Ima Cuisine specialises in authentic Mediterranean and Middle-Eastern home-style food owned and run by notable chef, Yael Shochat. Yael is a Jewish New Zealander born in Haifa, and has been sharing her intense love of Middle Eastern food to kiwis in the city for over 20 years.

We are an independent, owner-operated business built around Yael’s philosophy of cooking like a mother, not a chef. This means good, nourishing food that lifts your spirit, paired with a few little treats. It’s only fitting that “Ima” means “mother” in Hebrew.

We are an all-day restaurant, serving up breakfast, lunch, dinner and a cabinet full of pastries, sandwiches, salads and sweet treats. Love is poured into every morsel as we make everything onsite and fresh from scratch; our bread, sausages, our pickles, our preserves. We even cure and smoke our own meat and fish. We source our ingredients from local growers at the Wesley and Avondale market.