Summer reads: Where the critics ate... 5 minutes to read NZ Herald The New Zealand Herald is bringing back some of the best premium stories of 2020. Today look back at some of the best Canvas restaurant reviews of the year. Commercial Bay Ahi reviewed: Was Ben Bayly's new restaurant worth the wait? Chef Ben Bayly must have thought he'd never get into the kitchen. Ahi, in the downtown Auckland Commercial Bay development, has been subject to construction delays, lockdowns and a socially distanced level 2.5 opening. The swamp kauri timber for the tables sat in Bayly's driveway for months and the menu is a lifetime in the making. Back in 2018, he told Canvas he wanted to create a restaurant that reflected - and respected - Aotearoa and its first people: "I'm not trying to be a Māori restaurant but I am inspired by our country and I'm inspired by the techniques of Māori cooking and Māori food and what the sea, most of all and the land here provides."