Over his long career as a restaurant critic, David Burton has written approximately 2000 restaurant reviews for The Dominion Post and its predecessor The Evening Post, as well as Cuisine magazine. Of these, the vast majority have been either positive or at least mixed. However, working on the principle that as much as people might affect to publicly disapprove of negative criticism, in fact they secretly thrive on it, Tart & Bitter is a selection of what he calls his ‘absolute scorchers’. These reviews span four decades from the 1980s, and along with small nuggety bits from many of his equivocating columns, build a highly entertaining picture of the most ground-breaking era of New Zealand’s restaurant history.

Acerbic and hilarious, these reviews feature a roll call of enraged chefs and owners, a stream of defamation threats in the era before the law changed, and an insightful glimpse into the worst moments of Wellington’s restaurant culture. Anyone interested in New Zealand food will delight in this wicked and compelling book.