Pasture was recently named Restaurant of the Year by Auckland’s Metro Magazine.
And I agree with them.
We took over the entire restaurant on Wednesday night. A family get-together – but not as grandiose as it sounds. There were only six of us (wife, sister and daughter – how spoilt am I?), but the restaurant only has six seats!
Like my favourite Binkleys in Phoenix, Pasture chef Ed Verner is re-imagining the entire restaurant experience – making it an intimate, focused, intense yet relaxed night full of quiet delight.
The six seats are all at the Chef’s counter. Three chefs serve a tasting menu – no choices, no dietary stuff, just imaginative, wholesome, delicious tasty treats – partnered with unusual, interesting, beverages (sake, beer, wine, cocktail, mead) pairings.
Two seatings per night – 5.45pm and 8.15pm, Wednesday to Saturday. No frills. Just excellence. Doors open at 8.15pm and then you’re off. Three hours of fun.
The restaurant has its own lounge integrated into the counter/kitchen – decorated like a cross between a Japanese inn, a Scandinavian bolthole and a 50’s New York loft.
Ed works with whole animals, seafood and line-caught fish. Japanese, Kiwi, Danish, Peruvian – you name it.
Here’s what we ate and drank.
Mushroom & hazelnut
**
Under the Milky Way / Grandmaster Flash
Build me up buttercup
**
Kohlrabi, pear, pumpkin seed
**
Rock Lobster
Zenkuro ‘Junmai’ Queenstown ‘18
**
Blue Mackerel
Memento Mori ‘Rosso’ Victoria ’17 – Cucumber & white asparagus
**
Diamond Shell Clams
**
Wheat & rye sourdough, our aged butter
Three Boys Wheat, Christchurch – Our sourdough ‘beer’
**
Radishes, beeswax & almond
Supernatural ‘Minus 220’ Hawkes Bay ’18 – Celeriac & pear
**
Snapper, egg yolk & saffron
Patrick Sulivan ‘Baw Baw Shire’ Chardonnay ’18 – Savagnin & Artichoke
**
The Pig Crumpet
Peckham’s ‘Western Pathfinder’ Moutere ’18 – Toasted hay
**
Tomato over embers
Distilled Chilli & Greens – Red capsicum
**
Aged New Zealand Wagyu
Basket Range ‘Vineyard Blend’ Adelaide Hills ’19 – Blackcurrant
**
Lobster Head & Mead
**
Mandarin & fennel pollen
Fermented fig leaf – Mandarin
**
Meyer Lemon & egg yolk
Hot pokered Bellbird Spring ‘Aeris’ Waipara – Rhubarb & Thyme
We’ll be back when we’re next in Auckland.
Try it out.
KR
