The Braised pork belly from Q Restaurant at the Westin Hotel. Photo / Greg Bowker
Herald rating: * * * 1/2
Address: 21 Viaduct Harbour Ave
Phone: 909 9038
Website: www.westin.com/auckland
Open: 7 days
Cuisine: Modern Italian
From the menu: Squid, polenta gorgonzola, Italian sausage, rosemary, sweet grilled pepper $20; Porcini crusted lamb rump, Jerusalem artichoke puree, Casteluccio lentils, lambrusco $36; Italian apple and walnut tart, custard gelato $14
Vegetarian: Minestrone, pasta, risotto
Wine: Refreshing
Ask a restaurateur the most important factor in an eatery's success and they will likely say "location". Ask a customer and they will say "atmosphere".
For customers, the next few of their favourite things are value for money, cleanliness and service, otherwise known as speed. Food ranks after
those.
Sure, that was a British survey, but it's a reasonable proposition that the same rankings would apply here.
We are at Q at the Westin, host hotel for Fashion Week. With its four dining spaces beside Lighter Quay, orange, yellow, and black-glowing marble walls, we can tick location and atmosphere.
What about the rest of the list?
I dined here soon after the curtains went up, and before the pools were filled, a year ago.
Felt the imported expats in the kitchen had not caught the local flavours and the Brit-chic food interesting not enthralling.
Perhaps they listened. Perhaps other people said the same thing. Perhaps chef/restaurateur Mark Gregory and his newish head chef, Murray Wilbin, just felt like a change.
Now they "celebrate the best of New Zealand's fresh, seasonal produce. Inspired by Italian country cooking, dishes can change weekly depending what's in season and available at the markets."
That sounds rather Jamie Oliver. And the menu is printed monthly. The current edition offers autumn soup _ pardon: minestrone autunno _ even though it is around the First of Spring.
There are a lot of Spanglish words. Promise I will not pick holes in menuese and will overlook "vin blanco" instead of vino blanco or wonder why the French "risotto Milanaise" appears on an Italian-inspired menu instead of "risotto alla Milanese".
We shall come back to the food. I want to talk about the service at Q. It is practised, it is taught, and probably taught again. And in the case of our waiter, Mark M on the credit-card slip, practised and mannered and knowledgeable and light.
He introduced Sarah Bell, the youngish sommelier who'd already seen our orders. She made suggestions and introduced the wines. They were not conventional matches: they were interesting. Even provocative.
Jude and I ordered the same entree, salad of roasted artichoke, feta, basil, pine nuts, frisse (OK, frilly) lettuce and a truffle-ish dressing. Fresh, had all those piquant tastes. The Clearview savvy went down very well with it. Was the dish rustic Italian or seasonal or from the market? Um.
A roll-mop of roasted veal loin, wrapped in pancetta, mustard fruit cru, borlotti beans and spinach: all were present and almost correct. I thought the beans on the dry side (Jude disagreed) and temperatures of various components didn't quite match. Lava Rock, lighter than the usual syrahs, did.
Jude was undecided about her braised pork belly, vongole and roast squash. The Spanglish bemuses me, again: why "vongole" when most of your audience can't recall what the Italian word means and the cockles have come from Howick or Clevedon anyway? Patutahi's classic gewurz was a safe and welcomed wine.
I attacked dark, heady chocolate cake; Jude looked forward to hot limone souffle, nougate semi freddo.
She dipped her spoon, looked up: "Close your eyes and taste this." I tasted rice pudding. Without limone. The white lumps might have been cornflour or thickening.
ATMOSPHERE, cleanliness, service: you've got to award Q full marks for those. We paid much the same as we'd fork out at the French Cafe or The Grove, a teaspoon more than at Meredith's, for a good, honest meal in gorgeous surroundings with excellent service.
The food has the no-risk, no-surprise feel of an international hotel kitchen rather than a signature restaurant.
To take it to that level every dish has to go out with the passion of, "Our name is gonna live or die on this plate".
Guess that's what the Brits meant by value for money. As an evening, Q is far more than OK.
As a restaurant, a few reservations.
