Vivace, Auckland Central

Like many things, hackneyed phrases tend to get my hackles up - 'too many cooks spoil the broth'; 'many hands make light work'; 'he doesn't suffer fools gladly'; 'at the end of the day...' All excuses of a foetid and stagnant vocabulary, if you ask me.

Take, for example, 'never judge a book by its cover'. Personally I tend to, and in the main I have excellent results. If the author's name is embossed, and in larger type than the title, it's probably rubbish. If it has the words Dan Brown on it, it'll be an almighty crap-fest of tenuous conspiracy theories and increasingly implausible events, written by a five-year-old. My prejudice is there for a reason, and serves me well.

The same goes with restaurants - you know the bad signs. Pictures of food outside, with the exception of certain Asian restaurants, is never a good omen. Puns in the name - never good. Waiters loitering in the doorway - instantly avoid. Names that promise too much too overtly - again with the exception of the numerous excellent Chinese restaurants named 'Lucky...' - tend to under-deliver.

Vivace reminded me on first sight of cello lessons aged 10. Dreading the sight of that word on a piece of music, whose meaning (lively, fast-paced) meant fumbled notes, sweaty hands and a grim look from the tutor as I hacked and sawed my way through a quicker than usual passage. But that's just me - I would assume that the name promises a 'lively' place, and that gives me a creeping sense that I'm about to be disappointed. Banishing these thoughts, I followed my companions in.

It's actually quite a good descriptor, this one. On a Friday evening, the place was about as lively as it could be without being irritating. Like a lot of good places on a Friday night, the exhilaration of ending a working week was tangible. Loud, vibrant and instantly appealing - the four of us joined in immediately, attacking a superb Ribiero del Duero with enthusiasm whilst attempting to order at least one of everything from the hot tapas menu.

And the food is good. For Auckland's CBD it's excellent, with the food as uplifting as the atmosphere - melting cubes of slow-cooked pork belly, sizzling chorizo slices, deliciously stuffed bell peppers and plate after plate of equally tremendous morsels which disappeared with indecent pace. The end of the meal came more as a physical necessity than anything else.

It got me thinking about going out to dinner on the weekend. Is anyone in the mood for intense fine dining on a Friday night? Or do we want to hoover excellent red wine and hearty tapas-style food, talking loudly and reveling in the weekend to come? I do - and Vivace's the place to do it. This is one place that really does live up to the name. Definitely recommended.

Vivace
50 High Street
Auckland Central
1010

+64 (0) 9 302 2303

http://www.vivacerestaurant.co.nz