O’Connell Street, High Street, Vulcan lane and the adjoining end of Shortland street, boast some of the few older buildings within Auckland City. On the corner of O’Connell and Shortland street lives that Auckland institution, O’Connell Street Bistro, neatly perched to serve the business people, lawyers and various other moneyed in sundry, that frequent the local area. They serve classic bistro fare, with a few Italian dishes thrown in. Mains range in price from about 35-48 dollars. There is a tasting menu as well.
The Room
The bistro itself is divided into two rooms. One is a small bar. The other is a dining room, which is also small and cozy. Anachronistic in feel, the walls are covered with artwork, tables close together to make the most of the small space, adorned with odd phallic lamps, that bring a mixture of unease and intimacy. I have been there a few times and always in winter, the dining room has been warm, perhaps somewhat stuffy. The tables are close together in order to maximise their covers. While not altogether unpleasant and certainly sophisticated, the cramped conditions never seem ideal. Not all restaurants can spoil their patrons with room and privacy, O’Connell Street Bistro I think runs the edge of the boundary. Your neighbour’s conversations often infuse your own. The room is kept dark and so is somewhat gloomy. However it is not without its charms, nice artwork and details, not withstanding penis lamps, do distinguish it.
The Service
I have never found the service particularly good. It tends on the stiff and formal side of things. The wait staff never quite seem that friendly. The service is often patronising and formulaic. I have found this on repeated occasions. For example the staff thought it was necessary to explain that the Crayfish was from Coromandel, which was fine, but then explained that Coromandel was a peninsula that was a couple hours drive south of Auckland, or when they deemed it necessary to tell us all about the Bluff oyster and then explain they were harvested in the South Island. These are minor problems of course, nothing was disastrous, but I mention this because it is obvious that they are trying for excellent service. Even if it must be overly formal, the need to treat the customers like idiots is beyond me. At the very least talking to the customer would have revealed very quickly that we did not need to have it explained to us where Coromandel was or that there was this thing called a bluff oyster that we may not have heard of. Having said this, when we did receive a dish that was below standard they did not charge us for it and removed it without question. I would say the service is alright, but the formalism I think gets in the way and as a result it can seem a little unfriendly and cold. It is interesting to compare to the service at Kazuya, which is also very formal, but it feels much more personalised and less scripted, which is partly why O’Connell Street Bistro’s service feels less than it could be. They are trying, but perhaps a little hard.
The Food
The food is on the whole excellent. The food is in the style of classic Bistro cooking, as a result it is tradition bound in comparison to some of the other fine dining restaurants around. I will discuss a few specific dishes and then discuss the food more generally.
Vitello Tunnato – This is a classic Italian dish of veal cut thinly served cold with a mayonnaise and tuna fish sauce. If you have not had it, it may sound a little odd, but it is one of those combinations that just seems to work. The O’Connell Street version was pretty standard. The veal was served rare and was delicate in flavour. The mayonnaise was smooth and not heavily flavoured with fish. It was also served with potato chips. That is deep fried thin slices of potato. This was not really a technical dish, but the trick of Italian food is not to push complexity and flavours too far. The only real addition was another sauce, which added some piquant flavours, but given it is quite normal to contrast the veal with capers for example this mad a lot of sense. In this I think the dish succeeded admirably.
Leek Terrine – The leek terrine was probably the most interesting dish on the menu. It was paired with goats cheese and a few other components. Eating cold leeks with some cheese, does not perhaps seem that exciting of a dish. However I have to say this was not only clever, but delicious. Serving cold leek is difficult and I am not totally sure how the dish was executed, but they had vibrant flavour, slightly sweet and offsetting the lovely, somewhat sharp cheese. Excellent combination of flavour and texture.
Chicken Liver Parfait – I have no picture of this sadly, but it was probably the best parfait I have had. Served very pink, with plenty of mediera, it was sweet, impossibly smooth and deeply flavoured. It was served with a celeriac remoulade, which was equally good. This seems to remain on their menu pretty constantly and with good reason. I would say it is worth going there pretty much to just try the parfait.
I also tried a few of the other dishes, the oysters (reliably good), scallops (also excellent). In generally I would say they that all of the entrees were superbly cooked and flavoured. The only dish I have been slightly less than impressed with have been the veal sweet breads. I love sweetbreads, but I generally cook lamb, because I can only get veal frozen. Sweetbreads are normally blanched (in court bouillon) and then cooked again into dishes. The blanching process removes a lot of their organ flavour. It also should imparts some of the flavour of the court bouillon, so they should be pleasantly imbued with the aromatics in the bouillon. I will discuss this more when I get to mains, but I have found them underwhelming in this. Their texture is excellent, but they always seem a little flavourless to me.
Beef Cheek, Mash, Glazed Carrot, Onions and Veal Sweetbreads - Technically the dish was next to faultless. The beef cheek was perfectly braised, unctuous and deeply flavoured. The flavour of the cheek, still holds strongly in my memory. It reminded me of dry aged beef, in its complex and slightly musty flavour. Beef cheek is always well flavoured, but this was particularly exceptional in that regard. The sauce was complex, free of fat and delicious. My favourite element however were the onions, with a moist almost gelatinous interior and sweet flavour seemed a wonderful accompaniment with the beef. They were both sympathetic in texture and contrasting in flavour. Served atop the beef cheek, were deep fried sweetbreads. I like the concept here, most of the other components, the beef cheek, vegetables and potato were all softer textures, the sweetbreads, with their crumbed coating provided contrasting textures. My only complaint as I alluded to above, is I think the sweetbreads lacked any real flavour. Both my encounters with sweetbreads at O’Connell Street have seemed that way. The technical elements of the dish were good, but together, while delicious, it was less impressive than some of the other dishes I had.
Venison, Hazelnut Gnocchi, Brussel Sprouts and Cranberry – Another truly excellent dish. The venison well matched with its accompaniments, was tender and perfectly cooked (I’m guessing sous vide given the moistness and very thin crust around the edges). The sauce was excellent, clean and complementary. Of particular worthy mention were the hazelnut gnocchi, which were cooked and then crisped on two sides. They had a great texture, light, but with some bite from the seared exterior. These were potentially the highlight of the dish. It combined several great conceptual features, highly textured, great balance of flavours and refinement of technique.
Ossobuco – I love ossobuco, It is another classic Italian dish, of braised veal shin. The previous versions that I have made and eaten are light of flavour. Unlike a French style braise, the broth used to flavour the ossobuco is lighter than french stocks in intensity, but is made with more meat than bones, so the dish is a little less heavy normally, but still broadly flavoured. White wine is also the primary flavour in the braising liquid other than the mirepoix and broth. There are versions of ossobuco, that use red wine as well, although this is less common. The version that I had at O’Connell Street Bistro was flavoured with red wine and made in a more french style, with a brown stock base, rather than blond. The sauce was thick and sticky and not as light as a normal Italian version. It was served on mash potatoes. I do love the traditional Italian version, however this was still an excellent dish, far more reminiscent of a French braise however, deeply coloured and intensely flavoured, it suited the rich winter environment, perhaps better than traditional ossobuco. Certainly in context of the entire meal, it made more sense, given the largely French perspective at the restaurant. Although I admit to generally preferring a more traditional Italian version generally.
I tried a few other dishes as well including, rabbit pappardelle, a vegetable and blue cheese pie and a few others. All of which were excellently cooked. However the sides were a mixed a bag. They had an excellent radicchio salad, but their mixed vegetables were terrible. The broccoli was overcooked, as were the green beans (very slightly, this was forgivable) and the grilled zucchini was not only out of season and flavourless, but it was too limp. This was perhaps the lowest part of all the food I had. Although they did not charge us for the dish, when this was pointed out. Interestingly I never got to dessert, on one occasion the heat of the room got to me and I felt sick and after that I favoured cheeses.
The cheese selection merits some discussion. On the menu were four cheeses. A Kapiti blue cheese, a Richmond Red, a French brie and a ash rind goats cheese. First up the Kapiti, I will never understand why restaurants serve Kapiti cheese. I find some of their cheeses descent, enough for kind of casual eating, cheddar is good, as is one of their blue cheeses, but none of the blues I think hold a candle to continental blues in this regard. They are two singular in flavour. They lack the complexity of a great Stilton, St Augur, Roquefort, Gorgonzola or any of the others. I am not saying that New Zealand blue cheeses are bad, but I do not find the Kapiti blues to be of sufficient depth of flavour to compare to their European competition. So this was a miss for me. The Brie de Meaux is not a bad cheese. It is reasonably complex, with a creamy rich texture, but it also failed to wildly excite, perhaps I have had it too much. The last two cheeses were excellent however, in particular the subtlety of the ash rind goats cheese (selles sur cher) was superb. Delicate, but complex in flavour and surprisingly less sharp than you might imagine. The Richmond Red from Nelson was superb as well. Again the depth and complexity of flavour here were excellent. The cheese itself was harder in texture and offered more sharpness than the others. They had excellent ginger biscuits that accompanied the cheeses.
The strengths of O’Connell Street I think is the cooking. Generally from a technical standpoint the components were well executed. There were on occasion a few things that could be improved, the consommé was perhaps not perfectly clear (although it was free from fat) and one or two components I suppose could be better, but texture and flavour wise, the food was cooked to excellent standard. However I think there are a few problems that warrant some discussion.
To say presentation is an issue is perhaps to overstate the point, but given the quality of food coming out of the kitchen, some of the presentations I think could have been better. The sauces were often a little sloppy in their plating for example, the consommé was not perfectly clear and other small problems existed. However most of these were forgivable, because in general the details were good, the perfectly coloured skin on deep fried items, the beautiful glazed carrots, the clear sauces and the like. However what I found disappointing was the plate composition. Some of them just did not look that good. I understand that it is a traditional restaurant in this respect and so there will not be the more adventurous presentations of more cutting edge restaurants, which I personally prefer, but I think more care could be given and inventiveness displayed in them. This is a small problem, the individual components were largely great it was more the composition of plates.
The next issue for me is seasonality. The menu frankly lacks enough sense of season. For example our terrible mixed vegetables that we received included zucchini, why? In the middle of winter zucchini are going to be hothouse or imported and frankly of poor value. There are a plethora of winter vegetables that could be chosen from and cooked without a problem, but why choose zucchini as a choice? The venison advertised figs with it on the menu. As it turned out they used cranberries. It was not clear to me if figs would normally be served with it or not, but they are clearly out of season (and I would guess next to impossible to find good ones). Perhaps this why they serve cranberries, but regardless, it goes to show the menu is not updated for the season and so they obviously are relatively static in menu construction. Why serve lamb loin, when braised cuts would be best, given the relative toughness and flavour this time of year? Again there is a lack of season consideration, in winter where are the soups? Why serve green beans, when again they are not at their best in winter? Where are the cabbages? Celeriac? Beets? Salsify? What about truffle, they served only essence as far as I can tell? They did serve lots of broccoli, I suppose. At least the vegetable terrine featured a seasonal vegetable (leek), as did the venison (brussel sprouts), despite its inclusion of figs. This is disappointing for me, as it seems to be giving up opportunities for better food for no real reason.
What I love about the restaurant however is that it cooks food that works as a whole. Each dish, never feels like a bunch of components slapped on a plate. They feel integrated, this may simply be because they are serving food deeply rooted within a tradition, but regardless it makes their food work. The central core of the food is strong and relies on excellent technique and for that reason I think O’Connell Street Bistro is an excellent restaurant. It does not serve the most challenging food, but it is richly rewarding to eat and savour. Some of the things do bother me, probably the service is my biggest annoyance, but I enjoy eating there and if you want something that serves relatively straight forward, but excellently cooked bistro food, you need to look no further. Other restaurants compete in this field, but I think that O’Connell Street Bistro is the best of them.
reposted from http://foodtrace.wordpress.com/2013/07/09/oconnell-street-bistro/
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