Point, Pt Chevalier

A little of this and a little of that - parmesan chicken, mussels, lamb and beef carpaccio. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

Herald rating: * * *

Dylan's reedy whine snarls in the cold Pt Chevalier night. Hands firmly inside leather jacket, I shuffle into Point. Lauren and Dave blow in with the harmonica of Hurricane.

Gentle reader, the musical metaphor will continue, though no one climbed a coconut palm to harvest dessert.

Lauren, Dave and I were drawn here because The Dish column said, "Make a Point of visiting ... Point is one of those eateries that gives suburban restaurants a good name."

In its earlier incarnation as Point 5 Nine this was a way cool restaurant. It had Pip Wylie, ex-Sugar Club, in the kitchen. They would do things like give away a night's trade to fundraise for arcane illnesses. You'd go along out of the goodness of your heart, or liver, and there'd be this really nice guy with curly hair from Wanganui, ummm, Peter someone, on the other side of the stoves.

Duncan Robertson closed that in December, aiming to provide Pt Chev with a venue offering inner-city cuisine and an extensive wine list but keeping the heart of a premium suburban bar/restaurant.

The new Point is not so much a restaurant as pub, open-fronted to the town square, Manhattan cocktail lounge with deco naked-ladies lamps and booths, dark wooden English-local bar and a little room that's like ...

"That wallpaper has come back in this year," said Lauren. "Can I say it looks like the snug in Coronation St?" I asked.

"Yes," she said, "just don't say I watch it."

We were a couple of rouges into the night - simply had to sample a shiraz that travels under a handle like "Oomoo McLaren Vale" - before we looked at the menu by Mark Necklen.

Yes, it's small plates. Again this week, we are witnesses at the funeral of the three-course meal.

Point's take is the culinary equivalent of a good covers band - familiar tunes well rendered. Here you'll find plainer fare than the hip-hop of cuisines - Thai, Japanese, Moroccan - of more urban tapas joints.

Instead of coconut ceviche, mango salsa and chermoula herbs, you're offered a retro prawn cocktail served in a martini glass, Polynesian-style raw fish with taro chips, croque monsieur.

Dave makes the sensible suggestion that we go around the bases - chicken, lamb, beef, seafood. From the first bite of soft, pink, peppery beef carpaccio, sharp parmesan and truffle oil, it's obvious that they're buying the good stuff here and treating it with respect.

Mussels are freshly steamed, in a staunch and warming tomato and saffron broth; the lamb chops a notch past pink, with dices of roasted kumara and red onion mushed into a satisfying jam. Chicken schnitzels, crumbed with parmesan and herbs, were a tad dry. One of us thought the mayo might have come from a jar but I promised her I wouldn't say who it was.

Four platters, three palates. Room for tiny desserts, then: mouthfuls of tangy lemon-curd tarts, moist chocolate brownie. A slab of Kikorangi blue, set off with honeycomb and pear, arrived with another aged mouthful: a Janis Joplin blues.

We got the Point. If familiarity breeds content, the locals should be well pleased.


POINT

Address: 5/9 Pt Chevalier Rd
Phone: (09) 815 9595
Open: 7 days
Cuisine: Small plates
From the menu: Roast crisp pork belly, potato mash, peas, apple sauce $11.50
Grilled Portobello mushrooms, feta, herbs, pinenuts $ 8.50
Fried banana, coconut icecream, chilli caramel sauce $ 9.50
Vegetarian: Not a lot
Wine: Well above average, all by the glass