Herald rating: * * * 1/2
Address: The Langham, Symonds St CBD
Ph: (09) 300 2885
Website: www.auckland.langhamhotels.co.nz
Open: Dinner Mon-Sat
Organics bug me. Go to the supermarket and you'll see the O word above fridges of fruit and vege, a sprout's throw from the same things sprayed with fertiliser and chemicals.
Once "organics" was about eating healthier and better. Now it's a chi-chi style statement, hijacked to make money out of middle-class guilt.
Adults, or something approaching, we thought we'd like to eat about seven. The lady on the phone said the restaurant would be full then and offered 7:45 or 6. We arrived at 6:05. The doors were closed until 6:20.
David hosted us and, for a waiter who proclaimed himself to be "from the bad side of Germany - the former East", did it with style and wit. Much of which was spent in splendid isolation. It was rather like a banquet scene from The Tudors, though Jude was spared the morning-after headache.
Chef had sourced 50 or more approved, nay, certified organic ingredients from producers around the country. The sommelier, less success: five of seven wine matches are Alsatian or Aussie.
I could run through everything we ate, but Beth-the-Graphics saved me the trouble (see above). Let's run quickly through the song-sheet:
Smoked salmon, sweet from a sugar cure, on a tiny buckwheat blini in an island of cauliflower and maple foam, reminded what a treat this much-abused fish can be. The pumpkin - all right, roast butternut squash - soup was a bold rendition with some extremely competitive flavours and a dramatic partner, yoghurt steeped in parmesan.
Our first terrine was chicken liver, sweetened with a fruity crust and a dried fruit compote. Pure, simple, clean sorbet: green tea and pomegranate. Real pomegranate.
Chef's main was straightforward: beef fillet, potato pavé, braised shallots, truffled greens in a pinot noir jus. It wasn't knock'em dead: more, "That's very nice, the beef is juicy and the kitchen has turned it out very well. Love those shallots."
Matatoki Farm provided the cheese course, a terrine with beet and almond salad. I queried its parentage with David. "Did you not notice that it was three cheeses combined?" he asked. No, I hadn't.
Dessert was a treat. Chocolate fondant, chocolate ice-cream, chocolate sauce. "Do you think that is too much chocolate?" David worried. No, it wasn't.
Petit fours to finish. Except we didn't finish. Too much food. They went into a gorgeous pink box for tomorrow's morning tea. Enough, already.
The degustation is available until August 30. It's $130 per person for the food, another $75 with the wines. Which, he said, laying the cards down with a flourish, brings me back to my point about organics.
