attention first.
For the first time, DOC has put real numbers around what it would take to do everything needed to properly safeguard our unique natural environment. The new BioInvest tool shows the scale of the challenge: 310,177 actions across 28,007 sites.
Now that we can see the full picture, it brings the big question into focus: how much do we, as Kiwis, truly value protecting nature — and what are we prepared to invest to make it happen?
We hope this brings a smile!
Loading…
