Prime Bistro, Auckland CBD

Prime is one of the few restaurants in Auckland which makes the most of its location. Picture / Carolyn Robertson

Herald rating * * * *

Where, she said, gazing around the crowded lunchtime restaurant, "have all the women gone?"

"Gone to flowers everyone, isn't it?" I replied.

"I am," she said, "the only woman here. Look around."

"Bollocks," I said. "There are two over there."

"They," she pointed out, "are waitresses. I am The Token Female."

If Cibo is the restaurant of choice for the Ladies Who Lunch, Prime is the bistro for the Men Who Munch. Well, Prime and its scintillating sibling, the O'Connell St Bistro.

Prime is one of the few restaurants in Auckland - particularly downtown - that makes an absolute virtue of its location. Level 4 of the PriceWaterhouseCoopers Tower means that it's about a storey above Quay St, in the glass and marble atrium of an office behemoth. Inside, discreet, boardroom decor. Outside - please make allowances for two committed Aucklanders here - a neatly organised marquee deck and the vista of Princes Wharf, ferries coming and going, the pastelled panorama of gently rusting containers ...

It is also one of the few restaurants that has the chutzpah to open for lunch. Not dinner. Not weekends. The Token Female and I debated why not. Was it out of the way? "It's been here for three years and I've not realised," she said. Parking issues? Or security for the offices after hours?

They offer tapas or entree-mains menus (we ate the spring menu last week. He refreshed into his summer carte on Monday, but our favourites live on). "I vote tapas," I said, "because we can get more tastes that way." The Token Female agreed. "Suits your short attention span," was actually how she put it.

"We should choose two each," I said. "We don't have to eat everything." We ate everything.

She chose bruschetta, toasted sourdough topped with roasted mushrooms, just-cooked asparagus and pecorino. Sublime, salty cheese tied the dish together. Our favourite. Why? It reinforces Armstrong's trademark, simple presentation of stunning ingredients; strong, clean flavours.

I picked coins of chicken and green peppercorn with a caramelised plum compote. She: "It was a trifle salty for my taste. Loved the spices in the chicken rillettes."

Four porcelain spoons of pepper-smoked salmon, chilli and cucumber and soy, needed a decent hit of salt and pepper.

Our waiter insisted on the fourth. Squid - now, isn't that the big mover on Auckland menus this year? - salted and peppered, a more-than-tasty salsa of tamarind, chilli and coriander.

This was when the conversation from the first few paragraphs took place. She noted that we seemed the only table tucking into tapas. "I couldn't eat a meal the size of the sirloin or the pork or the lamb rump," she said, "and go back to work in the afternoon."

"This way," she said, finishing her Moet, "we can have dessert." Armstrong offers tasting plates, like the tapas, so previous rules applied: she chose one, I chose one, yeah, she got to choose the third.

Fudge studded with pistachio. Lemon curd scooped on to biscotti. Chocolate cake with buttermilk and spices ...

"Isn't it funny," she said, "when you go to a really good restaurant, you can pick tiny holes in the food or the service, like the waiter not noticing that our table needed a napkin under that corner?"

My turn to sigh. "Here we are, trying to find imperfections in one of the best acts in the city. Shouldn't we be enjoying the moment?"

"Yes," she said. "If not the moment, the hour. Which is over. You should get back to the office."


Address: Level 4 PWC Tower, 188 Quay St, Auckland

Phone: (09) 357 0188

Open: Mon-Fri, midday-7pm (lunch midday-4pm, tapas midday-7pm)

Owners: Chris Upton, Sean Armstrong

Executive Chef: Sean Armstrong

Cuisine: Tapas tastes or chief executive offers at business-focused lunchtime gem

From the menu: Duck and ginger wonton, spicy herb salad, chilli dipping sauce $14.50; Salmon and monkfish nori sausage, wasabi soba noodles, pickled vegetables and ponzu $27.50; Roasted pear and bread and butter cake $3.50 a slice

Wine: Superlative