The Grove, Auckland city

Hare loin wrapped in pancetta. Picture / Babiche Martens

Are you ready to order?" asked the waiter.

"We are," answered Emma from the other side of a glass of bubbles, "and I think we're having the same."

"No, changed my mind," I said. Later in the meal, I'd be glad I did.

We were at the Grove and I had instructed Emma to bring her appetite. She'd not been before: a crime against food in this city.

In the past couple of years, the American owners, Michael and Annette Dearth, have parlayed 10 years in San Francisco eateries into a passionate, stylish, exciting inner-city restaurant.

Sommelier Michael oversees an intriguing 150-bottle wine list that touches most civilised terroirs; his wife is an elegant maitre d', fine-tuning knowledgeable and painstaking staff.

Michael Meredith's cooking is the coup de grace. Fusion: witness five spice quail with baba ghanoush, cucumber and peanuts, spring onion relish, honey emulsion. Or oxtail tortellini, seared scallops with chorizo, celeriac, sauce vierge and red wine caramel.

Technically perfect and much praised by food writers, but his art has never been subjected to the judgment of Emma.

Entrees favour seafood, save a Greek-influenced chevre tart, warm goat's cheese wrapped in a pickled vine leaf, resting on reduced onion and beetroot shavings. Only two words can describe a little gem like this: taste explosion.

Emma began with a side, artichoke salad. Neat trick, I thought, for it functioned as a vegetarian entree.

What did she think? Emma considered over Mourgues du Gres viognier 04.

"They're all good flavours," she answered, "but they're fighting on the plate, or the palate.

"It works if you eat them one by one, like I did when I was a kid ... first the capers, then the artichokes, then the garlic, the parmesan. It would work better if it lost one or two ingredients."

On to the mains and Emma chose cylinders of hare loin, reddish and gamey, wrapped in pancetta. Also parsnip and what Himself called "baby cabbage" but the rest of us know as brussels sprouts.

She found roasted chestnuts lurking in rather too rich chocolate and coffee sauce.

"If there'd been some cheese beside the chestnut, it could have been four courses on one plate."

She offered me a taste of hare. I tasted liver. I am not an offal person.

Emma taste-tested the sauce. "Strongly reminiscent of Vegemite," she said.

My last-minute call - it was cold outside and the long, wooden-floored, high-ceilinged room was chilly, too - was pork, the fillet roasted and the belly confit. And apple sauce ... sorry, puree.

And roasted fennel, and I am embarking on a further crusade to demand more fennel on plates in this town, you have been warned.

There was a note on the menu about quince jus but it hardly rated a mention.

I was comforted but conceded, as we enjoyed a gentle, earthy Burnt Spur pinot noir 03, that the dish did not stretch a Lewisham Award-winning chef.

On the way in, I'd suggested to Emma that it could be a close-run thing between the French Cafe, the Grove and a couple of others to be named Viva's favourite restaurant this year. You might think I've decided, and it's only just July.

No, I'm not going to diss the Grove on one dish that didn't quite work. That's merely a good excuse to return.

The Grove Restaurant
Address: St Patricks Square CBD
Phone: (09) 368 4129
Open: Mon-Fri noon-late, Sat 6pm-late, Sun closed
Cuisine: Modern New Zealand
From the menu: Roasted crayfish tail, cauliflower puree, pomegranate molasses, lemon salad, curry oil $25; Lamb loin with boudin noir, sweetbread and lentil vinaigrette, artichoke fritters $35; Hazelnut financier with poached pear and coriander ice cream $14
Vegetarian: Options plus tasting menu
Wine list: Something special