Paramount

By EWAN McDONALD for viva

Every generation throws an idol up the pop charts so the mega-splendiferous-over-the-top two-hour finale seemed like a good night to be sure of getting a table in a good restaurant.

We were right. We found a table in an excellent restaurant. One that - cards on the table here - has never let us down, and often left us asking one another, "Why isn't this place packed out every night?"

Paramount, in Lorne St, is the domain of chef Trevor Griggs. Emma, his wife, is usually the maitre d' and can, after 17 years as a chef, event manager and maitre d' at 4- and 5-star hotels in London and Auckland, claim credit for the impeccable service that marks their restaurants. Well, most of the time. She's on maternity leave with their new son, Jack, at the moment.

Not that you'd know the boss was away: we were welcomed, shown to a window table, coats taken, and given warm, knowledgeable and unobtrusive attention throughout the evening.

Griggs' food is always interesting. Technically accomplished after 22 years in his side of the industry, he began in the hallowed kitchen of Noahs Hotel in Christchurch and was executive chef in a Sydney hotel by age 28. Perhaps we shouldn't mention the years in places like Alice Springs here; we should skip to the three years working through the ranks at Grosvenor House in Park Lane, London, and as executive chef at the Stamford Plaza downtown before his own restaurants, Mange Tout and Paramount.

You need only look at a plate of Griggs' food to know that here is a chef who gives a damn. Going with the name, the Paramount philosophy is "premium ingredients, cooked to perfection, with uncomplicated flavours and simple presentation". There are five or six flavours to each dish, carefully thought-out meals, not an accountant-run business where someone dumps a confit of duck leg in its own jus on the plate and hits you up for another $10 or $12 for the starch and veges.

Let's deconstruct a couple. The menu reads: "Pork tenderloin, crackling, potato pumpkin mash, braised red cabbage, pistachio apple compote, cider glaze." Think back to Sunday roast at home and what you've got is a flash version of mum's roast pork, mashed spuds, cabbage with apple sauce. And you don't have to fight three brothers for the crackling.

For dessert, order "banana brioche butter pudding, rum raisins, pecan nut icecream, anglaise" and remember grandma's bread-and-butter pudding studded with raisins and a spoonful of Tip-Top on the side of the plate.

While he may not take the risks of, say, Simon Gault, don't think that Griggs doesn't push the sauce boat out. One of our starters married Asian flavours: prawn rolls, tempura oysters, spiced vegetable slaw cut as fine as silk; the other was a simple salad of baby spinach leaves, roasted artichokes, shaved parmesan, aged balsamic, on a tomato croute: simple, clear flavours to cleanse the palate for the meal ahead.

There's a kitchen special each night. This time, a tender and succulent eye fillet of ostrich, dusted with horopito, the native herbs that are bound to appear on the Waitangi Tribunal's hit-list of multi-billion-dollar natural resources sooner or later. To complete his roster of five or six players, Griggs cooked a golden rosti, flavoured it with parsley and chives, and laid it on a bed of snow peas (bit of a signature, mange-tout), crisp beans, sauteed mushrooms, and bathed it in a shiraz glaze.

Most items on Paramount's menu are described in detail: one isn't. Under "To Finish" is something called "Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate and More," which we'd leave to your imagination except that our photographer Glenn Jeffrey has stuck a bloody great photo of this gorgeous concoction at the top of the page. Fudgey chocolate cake, a chocolate moussey arrangement encased in a chocolate witch's hat and a slab of white chocolate icecream sandwiched between two nutty wafers, this was luurrrve at first bite.

Delighted with our choices, both of restaurant and food, and the staff's calls on wines to match the food, we were left to ponder that question that we started with. Why is it that Paramount continues to be ranked among the city's finest (yes, this is another on Viva's A-list), and yet only three tables were occupied? As we've said before, a restaurant visit is a total experience and sitting in a near-empty room doesn't help the atmosphere or ambience, no matter how great the food. Maybe it was that showdown between Clay and Ruben.

Open: Mon-Fri lunch and dinner, including pre-theatre dinner, noon-close; Sat dinner, 6pm-close

Owners: Trevor and Emma Griggs, Adrien de Croy

Chef: Trevor Griggs

Maitre d': Emma Griggs

Food: Modern NZ contemporary twists on classic dishes

On the menu:

Crystal Bay prawn rolls, tempura oysters, spiced vegetable slaw, toasted sesame dressing, thick soy $18.50

Chicken supreme, steamed corn, zucchini rice cake, choy sum, capsicum ginger dressing $26.50

Pork tenderloin, crackling, potato pumpkin mash, braised red cabbage, pistachio apple compote, cider glaze $28.50

Demerara scorched Grand Marnier lemon brulee, almond filo $12.50

Vegetarian: Baked couscous crepes with feta, chargrilled vegetables, pesto glaze, roasted kalamata olive tapenade ...

Wine: Bewitching, bewildering boutique vintages from home, superior wines from everywhere else

Smoking: Smokefree

Noise: Lounge

Bottom line: You need only look at a plate of Trevor Griggs' food to know that here is a chef who gives a damn. He calls it "premium ingredients, cooked to perfection, with uncomplicated flavours and simple presentation". We call it carefully thought-out meals, superior winelist, impeccable service. What more could you want? A few more people to appreciate it, maybe.

* 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.