A steak is as personal a thing as a pair of jeans, or a good suit. Everyone has their own idea of what constitutes the perfect one, and will naturally hold their point of view to be the 'right' one. I am no exception.
To me, Buenos Aires is to bovine meat as Savile Row is to fine cloth. They really know their meat, something that is evident from the broad selection on offer - how many Auckland restaurants actually offer flank steak? How many of those can advise you on how it should be served? After countless overpriced, dull steaks in the past couple of years, countless choices of 'sirloin, scotch fillet, eye fillet', countless recitations of 'that's a bit north of medium, don't you think?', Buenos Aires is a breath of fresh, smoky, beefy air.
And so to the food. A starter of sweetbreads for me, lightly crisped on the outside, tender and flavoursome within. Others went for a frankly ludicrous starter of two enormous sausages, one morcilla-style and one chorizo, devastatingly delicious but perhaps somewhat oversized. Steaks arrived, clearly cut from some giant breed of cow and each one a perfect ten according to its owner, regardless of cuisson. My flank steak, for which I'd been hankering for a while, was a terrific slab of perfectly-cooked, perfectly seasoned beef. Particularly impressive was the gentle suggestion from our waiter that, rather than rare, I should prefer this medium, as it's a rather chewy cut - this was spot on.
The wine list is brief, to say the least, but with unbelievably good Argentinean malbecs at prices like that, you don't need more than a couple. All in all, this was a visit that everyone involved has been talking about excitedly since we went, and I for one have been looking for occasions to go back - that amazing flank steak is calling.
It's noisy and lively, with the smell of the grill permeating everything and some of the best beef you'll have in this city. Service is excellent, knowledgeable and approachable, and you'll leave wanting to come back - can't ask for much more, can you?
Buenos Aires Restaurant Woodfire Grill
234 Jervois Road
Herne Bay
+64 (0) 9 360 0678
www.buenosairesrestaurant.co.nz
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Monday, 9 May 2011
Wine Chambers, CBD
Choosing a venue for a lunch meeting is fraught with difficulty, the more so when there's a reasonably sensitive conversation to be had. Once you've considered the likelihood of being overheard, the noise level, the proximity to the attendees' offices and so on, there's all the other implications: if it's super-high-end are you trying too hard? Is the cuisine overly challenging? Will it cater to a broad set of tastes?
Effectively a lunch meeting restaurant needs to be fairly low-key; to serve as a backdrop to a conversation and to subtly impress without overplaying it. The rules are wildly different from the evening meal - take your professional acquaintance to Clooney for an intimate tasting menu, and your intentions may be entirely misconstrued.
Wine Chambers, situated on the corner of O'Connell and Shortland Streets, is tailor-made for things like this. It's close enough to the insurance / banking / consultancy district to be walking distance for most attendees, and reassuringly upper-end price-wise. The service has the effortless professional grace of a restaurant that's been around for a while and knows its place. Inside, the old-world charm of the building is echoed with a faintly bistro-esque tile-and-wood feel, comfortable but smart.
The food is excellent. From the brief, focused menu I chose a tiger prawn entree, served on a broad bean risotto enlivened with a touch of lemon zest. Every piece of the dish was expertly treated, perfectly-cooked seafood complimenting the varied textures of the risotto. I may have ignored my dining partner somewhat during the time this dish was on the table.
Seared duck breast followed, served pink and thickly sliced on a mound of heavily truffled mash, unabashed luxury throughout and a terrific dish in its simplicity.
As for the wine, here's the surprise - for a restaurant called 'Wine Chambers' you'd expect the list to be fairly top-heavy, but as it is the lengthy document is reasonably even-handed, mostly under $100 and well-varied to boot. Happily, they do seem to be somewhat more restrained with their markup than some of their direct competitors.
So here's the verdict. For a working lunch in the middle of Auckland's CBD, where you can talk business alongside great food and excellent wine, where the service is attentive and friendly without imposing, and in an environment of relaxed, smart professionalism, Wine Chambers does it for me every time.
Wine Chambers
33 Shortland Street
Auckland CBD
09 309 8191
http://www.winechambers.co.nz
Effectively a lunch meeting restaurant needs to be fairly low-key; to serve as a backdrop to a conversation and to subtly impress without overplaying it. The rules are wildly different from the evening meal - take your professional acquaintance to Clooney for an intimate tasting menu, and your intentions may be entirely misconstrued.
Wine Chambers, situated on the corner of O'Connell and Shortland Streets, is tailor-made for things like this. It's close enough to the insurance / banking / consultancy district to be walking distance for most attendees, and reassuringly upper-end price-wise. The service has the effortless professional grace of a restaurant that's been around for a while and knows its place. Inside, the old-world charm of the building is echoed with a faintly bistro-esque tile-and-wood feel, comfortable but smart.
The food is excellent. From the brief, focused menu I chose a tiger prawn entree, served on a broad bean risotto enlivened with a touch of lemon zest. Every piece of the dish was expertly treated, perfectly-cooked seafood complimenting the varied textures of the risotto. I may have ignored my dining partner somewhat during the time this dish was on the table.
Seared duck breast followed, served pink and thickly sliced on a mound of heavily truffled mash, unabashed luxury throughout and a terrific dish in its simplicity.
As for the wine, here's the surprise - for a restaurant called 'Wine Chambers' you'd expect the list to be fairly top-heavy, but as it is the lengthy document is reasonably even-handed, mostly under $100 and well-varied to boot. Happily, they do seem to be somewhat more restrained with their markup than some of their direct competitors.
So here's the verdict. For a working lunch in the middle of Auckland's CBD, where you can talk business alongside great food and excellent wine, where the service is attentive and friendly without imposing, and in an environment of relaxed, smart professionalism, Wine Chambers does it for me every time.
Wine Chambers
33 Shortland Street
Auckland CBD
09 309 8191
http://www.winechambers.co.nz
Monday, 25 April 2011
The Mulberry, Mount Eden
They say we're in the throes of a new internet bubble. Although 'they' have been saying this with some regularity since about 2003, this time it does seem somewhat merited. The pit canary this time seems to be the proliferation of group buying sites, where one can purchase a certain thing at a discounted price provided a sufficient number of people also buy it (or something - these things really don't interest me at all so I've not actually partaken).
My wife, on the other hand, is about as deal-focused as the average East End market trader, and so this sort of thing is like crack cocaine to her. The plan, I guess, is to use these sites to get your brand in front of people who wouldn't normally notice you, and to entice them to buy something they normally wouldn't by offering it at a very cheap price. This explains why we spent an evening not only in the heart of Mount Eden Village, but also in a place that calls itself a 'gastro style bar and restaurant', neither of which would normally appeal.
Let's split that phrase up into the component parts, as the venue itself is divided into the upstairs restaurant, and the bar downstairs, each very different and not really at all related either in concept or atmosphere. The 'gastro' element of the bar is present in the 'tastes' menu available in the bar, with staples like breads and olives and crispy squid and so on. The bar itself offers a solid wine list and a handful of well-made, if not dazzling cocktails, so I suppose you could consider their 'gastro' credentials more or less intact, in that it's a bit more than beer and pork scratchings. As for 'style', it's not as relaxing or as comfortable as a normal pub, but not as glamorous as some of Auckland's more upmarket bars, and at about 8pm on a Saturday night it was practically empty, so I think you can make your own judgement there.
Upstairs, all evidence of 'bar' disappears, and you enter what could be almost any mid-range restaurant anywhere in the Western world. A flick through the menu continues this feeling. The arrival of the food, the consuming of the food, the removal of the plates, the paying of the bill all passes without incident or indeed anything remarkable happening. My sirloin was cooked blue as requested, I suppose, which bears mentioning, but this happy moment didn't quite make up for an entrée terrine of smoked chicken which was leaden, fridge-cold and underseasoned.
This is all very well and fine, but if you eat out more than say, once a year, you'll find this a serviceable but ultimately a fairly humdrum experience. On the way out, one is struck by how busy everywhere else in Mount Eden village is compared with The Mulberry, and is reminded that perhaps the old adage 'you get what you pay for' applies as much to online deal sites as to anything else.
The Mulberry
425 Mount Eden Road
Mount Eden
09 630 1588
Monday, 18 April 2011
Andiamo, Herne Bay
I drive past Andiamo most days, and I've always been slightly intrigued by its elegant, sparse exterior and it's enticingly dark interior. It has a sort of exclusive, semi-Edwardian air underlying a certain modern chic. At least, that's what the outside says, anyway. So when Saturday morning brought not only faint traces of hangover but also torrential rain and an empty fridge, we went in search of brunch amongst the numerous cafes, restaurants and so on that are sprinkled along Jervois Road.
Brunch in Auckland is generally done quite well, although for those with a sore head of a weekend morning it can be a bit of a challenge. Canteen or cafe-style dining, accompanied by those under 18 years of age, is altogether too raucous, bright and noisy when you're fragile and disorientated from the night before. And so the quiet, understated luxury of Andiamo welcomed us in from the storm outside.
This is brunch - served until 6pm! - for grown-ups, especially hungover ones. The menu practically demands that you engage in a spot of 'hair of the dog', with the classic morning cocktails sitting proudly at the front of the menu, alongside a comment running something like 'breakfast at Andiamo without wine is like a day without sunshine'. Brunch options run from the comforting (baked apple with sultanas etc), to the classic (frankly terrifyingly-sized 'Andiamo breakfast'), to the challenging (lamb's kidneys), with enough range in there to cater to most tastes without being too hard to choose from. Service is quietly efficient, unobtrusive and understanding of the fact that pre-brunch, conversation is often too much of an effort to attempt.
Presumably on the understanding that one needs to put down some serious ballast at times like this, the portions are on the chunky side. I just about managed to get my serving of grilled kidneys (deliciously served with bacon, mushrooms and grain mustard sauce, on toast) down to about half its original size before throwing in the towel. The food is also thoughtfully presented, for example of my two thick slices of multigrain toast, one was under the kidneys, ensuring a good soaking in that amazing sauce, the other on the side of the plate, ensuring a good toasty crunch as well. Very simple, very clever. The wife's Andiamo breakfast was an artful pile of all things breakfasty, on which even after a good 30 minutes' effort she managed to make but a small dent.
The whole experience was exactly what I want from brunch: quiet and civilised, with the offer of palliative alcohol, and a menu with both standards and outliers in equal measure. Good coffee, papers in abundance and low lighting to complement the murmur of conversation. Needless to say, we emerged into the torrential rain well-fortified and ready to face the rest of the day. Definitely recommended if you don't plan on taking children (although this is more for my sake than yours).
As for dinner, that'll have to wait for another post, but having read the menu online I don't think it'll take that long...
Andiamo
194 Jervois Road
Herne Bay
Auckland
09 378 7811
http://www.andiamo.co.nz/
Brunch in Auckland is generally done quite well, although for those with a sore head of a weekend morning it can be a bit of a challenge. Canteen or cafe-style dining, accompanied by those under 18 years of age, is altogether too raucous, bright and noisy when you're fragile and disorientated from the night before. And so the quiet, understated luxury of Andiamo welcomed us in from the storm outside.
This is brunch - served until 6pm! - for grown-ups, especially hungover ones. The menu practically demands that you engage in a spot of 'hair of the dog', with the classic morning cocktails sitting proudly at the front of the menu, alongside a comment running something like 'breakfast at Andiamo without wine is like a day without sunshine'. Brunch options run from the comforting (baked apple with sultanas etc), to the classic (frankly terrifyingly-sized 'Andiamo breakfast'), to the challenging (lamb's kidneys), with enough range in there to cater to most tastes without being too hard to choose from. Service is quietly efficient, unobtrusive and understanding of the fact that pre-brunch, conversation is often too much of an effort to attempt.
Presumably on the understanding that one needs to put down some serious ballast at times like this, the portions are on the chunky side. I just about managed to get my serving of grilled kidneys (deliciously served with bacon, mushrooms and grain mustard sauce, on toast) down to about half its original size before throwing in the towel. The food is also thoughtfully presented, for example of my two thick slices of multigrain toast, one was under the kidneys, ensuring a good soaking in that amazing sauce, the other on the side of the plate, ensuring a good toasty crunch as well. Very simple, very clever. The wife's Andiamo breakfast was an artful pile of all things breakfasty, on which even after a good 30 minutes' effort she managed to make but a small dent.
The whole experience was exactly what I want from brunch: quiet and civilised, with the offer of palliative alcohol, and a menu with both standards and outliers in equal measure. Good coffee, papers in abundance and low lighting to complement the murmur of conversation. Needless to say, we emerged into the torrential rain well-fortified and ready to face the rest of the day. Definitely recommended if you don't plan on taking children (although this is more for my sake than yours).
As for dinner, that'll have to wait for another post, but having read the menu online I don't think it'll take that long...
Andiamo
194 Jervois Road
Herne Bay
Auckland
09 378 7811
http://www.andiamo.co.nz/
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
The Foodstore, Viaduct
The quality of televisual programming in New Zealand is generally appalling. It's low-budget, poorly scripted and surrounded by the sort of advertising that has me reaching for the mute button in horror most evenings. This, it has to be said, is surely more the product of a smaller audience base (and hence smaller budgets) than of any lack of available talent - the NZ film industry for example is thriving.
From that perspective, the concept of a restaurant in Auckland's most overpriced quarter whose principal claim to fame is that it and its staff feature in a show on Food TV, and whose menu consists of over 20 dishes available as both starter and main sizes, is not all that appealing on first glance.
A second glance is merited, though, as it'll show up an array of dishes which are almost without exception very appealing indeed, ranging from a simple, honest and delicious Creamed Paua with Crusty Bread through to the mental but excellent-sounding Scotch Fillet with Baked Beans and Ham Hock. So on the attraction of the menu alone, we headed into town.
Ok, so 'interactive eating experience' aside, it's a really good space. With the kitchen entirely open and placed in the centre of the dining room, it makes a bold statement from the outset - here the food is placed front and centre, literally. Even on a Monday evening, it was full, buzzy and lively. Auckland's Viaduct, touristy and expensive though it often is, can also be really pleasant place to spend an evening.
The tricky thing here is to choose. With (currently) 21 dishes available as both starter and main, that makes, er, loads of possible combinations, before you even consider dessert. Compounding the challenge is the fact that the vast majority of the dishes are seriously tempting, so I'd recommend that you do as I did, and pore over the online menu for some hours before you head down there, so that your strategy can be well in place prior to menus being served.
On this occasion I'd done my homework well, with a starter portion of grilled salmon followed by a larger plate of sirloin, and with the arrival of the first course the conversation at the table petered out into near-silence. Whoever was attending the grill that night deserves some kind of award - they had absolutely nailed my dish. It takes a special sort of attentiveness to know exactly when to pull portions of salmon that exquisitely dainty off the grill at just the right time, and these were to the second. Velvety and creamy on the inside, crisp on the out, singing with flavour and fresh as a daisy, this was a few mouthfuls that I won't forget in a hurry. An excellent Milton Te Arai Chenin Blanc provided the perfect counterpoint.
As for the main, the same grill skill showed with the beef; ordered blue and served as such, which is a depressing rarity in Auckland. Two large slabs of beef were well-seared and well-rested, with a side of onion rings the size of tractor tyres and some sort-of-inconsequential mushrooms. A pretty good Man O War Cabernet blend provided a suitable backdrop for such a weighty meat-focused course.
As for dessert etc, this was skipped in favour of (reasonably good) coffee and the rest of the wine, but the options certainly look like a good enough reason to return, which we will. Apart from anything else, there are 19 other dishes to try.
The Foodstore,
Market Square
Viaduct Harbour
Auckland
09 377 0125
http://thefoodstore.tv
From that perspective, the concept of a restaurant in Auckland's most overpriced quarter whose principal claim to fame is that it and its staff feature in a show on Food TV, and whose menu consists of over 20 dishes available as both starter and main sizes, is not all that appealing on first glance.
A second glance is merited, though, as it'll show up an array of dishes which are almost without exception very appealing indeed, ranging from a simple, honest and delicious Creamed Paua with Crusty Bread through to the mental but excellent-sounding Scotch Fillet with Baked Beans and Ham Hock. So on the attraction of the menu alone, we headed into town.
Ok, so 'interactive eating experience' aside, it's a really good space. With the kitchen entirely open and placed in the centre of the dining room, it makes a bold statement from the outset - here the food is placed front and centre, literally. Even on a Monday evening, it was full, buzzy and lively. Auckland's Viaduct, touristy and expensive though it often is, can also be really pleasant place to spend an evening.
The tricky thing here is to choose. With (currently) 21 dishes available as both starter and main, that makes, er, loads of possible combinations, before you even consider dessert. Compounding the challenge is the fact that the vast majority of the dishes are seriously tempting, so I'd recommend that you do as I did, and pore over the online menu for some hours before you head down there, so that your strategy can be well in place prior to menus being served.
On this occasion I'd done my homework well, with a starter portion of grilled salmon followed by a larger plate of sirloin, and with the arrival of the first course the conversation at the table petered out into near-silence. Whoever was attending the grill that night deserves some kind of award - they had absolutely nailed my dish. It takes a special sort of attentiveness to know exactly when to pull portions of salmon that exquisitely dainty off the grill at just the right time, and these were to the second. Velvety and creamy on the inside, crisp on the out, singing with flavour and fresh as a daisy, this was a few mouthfuls that I won't forget in a hurry. An excellent Milton Te Arai Chenin Blanc provided the perfect counterpoint.
As for the main, the same grill skill showed with the beef; ordered blue and served as such, which is a depressing rarity in Auckland. Two large slabs of beef were well-seared and well-rested, with a side of onion rings the size of tractor tyres and some sort-of-inconsequential mushrooms. A pretty good Man O War Cabernet blend provided a suitable backdrop for such a weighty meat-focused course.
As for dessert etc, this was skipped in favour of (reasonably good) coffee and the rest of the wine, but the options certainly look like a good enough reason to return, which we will. Apart from anything else, there are 19 other dishes to try.
The Foodstore,
Market Square
Viaduct Harbour
Auckland
09 377 0125
http://thefoodstore.tv
Monday, 11 April 2011
Buns Made With Love, CBD
One of the things that really surprised me when I first started working in Auckland was the sheer lack of places to go for a simple lunch. Not to sit down to eat, but a quick sandwich to grab in between meetings; something you could wolf down at your desk without requiring cutlery. Now, I know that eating at ones desk is not only gross but stress-inducing, but there you go, that's for another post on another blog. What I still want is a sandwich, and that's something that Auckland's CBD doesn't do all that well.
So a few months back I chanced on Buns Made With Love, and since then I've actually had to ration the number of times I go there in the week. It's that good, even though the sandwich selection is just a small selection of baguettes and the odd round ciabatta-type thing. They do a whole chiller full of exciting looking salads, but I've yet to see past the things in bread.
Just thinking of them is making me hungry, even just after lunch. Think about this: roast pork belly with crackling and tangy apple coleslaw, heaped into a warm baguette, crusty on the outside and pillowy-soft within. Or perhaps the 'ultimate cheeseburger': a thick slab of italian-style meatloaf, generously scented with fennel, with a hearty blend of salads, melting cheese and a toaster-crisp ciabatta on the outside? Breaded fish fillets are occasionally on offer, served hot in a sandwich with mayo, rocket and so on - a real grown-up fish finger sandwich.
You're getting it - concoctions which have been painstakingly thought through, which rarely change all that much, which never fail to disappoint, and which tread that fine line between challenging a convention and just doing what's worked perfectly well for decades. I would have loved this place in London, and I love it here - it's just great food, done very well indeed.
Wednesdays and Fridays only though, otherwise they'll think I'm stalking them or something.
Buns made with love
60 High Street
Auckland
@bunswithlove
So a few months back I chanced on Buns Made With Love, and since then I've actually had to ration the number of times I go there in the week. It's that good, even though the sandwich selection is just a small selection of baguettes and the odd round ciabatta-type thing. They do a whole chiller full of exciting looking salads, but I've yet to see past the things in bread.
Just thinking of them is making me hungry, even just after lunch. Think about this: roast pork belly with crackling and tangy apple coleslaw, heaped into a warm baguette, crusty on the outside and pillowy-soft within. Or perhaps the 'ultimate cheeseburger': a thick slab of italian-style meatloaf, generously scented with fennel, with a hearty blend of salads, melting cheese and a toaster-crisp ciabatta on the outside? Breaded fish fillets are occasionally on offer, served hot in a sandwich with mayo, rocket and so on - a real grown-up fish finger sandwich.
You're getting it - concoctions which have been painstakingly thought through, which rarely change all that much, which never fail to disappoint, and which tread that fine line between challenging a convention and just doing what's worked perfectly well for decades. I would have loved this place in London, and I love it here - it's just great food, done very well indeed.
Wednesdays and Fridays only though, otherwise they'll think I'm stalking them or something.
Buns made with love
60 High Street
Auckland
@bunswithlove
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
Caffe Latte, Point Chevalier
It's rare, but sometimes the food isn't the be all and end all. I've struggled with this post because, much as I really want to be purist and objective about it all, on this occasion I really can't.
Caffe Latte is about the only restaurant in Point Chevalier (if you discount all the horrible places around Point Chev shops), and whilst it's named like a coffee shop, it's actually a genuinely great local Italian restaurant. It's been there for ages, so I'm told, and it feels warm and welcoming, the sort of place where thousands of people have had a good time in the past. On the Friday night that the girls and I went, it was packed, and the two waitresses and the one chef dealt with the (small) crowd with friendly, efficient ease.
It's BYO, but they do have a small selection of wines and beers on offer, including Menebrea, a superb Italian lager which I've not seen outside of Europe. It's worth the visit just for that, frankly.
The menu is classic 'local Italian restaurant', and feeling the vibe I started with the beef carpaccio, which was really very good except for a smear of an oddly sweet, syrupy liquid on the side of the plate - initially I thought this might have been balsamic, but a sickly sweet sugary tang suggested maybe something less suitable. The main course, a great-sounding penne alla salsiccie, was pretty weird if I'm honest, with what seemed to be chunks of pretty workaday pork sausage lurking in an overseasoned, over-reduced tomato sauce which suggested powdered stock (a suspicion backed up by the open bucket of same clearly visible in the kitchen). Still, the pasta was perfectly cooked, and whilst it wasn't quite as expected, most of it disappeared.
So for a few moments there I was a little downhearted, but really I was still thoroughly happy. Sure, properly made stock would have helped, perhaps a little fennel in the sausages, but somehow we all came away smiling. This was weird.
I honestly don't know. Perhaps it was the service - friendly, welcoming, honest and relaxed. Maybe that the food wasn't pretentious, overdone, or willingly challenging (NZ chefs seem to love 'challenging' our palates with frankly bizarre concoctions). Perhaps it was the excellent pricing, the lively buzz, the fact that it's walking distance from our house... perhaps all of these.
Quite simply, this is exactly what you want from a local restaurant to which you'll return time and time again. You'd no more complain about the food here than you would in your friend's kitchen (and it's a damn sight better than some I've had there...). I count myself lucky to be living nearby, and it's taught me that sometimes you don't eat out just for what's on the plate.
We'll be back.
Caffe Latte
149 Point Chevalier Road
Point Chevalier
Auckland
(09) 846 5303
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)