Harbourside, City

The baked hapuku with toasted almonds, hollandaise and asparagus. Jeff Brass / Getty Images

Herald rating: * * * *

Thirty years is a long time for anyone to be in the restaurant business. Actually, it's a long time to be in any business. Tony Adcock and partners have, in that time, run a number of Auckland's more famous eateries — Carthew's and Le Brie among them — until he arrived at his current resting place, Harbourside, in Auckland's Ferry Building.

To celebrate three decades serving the tastes of Aucklanders, the current menu at Harbourside carries a number of tribute dishes to times gone by, ones that will be remembered by fans of his former establishments. The oh-so-80s cajun blackened fish is the one that made me giggle — what were we thinking back then?

With its second-storey deck overlooking the ferry terminal and harbour — a popular venue for office Christmas parties I've noticed — Harbourside certainly has one of the best restaurant views in Auckland. And the site makes its seafood emphasis entirely appropriate. But, perhaps influenced by its habit several years ago of offering cheap lunches in the winter and an idea that it might appeal only to travelling business people, it's sometimes seemed tainted with a slight air of desperation.

So it was a surprise to find it so crowded on a Wednesday night, with what seemed like mostly a tourist crowd. Is it just thriving on its location?

Initially, after the opening of a fine bottle of Te Mata Woodthorpe Viognier ($65), service was a little tardy. But once we'd explained our need to be on the last return ferry of the evening, our food arrived with precise timing.

Entree for me was four rather lean but tasty scallops served in a cream sauce with julienne vegetables ($19.90). My friends both ordered the seafood crepes with prawns, scallops, and some other white fish, served in a creamy tarragon sauce ($22.90). They both pronounced it delicious.

Being a seafood restaurant means they offer crayfish, seafood platters and sashimi and sushi in various combinations, as well as chowders and gumbos, as you might expect. But we were having none of it.

She who was determined not to spoil her chances of dessert, ordered instead a second entree, this time of offal — chicken livers served on young silverbeet and drizzled with a warm dressing ($19.50). She was well pleased.

For me, the John Dory (seldom seen these days) pan-fried and accompanied by shiitake mushrooms (an unusual but pleasing combination with fish), old-fashioned scallop potatoes (so comforting) and a lemon beurre blanc ($32.90).

Guest number three opted for the baked hapuku with toasted almonds, hollandaise sauce and asparagus ($32.90) and was very enthusiastic, especially over the tender spears.

Even those of us who had main courses were still up for dessert (each $13.80) — a testimony to the fact the meals are adequately proportioned but neither overwhelming nor too rich. One of us had a special reason to order Banana Foster — a more chic rendition of a banana split with rum, caramel sauce and vanilla bean icecream. The plate was almost licked. The creme caramel also disappeared without much hesitation, and I was delighted that the creamy centre of my fruit tart was still warm, the fruit topping generous and sweet, but, alas, the pastry case was impenetrable.

I went to Harbourside almost expecting to be disappointed, remembering the curse of waterfront restaurants, but was pleasantly surprised.

Yes it can be noisy, but it's the hubbub of happy diners, rather than the assault of the staff's favourite music we are so often subjected to in more hip establishments.

If you like to dine watching the yachts gliding up the harbour, be sure to ask for a window seat. On a summer's evening, nothing could be more perfect.

Overall: A comprehensive range of seafood dishes; on the expensive side but well rendered.
Where: Harbourside seafood bar and grill. 1st floor, the Ferry Building, Quay St. (09) 307 0523.
Our meal: $257 for four entrees, two mains, and three desserts, plus wine.
Our wine: from $39 to $175.