There is something both impressive and formidable about a thriving restaurant duo.
“That’s a good-looking blackboard,” I said to the maitre d’, looking over the chalked list of delicious dishes The Engine Room uses in place of paper menus.
“Thank you,” she said. “Before Carl was a chef, he
She paused.
“It’s the spelling he needs help with.”
You do the food, I’ll do the service. You do the drinks list, I’ll do the shopping. You do the blackboard, I’ll do the spelling. Good-looking. And apart from the odd fall-out over money or pride (I once received a lawyer’s letter demanding that I devote equal word count to the lower-profile partner), the good ones do generally seem to last. Natalia Schamroth and Carl Koppenhagen might be the best of the lot.
The Engine Room will celebrate 20 years of business in 2026, and has offered much the same thing throughout - they substantially expanded their footprint at one point, and I’m sure the ivy took a few years to colonise the exterior of the building, but the set-up is unchanged: a brilliant bistro, with exceptionally warm service, and an open kitchen (“the engine room” that gives the restaurant its name) that feels like part of the dining experience. Remember, a restaurant where you could watch your steak being cooked was much less common in 2006. It worked, and chefs around the city followed suit.
The Engine Room’s wine menu is a real treat, with a mix of locals and internationals under Coravin, alongside a separate list of fortifieds and other oddities. I left the chilled white port for another visit and ordered manzanilla, a cold, bone-dry sherry that is made on the coast and in which Andalusians believe you can taste the sea salt.
I was eating with my new boss at Viva, who’d just arrived from London. We did the full monty, from aperitifs to desserts, and when we couldn’t narrow down the entrees, I suggested we go with all three. It is difficult to order here, for all the right reasons. Everything looks exceptionally tasty and, if you’ve visited before, you’ll probably still be thinking about the thing you had last time. Knowing that the twice-baked goat’s cheese souffle exists, how can you possibly order anything else?
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Advertise with NZME.“What’s good tonight?” I asked Natalia, knowing this was one restaurant where the question would be taken seriously.
“You know …” she began, “I was walking past the kitchen tonight and I smelled the first soufflé come out of the oven and it smelled SO good.”
How many souffles do you think she’s delivered in her lifetime? Conservatively, 10 a night, five nights a week for 20 years? That’s 50,000 by my maths, and if she’s still finding joy in them, I didn’t feel bad adding one to our order.
We were partly there to educate Jasper on the joys of New Zealand food, so we also ordered the whitebait, and the lamb, and I was about to get the pavlova too but he told me that he’d already tried one in the two weeks he’d been in New Zealand. What, are they offering samples at Customs now?
The perfectly tender lamb was more Mediterranean than Aotearoa, arriving in thick slices with olives and pomegranate seeds and scattered with young spring broad beans. The fritter was stout and plump (“I always think the thin ones taste of the pan”), the dark side of golden brown, with a smidge of creme fraiche, capers and even some threads of preserved lemon.
Meanwhile, I choked somewhat on my own order, selecting two Asian dishes at New Zealand’s most famous European bistro. Still, I didn’t regret it: a (head- and shell-free) Thai prawn salad was fresh, fragrant and tropical, with some surprise pieces of lychee alongside lemongrass, ginger and fried shallots. Five-spiced tofu is a generous vegetarian option scented with heady spices, the silky white curd hiding inside a fried dark, crunchy shell. It was scattered with fresh herbs and sat on a “tomato black-bean sauce” which reminded me of a good sambal.
Though the Engine Room feels like a classic two-hander, there are other staff making it all work. At one point, a young waitress walking through the dining room stopped suddenly and took a 90-degree turn toward our table.
“Oh, I’m sorry!” she said, after a moment. “I thought I saw a speck of food in your water glass.”
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Advertise with NZME.The Engine Room
Cuisine: Bistro
Address: 115 Queen St, Northcote Point, 09 480 9502
Drinks: Fully licensed
Reservations: Accepted
From the menu: prawn salad $36, goats cheese souffle $29, whitebait fritter $42, lamb rump $51, tofu $43, seasonal greens $19, lemon cheesecake $19, profiteroles $19
Rating: 19/20
Score: 0-7 Steer clear. 8-12 Disappointing, give it a miss. 13-15 Good, give it a go. 16-18 Great, plan a visit. 19-20 Outstanding, don’t delay.
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