Auckland restaurant review: Kim Knight eyes the menu at East, in the Sudima Hotel

Larb salad (minus the chicken) and corn cakes, from the small plates menu at East, the new vegetarian restaurant inside Sudima Auckland City, Nelson St. Photo/Supplied

Mushrooms, not meat, provide the wow factor at a new Nelson St restaurant, writes critic Kim Knight.

"Have we ordered enough vegetables?" asked Megan, with a worried look on her face.

"Yes," I replied gently. "It's a vegetarian restaurant."

I couldn't blame my non-meat-eating friend for checking. At the pub she's the one waiting for a second bowl of hot chips because the rest of us have hyena'ed the first round. We've moved on to chicken wings and pork belly bao and she's contemplating a tablespoon of beetroot hummus and no more bread.

Many restaurants are moving to less meat-focused menus but you can never guarantee that's not chicken stock in the soup or duck fat on the potatoes. Imagine the freedom of being able to order absolutely anything, secure in the knowledge the only skin in this game was on the beancurd.

At East, the bao is packed with jackfruit. The larb is soy-based. The creme caramel relies on coconut cream to produce a dessert that tastes almost exactly like a coconut-flavoured Mackintosh toffee (minus the need for dental insurance). Three-quarters of the menu is vegan and 100 per cent of the people there on the night we visited looked like they were having a great time.

Inside East, the new vegetarian restaurant at Sudima Auckland City. Photo/Supplied

The restaurant is on the ground floor of Auckland's newest Sudima Hotel. It's neat, tidy and inoffensive - think mid-range corporate traveller at a post-training course dinner with a colleague you definitely don't intend to flirt with. The service is still a little creaky. We saw way too much of our waitperson (no, we hadn't decided yet) and then way too little (yes, we would definitely have had a second drink if anyone had asked).

None of this matters when you're a vegetarian in a vegetarian restaurant. Megan spent much of the meal happily making lists of dishes she'd order next time. We were full to the brim when she said, "I'm so sad there are no more courses to come." And then we ordered desserts anyway.

Top of her list - and, might I politely recommend putting it on yours too - ginger caramelised bang bang shiitake ($18). Sweet, spicy and unbelievably good. They had the chewy oomph of a rehydrated mushroom - but there was also a hint of fried somewhere under that sticky sauce, suggesting they'd started fresh and maybe coated in cornstarch? The whole thing was a glorious mystery to me, the only thing I'm certain about is that these were the single most enjoyable mushrooms I've eaten since I started writing Auckland restaurant reviews.

Bang Bang mushrooms (left) and steamed mushroom cheung fun with vegetarian XO sauce from the small plates menu at East. Photo/Supplied

We also really loved baby lettuce cups of larb ($16) that proved just about anything can be made to taste like chicken and that absolutely everything is nicer with a tablespoon of crispy shallots. Crispy tofu ($20) was supposed to come with peanuts (missing in action) - nice enough but the protein struggled to compete against a small mountain of bean sprouts and the dressing ultimately turned the tofu tacky.

Megan became a vegetarian long before Peking duck pancakes became a Ponsonby Rd staple. She was excited to try her first-ever version, albeit made with jackfruit ($26). Frankly, I found this dish alarming. Pull apart the nubs of plum-sauce soaked tropical fruit to discover it has been stained a disconcerting duck-pink; the puffy tapioca chips that you crumble to replicate crispy duck skin favour texture over taste. I regret not insisting on a big plate of eggplant (but understood my companion's reluctance - longtime vegetarians are still traumatised by the aubergine decade that began circa 1993).

Fried rice? As inoffensive as the decor and much better after we paid extra for chilli oil ($1.50) and a seafood-free XO sauce ($3). I liked the textural boost of corn kernels and nutty brown rice grains. Fortunately, I also liked the tiny cubes of shiitake. They weren't listed on the menu but they were definitely on the plate that, at $24.50 (with condiments) felt a bit pricey for fried rice.

Peking jackfruit pancakes with tapioca chips and plum sauce, at East. Photo/Supplied

Two desserts really were a dish too far. My creme caramel ($16) was rich and sweet and, honestly, why stop there? Bring on the whipped cream and damn the vegans! (Or, maybe, just politely offer some dairy on the side.) A matchamisu ($16), conversely, was extremely heavy on the cream and also contained a large and unexpected disc of hard chocolate. The green tea powder looked pretty but I missed the roastier bitterness of coffee.

East is Asian fusion and shared plates, which ticks a few of the recent Auckland food trend boxes. The dining room plays it safe visually and the service doesn't have the brash confidence of its counterparts further downtown. I can't imagine really cutting loose in this place - but I can definitely see myself eating there again.

East, Sudima Auckland City, 63-67 Nelson St, Auckland. Ph (09) 399 2360. We spent: $176.50 for two.