NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Lifestyle

<i>Element Restaurant</i>, Papakura

Herald on Sunday
22 Aug, 2010 05:30 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Element Restaurant in Papakura. Photo / Supplied

Element Restaurant in Papakura. Photo / Supplied

Herald on Sunday rating: 2½ out of 5
Address: 10 Rushgreen Avenue
Phone: (09) 298 4509
Open: Wednesday to Saturday from 6pm; Sunday 9am to 2pm

Auckland's outer suburbs are not, in general, the home of fine cuisine.

I have read encouraging dispatches from Howick and plan to head out there - I'm just waiting for a break in the traffic - but my experiences down south, out west and in the farther reaches of
the North Shore have not been happy ones. (An improbable exception was Palazzo Roma in Drury, in a large shed next to a place that sold drainage pipes, where I swooned over grilled sardines and shredded lamb shank wrapped in spinach leaves. But it has, alas, long closed.)

Element was suggested to me by its proprietor, who had complained that restaurant reviewers were reluctant to venture outside Parnell, Ponsonby and Mt Eden. He has a point there, but there's an explanation (see above).

Restaurant reviewing often seems like the triumph of hope over experience but, strangely enough, reviewers are like other diners - always on the lookout for a good meal.

Element occupies one of a small block of shops on a suburban corner a couple of minutes from the motorway. The night we ate there, the boss was the waiter, enthusiastic and well-informed and a very relaxed host. Several patrons embraced him as they arrived, though whether they were relatives or regulars was hard to tell. One of the diners appeared to be also one of the cooks.

The room attempts to be as warm as the welcome, but the dull-brown walls make it a bit downbeat even with the addition of artwork, of which the kindest thing that might be said is that it's for sale.

On a wintry evening, the floor could do with a rug or two and the windows (or maybe the diners who sit near them) would appreciate a curtain. The tables are nicely dressed with white linen, though I'm not sure whether the crumpled style was calculated or careless; in the case of my shirts it's both, but it's a bad look in a tablecloth.

Element's website promises "honest food, prepared with fresh ingredients". One assumes the second claim goes without saying - I have yet to come across the menu that promises stale ingredients, but maybe it exists - but chef Matt Farley's food is certainly honest in that it's devoid of fussiness or pretension. The problem is that it's not very good.

The macaroni cheese was rich and tasty, but its cheerless presentation would have benefited from a flash of colourful garnish. I couldn't say whether the Prof's salmon was house-smoked - it was not billed as such but it lacked the suspicious red tinge of the cheaper commercial varieties and it tasted good. It was also a massive helping, and the sharp carrot and fennel salad was a nicely astringent foil to the oily fish.

The mains, though, were problematic.

A "Peking Duck salad" consisted of not-very-flavoursome shredded duck meat on a thick and stodgy blini, topped with a mere sliver of the crisp skin that is roast duck's crowning glory.

Worse still was my slab of hapuku, which came thickly swaddled in coppa, a coarse cured ham made from pork neck, and baked. A thin wrapping of the best prosciutto works well with fish, but this dish was so salty as to be almost unrecognisable as fish and in any case quite overdone.

An original dessert of rhubarb jelly, drizzled with a divine sauce made from baked orange and Cointreau, was quite splendid.

It sweetened the very long drive back.

Ambience: Basic
Vegetarians: Options on request
Watch out for: Rhubarb jelly
Bottom line: Neighbourhood dining

THE BILL
$133.50 for two
Entrees: $14-$16
Mains: $23-$33
Desserts: $10.50-$13.50

Discover more

Lifestyle

<i>Tipparost</i>, Papakura

10 Jun 04:00 PM
Lifestyle

<i>Volare</i>, Manurewa

11 Jul 10:00 PM
Lifestyle

<i>Ristretto</i>, Royal Oak

14 Aug 05:30 PM
Lifestyle

<i>Sunday Painters</i>, Ponsonby

20 Aug 12:00 AM
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Lifestyle

Premium
Lifestyle

Society Insider: Peter and Lucinda Burling’s glamorous new life in Italy; Rich list daughters enjoy Euro summer

Premium
Lifestyle

How an innocent search on social media drew me into the disturbing world of extreme dieting

Lifestyle

'So raw and blistered': Parents claim Huggies nappies cause rashes, company denies fault


Sponsored

Sponsored: Why heat pumps make winter cheaper

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Lifestyle

Premium
Premium
Society Insider: Peter and Lucinda Burling’s glamorous new life in Italy; Rich list daughters enjoy Euro summer
Lifestyle

Society Insider: Peter and Lucinda Burling’s glamorous new life in Italy; Rich list daughters enjoy Euro summer

Plus, YouTube star holds Texas fundraiser in his new Ponsonby bar.

16 Jul 05:00 PM
Premium
Premium
How an innocent search on social media drew me into the disturbing world of extreme dieting
Lifestyle

How an innocent search on social media drew me into the disturbing world of extreme dieting

16 Jul 06:00 AM
'So raw and blistered': Parents claim Huggies nappies cause rashes, company denies fault
Lifestyle

'So raw and blistered': Parents claim Huggies nappies cause rashes, company denies fault

16 Jul 12:01 AM


Sponsored: Why heat pumps make winter cheaper
Sponsored

Sponsored: Why heat pumps make winter cheaper

01 Jul 04:58 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP