KEY POINTS:
Google Auckland fine dining and TriBeCa doesn't pop up on many sites. Maybe it should: it has one of the better locations, an attractive room, name chefs, innovative food and a superlative cellar.
The menu lists Elliot Warne as head chef, which might surprise those who've enjoyed his
food at Otto's. Simple answer: Mark and Pauline Walynetz own both and Warne divides his time between the city and Parnell.
Chef's resume lists Hammerheads, Bowmans, The Grove, O'Connell St Bistro and TriBeCa (to use their irritating spelling). Top tables in Melbourne. Home at New Year. Replaced Richard Harris, the daring chef whose food made so many epiglottal stops that the menu included a glossary.
Comparatively, Warne's food is pared-back. Comparatively. Fewer flavours, still exotic (xocopili is salty and spicy chocolate), still innovative.
Let's start from the very beginning. Yeasty bread and dips were fresh, yet not jaw-inspiring. My companion was in seafood mode; Clevedon oysters in polenta crust, chardonnay and mustard cream, tomato fondue. If you must cook oysters, best do it lightly and with the best of ingredients; they did.
Roast peach and goats' cheese "saltimbocca", balsamic watermelon croutons, micro-herbs and truffle translates as a cigar of cheese wrapped around peach slivers, melon chunks drizzled with vinegar, wisps of ... other things. Too much cheese, nothing else stood a chance.
So many creatures of the deep gave their lives for the seafood medley that Greenpeace could have spent a year's budget campaigning against it. The big kahuna was crispy soft-shell crab. We counted the other flavours: smoked paprika caramel poached snapper and hapuka, muddled basil and tomato grilled prawn tails, avocado quinoa, Nigerian peanut and bell-pepper soup. Don't know why the peanuts had to be Nigerian, but the kitchen's efforts were appreciated.
Duck was an updated French classic. Roasted then sliced, it came with sweet potato and creamy cheese "terrine" (aka dauphinoise), wine jus mulled with sour sumac spice. The twist was on the side, toasted almond and spiced lemon.
About now I realised this tricky food was good but required chef's firm hand in the kitchen, not splitting time or concentration with the place up the road. Execution, temperatures were uneven, presentation off the mark.
Desserts. Heather's been disappointed in Kiwi versions of NY cheesecake: "too sweet," she says. Baked with lemon thyme, backed up with lemon confit and creme fraiche ice-cream, this one was never going to fall into that trap. I relished intensely flavoured fig coins, crumbed with candied brioche, in a syrup that neared a late-night sticky.
We had lingered over drinks in the bar before we ate. That might have signalled to a sensitive staff that we weren't of a mind to rush through our evening. So might the way we dallied over the menu, sent the waitress back a couple of times.
Yet we'd barely broken bread when our entrees landed, so quickly two staff had to re-arrange the tiny table to accommodate glasses, water-jug, condiments, three gigantic platters.
Solution: they appropriated the next table. Just as well the place wasn't full.
Second course, same as the first. Our cutlery might have touched the plates to signal the last mouthful before the empties were whisked but it was a close-run thing.
Assertiveness, that's the go, I declared. After the waitress' third inquiry - charming as she was - I told her we'd call when we were ready.
Waiter No. 2 seemed perplexed when I asked him if the maitre d' or the chef could match wines from the vast and magical cellar to our food. Seemed the most sensible course, I do it often and have never had a head-scratching response to the idea before. That said, the calls (Marlborough riesling with both entrees, pinot gris with the seafood and a Tasmanian - true - chardonnay for duck) were exquisite.
So I have reservations about this restaurant, if not the food. "It is," I said to Heather, "one of those rare meals that started well and improved through each course".
Address: 8 George St, Parnell
Phone: (09) 379 6359
Web: www.tribeca.co.nz
Open: Lunch Mon-Sat, dinner Mon-Sat
Cuisine: Innovative
From the menu: Seared venison tataki, pear and ginger remoulade, kalamata olives, xocopili paint $20; Seared fillet of beef, beer-battered shiitake, garlic bolts, smokey corn puree and veal jus $36; Honey cinnamon Greek yoghurt panna cotta, blueberry and comb honey salad, basil syrup $14
Vegetarian: Lemon porcini gnocchi
Wine: Something special