Champagne fish batters wallet

One piece of snapper and a scoop of chips? That'll be $38.50.

That's ordinary snapper. And the chips are made from ordinary potatoes. But the batter will batter your wallet into submission at the Fish Kitchen in Auckland's Parnell.

Owner Ben Dodd mixes up his special coating with Moet et Chandon, one of the world's top-selling champagnes.

The lovely bubbly retails for about $90 a bottle and a fillet of snapper, dipped in the luxury liquid before being deep-fried, will set you back a cool $35.

"It's something that you should try once a year," said Dodd hopefully, before dialling back the recommendation to once in a lifetime.

Champagne, he said, is the ideal drink with fish and chips - "a rich man's drink with poor man's food" - because of the way the dryness and the bubbles complement the oiliness. Local bubbles such as Lindauer are too sweet, he said.

One of the kitchen staff, responding to a challenge to "think outside the box", came up with the "bloody good" idea and although it hasn't exactly set the leafy inner-city suburb alight - he's sold "four or five" pieces since opening in April - he said it's early days yet.

Dodd has worked in the wholesale fish market in the UK where his customers included chefs Gordon Ramsay and Marco Pierre White.

He gutted and refurbished the premises formerly known as The Fishmonger and installed windows that tilt like garage doors so the place seems like a sidewalk cafe.

Dodd has made a policy of employing full-time staff off the Work and Income register - which he reckons has paid off handsomely.

"It's not exactly Jamie Oliver's Fifteen," he said, referring to the British chef's four restaurants which employ only disadvantaged young people.

"But they are gaining skills and they are getting more confident every day. They are proud of what they are learning and serving up, and I am bloody confident in what they have achieved."

Boutique items fill the cabinets and fresh fish is available by the kilo. But he'd like to see the punters lining up for his luxury feed too.

The recipe is nothing complicated: he cracks a 375ml half-bottle of Moet and uses about 150ml of it to whisk with flour. The batter, like his ordinary version, which contains soda water, is left to stand for 15 minutes before use.

"If I ever get my liquor licence, when you order it, you will get to drink the rest of the bottle with the fish," he said. "It will be included in the price. That was always the idea."

And the Herald on Sunday verdict: the champagne definitely makes a fluffy batter that crisps up beautifully and has a pronounced, slightly mustardy tang.

It's fish like you've never had it before - but at that price it would want to be.