Savour & Devour, Grey Lynn

Savour & Devour uses imaginative combinations of flavour and texture in its antipasto platters. Picture / Carolyn Robertson

Herald rating: * * * *

Your correspondent had been on a vegetable jag for days, swapping ideas with a near-vegan friend for 45 things to do with the last pumpkin of the winter and the promotional packets dropped off by a pasta company.

It confirmed that lack of red meat and red wine can have a severe effect on an unreconstructed male.

"We'll eat early," said the Valley Girl when I mentioned Savour & Devour in Grey Lynn. "Good," I said, "I'm absolutely famished."

Savour & Devour has many things to recommend it, not the least of which is that it is one place in the nation's most socially engineered suburb where sheep may not safely graze, and two people can be sure of being offered a healthy choice and serving of meat.

Tara and Geoff Brogan opened shop about three years ago as a community cafe, restaurant and bar where locals would feel at home. Tara, who has been in the catering business for more than 15 years, describes the all-day operation as "a place for passionate eaters and drinkers", so strike two for me.

They're extremely patriotic. "We have endeavoured to bring you good food, healthy and honest, prepared with the finest ingredients and showcasing the best New Zealand has to offer." Ditto on the wine list, though I'd like to see somewhere that includes "bar" in its mission statement offering more of its reds by the glass.

Yes, I have been riding this hobbyhorse for a few columns now, and promise to find somewhere to write about next time where I won't have to mention it again.

We fancied starting with the antipasto platter. "Good call," I said, "but do you think the $20 option will be enough for two of us? Shouldn't we have the $30 or even the $40?"

Squid daubed with salsa verde, charcuterie, cheeses, breads, oils, dips: it was, to tweak the Prime Minister's phrase, a night for triumphalism. Unlike the sad and tired abuses of the Italian language that appear on so many tables, these titbits were fresh, piquant combinations of flavour and texture and imagination.

When in Grey Lynn ... the Valley Girl considered the vegetarian option - goat's cheese souffle - then went out on a limb, or rather a tentacle, with squid-ink risotto. This is praise for Savour & Devour, because she sidesteps anything that mentions risotto because she's never found a restaurant that cooks and serves the darned dish to her satisfaction. This night, this kitchen did. More than satisfactorily.

Given my bias towards meat, I'd have to make do with pork belly or duck or lamb rump or venison or veal rack or eye fillet. There was horseradish butter on the beef. Sold.

"Medium rare," I instructed, and they did, though I wish menu-writers wouldn't rabbit on about "a nest of basil pesto". Have you tried building a nest of pesto? Bloody good, lip-smacking pesto it was, though.

And the meat was cooked just so. Atop beetroot-inspired fettuccine and rocket splashed with a balsamic reduction, it was - lashed with a couple of glasses of Kaipara Estate shiraz - what the soul, and the corpuscles, craved.

"Dessert?" I ventured, because the menu-writer was now on a sugar rush about "our famous desserts" and "sweet-toothed customers who crave variety and creativity" and "handcrafted delicacies!"

But she was finding the 1960s office-style swivel chairs cute but uncomfortable and so was I. Uncomfortable, not cute, that is.

"We'll walk back to town," she said. "Wish I lived in Grey Lynn," I said. "Why, so you don't have to walk home?" she said. "No. Because everyone should have a cafe this good at the end of their street," I said.

Address: 478 Richmond Rd, Grey Lynn
Phone: (09) 361 2631
Owners: Geoff and Tara Brogan
Open: All day. Dinner from 6pm Tue-Sun
From the menu: Seared squid marinated in salsa verde, green leaves and pomegranate dressing $15;
Roast Murellen pork belly, infused with star anise, truffle mash, seared bok choy, rhubarb and apple puree $26.50;
Baked triple chevre souffle, roasted cherry tomato tarte tartin, avocado oil $25
Vegetarian: Options on menu
Wine: NZ-oriented; light on glass options
Bottom line: In a perfect world everyone would have a cafe like this at the end of their street