Tuesday, February 14, 2012
[Pictures: David Straight] The Grove is a long, still room in the middle of the CBD: white-painted brick walls, timber floors, leather panelling and gentle art and pot plants. In a city that’s suddenly full of high-design restaurants, it’s a welcome respite. It is one of those restaurants that no longer needs to try very [...]
Thursday, February 9, 2012
[Pictures: David Straight] We’re getting mixed messages. District Dining is a self-described combination of sophisticated food with a bistro buzz and price tag. But while the food is good – by God is it good – we didn’t really feel much of that promised energy: District Dining is just ever so slightly off, slightly too [...]
Saturday, November 19, 2011
[Pictures: David Straight] There isn’t much to look at here. There are plastic-covered tables, cheap crockery and some very badly photoshopped images of dumplings. The lighting is too bright and the place is family run; service is well-meaning but very patchy and once there was a voluble argument in the kitchen. We can’t work out why [...]
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
[Pictures: David Straight] Such is the pace of development at Britomart – where, lucky you, half a dozen restaurants have opened in the past year or so – that Ebisu is already something of a classic. When it first opened in March, we liked it, a lot. Though if we’re honest, we did wonder quite [...]
[Pictures: David Straight] Clooney is in a nondescript warehouse on an otherwise deserted block. You enter up a concrete flight of stairs that leads you to a dark, glamorous space. You go through the restaurant, all concrete walls, black beaded curtains and tan leather. It is still the most glamorous restaurant in town. In its [...]