Where: 227 Jervois Rd, Auckland (09) 376-5550
Our meal: Four entrees, two mains, rice, two beers, one soft drink. $93.
Our wine: Short, mostly local, adequate. Also BYOW ($5 corkage).
Verdict: An Auckland institution that is popular but disappointed on the night.
Out of 10
Food: 5
Service: 6
Value: 7
Ambience: 7
KEY POINTS:
Within an easy 10 minute walk from our place is Dominion Rd, which - all due respect to Parnell, Ponsonby and, latterly, Kingsland - is arguably Auckland's "golden mile" of eating establishments.
From Meredith's and the newly opened, elegant and excellent Two Fifteen to Valentines and Wendy's, there is something on D. Rd for every palette and pocket. Most of the places are Asian and a good percentage of them are Chinese. Some of the Chinese places are little more than rooms scrupulously free of decor, but what comes out of the kitchens can be something very special, and always modestly priced.
During increasingly straitened times these must be a challenge to some of the more established and pricey Chinese restaurants around the central city. But rather than a quick bite at one our locals, we decided to head across town to Herne Bay for what we had hoped would be a superior Chinese experience.
Inside a converted villa, Empress Garden has been delivering its signature dish of Peking Duck for many years to the obvious delight of reviewers. But we wanted to venture sideways through their extremely long menu - which features perhaps 80 dishes from entrees through mains and specials.
Acknowledging immediately that Chinese restaurants (as opposed to Chinese eateries on D. Rd) are places best enjoyed in a group where you may explore a range of dishes, we decided to do our best by ordering widely: four entrees before we considered the mains. But our selection left us disappointed: the vegetarian spring rolls ($6) were certainly fresh but seemed to have little more than cabbage in them, the cold smoked fish pieces ($6) were so terrifyingly bony that after some valiant efforts and lots of detritus on our plates we abandoned them, and the cold, shredded chicken with green bean pasta ($6) was buried beneath such a dollop of satay-style paste that any flavour the chicken might have had was lost. The cold five-spice slices of shin beef ($6), however, were excellent and that was the only empty plate which left our table. This had been a disappointing start so we exercised more caution for mains.
Although we ordered separately, but intended to share, it was a surprise that Megan's deep-fried tofu with minced prawn balls should arrive almost 10 minutes before my sizzling venison with ginger and spring onion. The former was certainly generous if a little underwhelming but the highpoint was the venison, which was soft, tasty and also filled the platter. But I have to observe, good though it was, it wasn't appreciably better than many similar dishes I have had in other places.
Perhaps we should have gone for the much-acclaimed Peking Duck or maybe we should have chosen more judiciously, but this for the most part was disappointing.
That said, Empress Garden - which recently re-opened (it closed a year ago) under new management - was busy and the happy noise suggested other people were enjoying their meals much more than we had ours. I can't help but note, though, that the smaller Chinese places on D. Rd are also always busy.
