The Grove, Auckland City

Grilled free-range pork fillet with apple puree and roast fennel.

A full dining room is always a happy one to eat in. You also feel instantly pleased with yourself for booking. The Grove is packed to the gunwhales when we arrive and I'm sure this is not by chance. As the first anniversary of The Grove comes around this month, the sheer hard work by a trio of hospitality professionals is obviously paying off.

Owners Michael and Annette Dearth are freshly returned from a week's culinary adventure in San Francisco with talented chef Michael Meredith so I'm sure there is further excitement in store. In the meantime, they have planned a special degustation menu of the most popular dishes for their first-birthday bash.

We meet my sister and her partner for drinks at The Grove, which is a stone's throw from her offices. The couches past the bar are a comfy reception/lobby area far enough from the dining space to enjoy cocktail hour and contemplate a well-researched wine list.

The beauty of eating with my extended family is that they all let me taste their meals, and we also like to share — or pinch — until everything on the plates has disappeared. My smoked eel beignets are the most intriguing starter on the current menu. The fish is delicate in flavour, the batter crisp and light, nestled on a cauliflower puree with baby cress leaves and dressed with sweet tart pomegranate molasses and curry oil.

Linda decides on the panzanella salad with fried chevre. The goats' cheese is lightly crumbed and dusted with cumin. Sis declares the salad delicious, full of flavour and texture. Bruce's confit duck leg is done with Thai spices, partnered with a savoury kaffir lime and coconut pannacotta and roasted cashews. My fiance devours a Japanese inspired miso caramelised tuna — seared and married with slow-cooked eggplant and a soy bean persimmon and seaweed salad.

With mains $30 and over you expect meals with substance and at The Grove, it is just so. You would certainly be satisfied with just one course, but we have never stopped there as the first courses have such pull. The mains menu is not extensive but the dishes are well-configured combinations of technique and flavours coupled with seasonal ingredients such as chestnuts, fennel, yams and Jerusalem artichokes.

The marriage of sweet pork and anise-flavoured fennel is difficult to beat. My fiance, known for his fondness of pork and crackling chooses the popular grilled free-range pork fillet with confit of belly, apple puree, roasted Florence fennel and quince jus. The market fish can be snapper, hapuka or John Dory depending on the day, pan-roasted and served with a piquillo pepper stuffed with crab and fish mousse, roasted yam and finished with shellfish bisque. A thick piece of beef eye fillet is cooked perfectly — seared on the outside and rosy rare when sliced. It is gobbled up with a puree of Jerusalem artichokes, veal sweetbreads and mushroom custard. A tender braised quail stuffed with glutinous rice and lup cheong is ingenious and reminiscent of "eight treasure duck". Served with pickled pawpaw and shiitake salad, chilli caramel and crisp-fried shallots it becomes modern Asian.

Perfectly cooked green beans dusted with toasted sesame seeds were an ideal accompaniment. Our side of globe artichokes came tossed with savoury tangy capers, caramelized garlic and shaved parmesan.

Desserts are all tempting, but we're partial to hot souffle and are prepared to wait the required 20 minutes for the blood orange souffle with vanilla-bean icecream. This dish is licked clean.

The Grove also offers two tasting menus: one with vegetarian leanings ($80pp), the other for carnivores ($90pp), wines are extra. Both offer six courses — appropriately sized — including a main course and dessert, plus a palate refresher before the pudding.

Remember to book in advance.

WHERE: The Grove, St Patricks Square, Wyndham St.
(09) 368 4129
OUR MEAL: $333.50 for 4, including cocktails and a bottle of wine; entrees $18-20; mains $28-33; desserts $14.
OUR WINES: by the glass $9.50; by the bottle $55.