Olympic Cafe

By EWAN MCDONALD

Big Night. Au Petit Marguery. Tampopo ... definitely not Delicatessen. Musing on movies about restaurants, you can't help inching towards the conclusion that the really good ones are the small stories of neighbourhood life, and it's often true of restaurant experiences as well.

So often, when we think about where to dine out, the first places that spring to mind are the newest ones in town, or the ones with the name chefs: the Michael James, the Judith Tabrons, the Rick Rutledge-Mannings. But more often the places many of us eat out at are the BYOs or bistros in our suburb. We go back to them, if they're any good; after two or three visits, if they're any good, the patron knows us by face or by name and there may even be a glass of the favourite red on the table before we ask.

The Olympic Cafe is one such go-back-to place. Now it might sound as though I'm contradicting my last paragraph, because you couldn't get a much more urban setting. It's on a busy corner in Newmarket, facing the back of a multiplex, the second-most "look-at-me" wall of gym windows in Auckland and a high-rise carpark.

But the Olympic Cafe has succeeded, year-in, year-out, because it has stuck to the virtues of the neighbourhood restaurant: honest food, well cooked; warm, personal service; BYO option. It's a good place to meet friends for a meal, for conversation and camaraderie, without worrying too much about the damage to the credit card or that the food won't be to one of the party's liking. And, with the Rialto and the multiplex close by, it is convenient before or after the flicks.

No popcorn or Jaffas on the menu; not too many surprises either. The front page is headed "Permanent Fixtures (dishes we are simply not allowed to take off the menu)". You have to admire the confidence and assuredness that suggests in such a fickle business.

There is freshness and sharpness and plenty of tastes in a warm salad of Vietnamese-style spicy beef with ginger dressing and more than passable Thai chicken curry with fragrant rice and coriander leaves. There is comfort food: whitebait fritter with lime mayonnaise, lamb shanks slow-cooked with red wine, rosemary and balsamic vinegar, on creamed potato; bread-and-butter pudding with sultanas, coconut and a Cointreau sauce.

Mains are a blend of Asian and Mediterranean influences, as is any self-respecting New Zealand bistro menu these days: prawns and calamari on Chinese noodles with snowpea sprouts and a plum and chilli sauce; salmon fillet dusted with tandoori spices, baked and served on curried pumpkin and cashew salsa; roasted lemon chicken breast on linguine; beef and venison dishes with risotto, from $21.50 to $28.50 (yes, they are more inner-city than outer-suburban prices). It would be dressing this up too much to call it Pacific Rim, or fusion, or the new jargon, pan-Asian, which is apparently fusion food that doesn't stray beyond the loose boundaries of "Asia".

At dessert, perhaps the meringues with the three-icecream dessert were a little sticky but not everyone can make them as well as my mother-in-law.

But the real joy of going to the Olympic Cafe is the patron and patronne, Robert and Khim Agnew. He wins points for being one of the few hosts in town who, when you order a glass of wine, actually brings the bottle to the table, shows it, and then pours; she's a bubbling, cheerful, witty woman who can't do enough to make your evening enjoyable. You might feel you're eating at her dining table. In a way, you are. They live on site. That's a real neighbourhood cafe.

Open: Dinner Monday-Saturday

Lunches: December only

Food: NZ bistro

Owners: Khim and Robert Agnew

Chefs: Khim and Robert Agnew, Des Ward

Smoking: Smokefree

Wine: Conservative, mostly Kiwi selection of three bubblies, 13 whites, 10 reds and three stickies, all available by the glass, plus BYO ($ 3 corkage).

Noise: Van, the Belfast Cowboy, and Dave, the Grey Lynn Cowboy

Cost: (mains for two) Under $50

Vegetarian: Not on the menu

Bottom line: You couldn't get a much more urban setting (next to a multiplex, lookatme gym and highrise carpark), but the Olympic Cafe has succeeded over the years because it has stuck to the virtues of the neighbourhood restaurant: Honest food, well cooked; warm, personal service; BYO option. Good place to meet friends for a meal; convenient before or after the movies.

* Read more about what's happening in the world of food, wine, fashion and beauty in viva, part of your Herald print edition every Wednesday.