Sidart, Ponsonby

I hadn't heard about Sidart until I saw them receive the accolade of Metro's Best New Restaurant in Auckland for 2010, early in the year.  Since then, they had been on my To Do list and for my birthday Jane booked us in for what was to be a superb meal.

Located upstairs in the dated Three Lamps Plaza in Ponsonby overlooking Auckland city, Sidart has seating for ~34 people.  Seating is not as private as some other top restaurants in Auckland, however this did not detract from the meal.

A 7 course tasting menu was on offer, of which we could order any items as entrees or mains if we desired, but we opted to go for the 7 course degustation; I also decided to go with the accompanying wines.

Each dish was prepared with love and a lot of thought.  The accompanying wines also worked well, and were generously poured.  From manuka & coffee-smoked dishes where there was a glass over the meat and the smoke released at the table to creative morsels such as crab ice-cream, soy & mirin whip and inky black parsnip puree, each dish was something special.  I was expecting a bit more molecular gastronomy but was not at all disappointed in each of the fine dishes I was presented with.

We thought there may have been an amuse bouche and possibly a palette cleanser such as a sorbet but this was not to be.

From a service perspective the wait staff were exceptional and explained each dish in immense detail including being able to answer any probing questions we had along the way.  In terms of the wine, our waiter explained the characteristics of each wine and why it was a good match.  The food arrived in a timely manner and the wait between courses was quite appropriate.

It was a magnificent meal and we will very happily return.

Clooney - fabulous again as expected

Last night we took a friend out to Clooney for her birthday. We first visited Clooney back in May and Simon has referred to it as his favourite restaurant ever since. Well, last night served only to further secure that status in both of our minds.

We had the same waiter as last time and he was once again excellent, and we really do appreciate having a waiter who you can completely trust to choose an appropriate wine for you and be surprised and delighted by the result. I also appreciate that he is incredibly gracious in his approach - I can sometimes feel a bit stupid hazarding a guess at what I am drinking or asking questions about wine that I perhaps ought to already know, but this is certainly not the case with this waiter (apologies but I have no idea what his name is), and he taught me a few things along the way as well.

Still waxing lyrical about our waiter - I made a point of commenting to my girlfriend that 'we could sing you happy birthday with your dessert' while our watier was in earshot. And sure enough, when dessert later arrived, hers had a candle and 'Happy Birthday' piped in chocolate on the plate. Splendid, wonderful man!

Despite it being our second visit, we still really appreciated and enjoyed the decor and how classy it all is - despite knowing that if the lights were turned all the way up, it would just be a fairly raw, fairly ugly warehousey kind of space! But it is far from that with the ambient lighting, the subtle curtaining and the privacy afforded by clever placement and private lighting.

The menu was essentially the same as our previous visit, but we all chose very different dishes, and thoroughly enjoyed all of them. I'll say no more about the food - it is fabulous and flawless sums it up perfectly.

The Engine Room Eatery at Northcote Point

We have dined at The Engine Room at Northcote Point several times (including this evening) and each time it is a great experience. The staff are friendly, professional, efficient, and nothing is a problem. They go out of their way to make your experience enjoyable.

In terms of food, it is not a big menu, but Jane describes it as good honest food. Decent size portions with lots of flavour. Their wine list is equally not huge, but they have picked some great wines that are bit out of the norm.

If you haven't tried it yet and want a good meal in a relaxed environment, I thoroughly recommend you add The Engine Room to your list of places try. We will definitely be back.

Varekai and Red - Again!

Mum and I went to Cirque du Soleil's final NZ performance of Varekai on Sunday - oh my goodness! I am SOOOOO pleased I made the effort to see it. What a fantastic show. The sheer strength, agility, flexibility and passion of the cast was breath-taking in a 'I'm completely lost for words but will happily whoop and cheer' sort of way. If you have the opportunity to see Varekai, or for that matter any Cirque du Soleil performance - do not hesitate! See an early session so that you have time to see it again before the season is over!

After the show we headed up to Red for dinner, and met Simon there. We wanted to go to One Tree Grill from a location standpoint, however they're closed on Sundays. :(

Ok - last time I blogged Red, I commented that Simon was including it on his list of favourite restaurants. This time - I have now decisively placed Red at the top of my list and hereby name it my favourite restaurant. Fantastic meal, great service, really friendly, really helpful, excellent attention to detail. Ooh, and gorgeous wine.

What did we eat this time?
Starter:

• the shared tasting plate of the hummus (with a delicious lemony twist), olives (full of flavour), duck pate (sooo smooth and delicious) and a variety of breads.

Simon:

• the Venison again. :) And a delicious red wine that he can't remember what he ordered. Oops!

Jane:

• Lamb rump on mint and sweet pea risotto. Fantastic - the lamb was beautifully smoky and the risotto a really nice match with this.

Mum:

• Calamari - this was quite honestly THE most tender calamari I have ever eaten. I didn't know that calamari had the potential to be melt-in-the-mouth tender, but this was truly that tender. I'll be ordering it next time we visit.

to share:

• seasonal vegetables - beans and broccoli and delicious (but then I'm a bit partial to green beans!)

Love Red. :)

Red - Jervois Road

We had a most divine meal last night. Oh my word. Red is one of several restaurants that do a degustation menu, so they're on our list of places to visit for a wedding anniversary eventually. But last night we decided to sample their standard menu. Wow!

What we ate:

• Simon - Duck Breast for 1st course and Venison Denver Leg for main, followed by hand rolled chocolates for dessert. Every course was delicious, the salad with the duck was absolutely divine.

• Jane - portobello mushroom risotto, Market Fish - which was in fact two fish - Hapuka on a smoked potato smash and Salmon on asparagus and broccoli with a divine basil drizzle, and for sweets the flourless Cointreau, Chocolate Mousse stack. Both fish were fabulous, and dessert was so good I lost nearly half of it to Simon. :)

What we drank:

• Simon - Burnt Spur Pinot Noir, Martinborough - this was a fantastic wine.
• Jane - Coopers Creek Chardonnay - lovely.

The Decor and Atmosphere
Loved the simplicity and style of the decor, and the atmosphere was great - we arrived quite early and at that stage there were only 3 tables occupied (including our own), but by the time we left at 9pm, the place was full to overflowing.

Service
This was casual without being sloppy, and professional without being stuffy - so a really good balance all in all. (Although being given 2 knives and no fork to eat my fish with was rather amusing - was I meant to use them as chopsticks? :) Easily fixed though!)

Price
This was really good! Mains were approaching $30, sweets were all less than $15. And everything was well worth it.

Overall Impression
Well, Simon enjoyed Red so much, he has now declared it one of his top 4 restaurants (including Ciao, White and the French Cafe). I would have to agree.

Occam - Grey Lynn

Occam is officially our favourite cafe for brunch - and on the odd occasions when we think 'lets go somewhere different', we end up being disappointed and vowing to stick with what we know is great in future!

So this morning we met Lynn and Rex at Occam for pre-work, pre-christmas breakfast. And ALL of us had my favourite - Lemon Dill Hash Cakes with Asparagus, poached eggs and smoked paprika hollandaise. YUM! And of course I had a passionfruit smoothie. Not sure how Simon's trim Mocha was (feel free to comment...)

We've been to Occam many many many times, and thus far have had only one sub-standard experience - which was on a long weekend, and still wasn't as bad as some of the 'average' brunches we've had elsewhere.

Every time we visit we're amazed at how quickly our coffees turn up - often they're at our table as the person who ordered them returns to take their seat! And the quality is usually fantastic.

Water is help yourself style - and I really like the skewers of halved lemons they put in the water jugs - nice touch and it means you don't get slices of lemon sloshing into your glass and making a mess everywhere. Their outside area is great, although sadly the smokers all tend to dominate these tables (how unusual) - so if you're wanting fresh air you really need to sit inside, but near the door.

If you want a great breakfast or brunch - go to Occam!

Mecca @ the Viaduct + Water

I had a meeting in the Viaduct area yesterday, and decided to pop into Mecca down in the Viaduct with a colleague for a quick bite for lunch. I decided to have Salt and Pepper Squid and my colleague had a Lasagna. We both enjoyed our meals, they arrived in a timely manner, the wait staff were courteous, and there was a good ambience about the place.

My squid was super tender and was a reasonable sized portion.

Apart from the slightly inflated prices (as expected in the Viaduct), we were a bit annoyed that when we asked for water we were presented with mineral water, which as we found out later was $7.50 . It is not the cost of it I care about, but more that when I ask for water I expect that by default it is (free) tap water and they can then upsell from there to mineral or sparkling water.

Other than that, a fine experience and I would defintely go back.

Bian Sushi - Symonds Street

Tried to organise a lunch date with my husband today, but meetings conspired against us. :( Never mind! I decided to take the opportunity to go to Bian Sushi all the same.

Now this is one cafe that is quite firmly planted on our Favourite list. Beyond a shadow of doubt, Bian Sushi does some of the (if not THE) best Sushi in Auckland.

'nough said really! Bian Sushi rocks. :)

Ciao Ristorante - Gourmet Trattoria

We decided to plan to go out for dinner tonight. So we planned it one hour in advance instead of our usual 40 minutes in advance. :) Fortunately, Ciao even had a table available (although Orbit didn't).

In a nutshell - divine! Simon decided that this was one of his top two dining experiences this year!

The atmosphere, as always, was great; service and attention to detail - flawless; presentation and taste - to die for. Oh my word, to die for and then some.

We started with a gorgeous tomato, mozarella and basil salad (see pic below) - the tomatoes and cheese are both imported from Italy for this dish.

Next, Simon had the Ciao Qua Qua - orange duck, and it was delicious, and a work of art! I had the Agnello - rack of lamb. This was heaven. The mash was creamy and full of flavour - full of fresh thyme. The lamb itself, and I pride myself on doing a great rack of lamb, was one of the best I've had. It was packed full of flavour, very tender and very lean.

To accompany, we both had Italian wines. Simon had a Sicilian Merlot (2001!) and I had a Cabernet, Sangiovese (2004) from who knows where! We both went on the waitresses recommenddations, so I didn't actually catch the label of either of these. They were both very dry wines, but absolutely beautiful, and a splendid match with our meals.

Instead of finishing with dessert, we each had an affogato - and they were lovely.

So yes, a splendid meal, 10 out of 10 - as I expect from Ciao, although tonight it even exceeded my expectations. Oh - and I am delighted to see that they have extended their 'requires 3 days notice' menu. Yay! We will have to get organised some time and plan days ahead and partake of hare or pheasant or one of their other very special dishes.