Orbit, Auckland Central

Say what you like about Auckland's Sky Tower, but I'm a bit of a fan of it. It's hard to imagine what Auckland would be like without it - the standard of architecture here is generally pretty poor so something to give the city a bit of identity is much needed. Not that it's particularly attractive, but you have to admit it's an impressive structure, even more so considering Auckland's tendency to earthquakes and the like. The view from 186 metres up (the height of the observation deck), as you'd expect, is terrific.

I do start to get a bit twitchy though, when I'm approaching a restaurant at which the food is not the star attraction. It's a fairly obvious deduction to make that if you own a restaurant perched atop something like the Sky Tower, there's little incentive to focus on the quality of the food, when you know full well that a) no one's paying that much attention to it, and b) people will come for the view regardless of the quality of the food.

Selfless chap that I am, and fortified with little more than a brace of vodkas and a fairly enthusiastic G&T, I accompanied the future in-laws up the tower for a birthday meal (not mine). Perhaps it was my lowered expectations, but I was really quite impressed.

The food, then. A prix fixe including a slightly over-fussy but perfectly good smoked duck and mushroom tart, followed by roast lamb loin with a 'tomato, rosemary and kalamata olive compote' and a 'grilled spring onion', completed by a chocolate parfait, for $65 with a couple of glasses of wine thrown in. Whilst it was far from phenomenal (a well-executed but cacophonous starter, lacklustre (but perfectly cooked) lamb and frankly bizarre pairing of otherwise excellent flavours in the dessert), from a value perspective you couldn't beat it.

Service was that of a slightly more expensive restaurant - all the staff seemed properly trained, helpful and knowledgeable, and didn't seem to mind helping people find their seats again after a bathroom visit - the whole restaurant revolves about one and hour, which can get disorientating after a couple of revolutions. The wine list wasn't exceptional, but did the job very well indeed, and without the usual wallet-rape that's become all-too-frequent in this town.

So on the whole, pleasantly surprised. I was expecting awful, and instead got above-average, and crucially served at a below-average price. On the whole, if you're entertaining people from out of town who understand that sometimes the food can play second fiddle to stunning views of Auckland, Orbit could be a good bet.



Orbit
SkyCity Auckland
Corner Victoria and Federal Streets
Auckland
+64 (0) 9 363 6000