Food glorious food
Metro's awards for Auckland's best restaurants are out.
The Restaurant of the Year shortlist:
Supreme Winner: The French Cafe
Fine Dining: The French Cafe
Smart Casual: Cibo
Italian: Delicious
Local: The Engine Room
Chinese: Empress Garden
New Restaurant: The Engine Room/Dine by Peter Gordon
Dessert: The Engine Room
Wine List: O'Connell Street Bistro
Service: Creghan Molloy Wright, The French Cafe
The site is here
Metro got there - they must have inhaled the food, given that more than 70 places are done very quickly and each place has to be dined at, at least three times - with the help of the Sydney Morning Herald's Matthew Evans, one of the few restaurant critics in this neck of the culinary woods who actually knows anything about food, and also how to write.
The French Cafe won top spot, and it's so good that Evans reportedly would like to transport it to Sydney. We're selling everything else, so why not? But one would hope that every customer, big and small, is treated the same at these nice nosh spots. The retired Ms Vile (welcome to guest here any time) had a less than brilliant experience there.
Perhaps it was just a bad day. But I also had one. A celebrating group I was with last year found fault. My champagne glass was not changed when the wine was, my jacket was draped on a step-ladder or some such near the toilets, and the service was more surly than sublime. The food was, I concede, pretty darn good.
(As for Evans, I've not encountered him, but he sounds agreeable. He had the banal but brilliant observation, quoted in Canvas, that more restaurants should offer $5 or $6 glasses of wine. Quite right. Restaurateurs can make just as good a margin on cheap but serviceable wine as pricier and more medal-able. Whether we can get our kicks - remember, label not visible to fellow snobsters - on Mt Slightly More Difficult remains to be seen and slurped.)
The Restaurant of the Year shortlist:
Supreme Winner: The French Cafe
Fine Dining: The French Cafe
Smart Casual: Cibo
Italian: Delicious
Local: The Engine Room
Chinese: Empress Garden
New Restaurant: The Engine Room/Dine by Peter Gordon
Dessert: The Engine Room
Wine List: O'Connell Street Bistro
Service: Creghan Molloy Wright, The French Cafe
The site is here
Metro got there - they must have inhaled the food, given that more than 70 places are done very quickly and each place has to be dined at, at least three times - with the help of the Sydney Morning Herald's Matthew Evans, one of the few restaurant critics in this neck of the culinary woods who actually knows anything about food, and also how to write.
The French Cafe won top spot, and it's so good that Evans reportedly would like to transport it to Sydney. We're selling everything else, so why not? But one would hope that every customer, big and small, is treated the same at these nice nosh spots. The retired Ms Vile (welcome to guest here any time) had a less than brilliant experience there.
Perhaps it was just a bad day. But I also had one. A celebrating group I was with last year found fault. My champagne glass was not changed when the wine was, my jacket was draped on a step-ladder or some such near the toilets, and the service was more surly than sublime. The food was, I concede, pretty darn good.
(As for Evans, I've not encountered him, but he sounds agreeable. He had the banal but brilliant observation, quoted in Canvas, that more restaurants should offer $5 or $6 glasses of wine. Quite right. Restaurateurs can make just as good a margin on cheap but serviceable wine as pricier and more medal-able. Whether we can get our kicks - remember, label not visible to fellow snobsters - on Mt Slightly More Difficult remains to be seen and slurped.)
posted by Mark Broatch at 8:45 AM
4 Comments:
I would like to read customer reviews by the top restaurants.
There's a lot of room in NZ - well, Auckland, at least - for a broader range of food. Like our shopping, our restaurants are frequently very samey.
I agree. And (as well you know) also with Ms Vile and your own comments about The French Café: the service can on occasion be surly. At other times it's perfect, but one does wonder about restaurants that give you the feeling they're 'auditioning' you as a customer.
Thank-you so much for the kind invitation, Mr Broatch; if I ever decide to write again, I'll be sure to contact you...
I must say my blood-pressure soared to Thoroughly Alarming Heights when I heard the news that The French Cafe had made it to number one again. Hmmm. They may be due for another Vile Visit...
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