The Engine Room Eatery, Northcote

The dill-cured salmon comes with little playmates of baby potatoes, creme fraiche and soft egg. Picture / Carolyn Robertson

Herald rating: ****

You will be reading a lot about this new place. I can predict this because a chap from one magazine was sitting in the far corner and a lady from another was eating a couple of tables away. A couple from another rag were there the night before, the owner told me later. Never let it be said that we couldn't spot a trend, and follow it.

This new place is called The Engine Room and it's the latest venture of Natalia Schamroth. Began cooking in Auckland in '91, a working holiday - England, Middle East, Tuscany, India, Sydney - that lasted a decade.

Came home, wrote for Cuisine, opened Reuben in the New Art Gallery with Tom Maguire, up for most innovative chef in last year's Lewisham restaurant awards. Opened The Engine Room a few weeks ago with partner Carl Koppenhagen. A working relationship, they'll rotate kitchen and front-of-house roles.

This is our first visit to The Engine Room but I have been here before. Three or four times. The former Northcote Post Office opposite the Bridgeway cinema, was Chutney Mary's, then it was something else. Lately it was Pearl.

Always a favourite room, nice proportions drawn by some Edwardian Government draughtsman in Wellington, rendered into greys and creams by some more recent decorator.

"We are modern bistro style," Schamroth says, "not restricting ourselves to any particular cuisine. Our aim is to be a fun and low-key local restaurant. The emphasis is on eating and drinking well, not 'dining out'."

One crowd turns up for early dinner before the flicks and another afterwards. Which meant that when Vic and I arrived at 7.15pm the place was buzzing. Well, perhaps humming: folk who inhabit the majestic villas and tree-lined streets seem too genteel to buzz.

Bottom line, it was full. People were turned away. There was much waving and kissing and hugging as people bumped into - literally, the place was jammed - friends and neighbours. Chalk up one for "fun local restaurant".

An American writer described Schamroth's Reubenesque style as "playful comfort food". She continues that theme in the regularly changing menu, sticking to the bistro rule of a scant half-dozen entrees and mains.

Feeling French, I took the traditional, suitably light'n'salty goat-cheese tart, relishing slow-roasted tomatoes. Tarragon roasted poussin was a tad dry, but the more subtle notes were bolstered by goat cheese mash and more tomatoes in the sauce.

Vic began lightly, with salmon cured in dill, and little playmates of baby potatoes, creme fraiche, soft egg. He liked the sound of gurnard with Puy lentils, pancetta, baby spinach and aioli - gratified to see that the Food Police have allowed Puy lentils to be restored to the plates of a slavering nation.

When I bullied him into keeping it bistro, he demanded that his steak frites arrive "blue" and was gratified by a marvellous, marbled hunk of Hereford scotch fillet and mountain of golden shoestrings.

As with the food, there's quality rather than quantity in the wines - three methodes, 10 whites, 10 reds. Chalk up another point - all are available by the glass.

Because we are blokes, we finished with port and cheese. Because we like our food and wine, we were sated and satisfied. And because we like it here, we'll go back.

Address: 115 Queen St, Northcote
Phone: (09) 480 9502
Open: Dinner Tuesday to Saturday from 5.30pm
Cuisine: Modern bistro
From the menu: Spaghetti with Italian sausage, pepperonata, grana padano $14
Hapuku with cockles, fennel, tomato, tapenade $28
Balinese black sticky rice, coconut, mango, passionfruit $10
Vegetarian: Chef is only too happy ...
Wine: Short, discriminating list