Eating in New Zealand

For dinner tonight, I opted to show my friend around Mission Bay where all the restaurants are; we weren’t feeling too hungry but the smell of food kept wafting over to where we were! So we crossed the road around the Movenpick corner and started browsing each eatery that sat along the street. As a general rule, the places with the most people are usually the staple restaurants of the area, while the less crowded ones or worse, the empty restaurants are at best hit and miss and at worst, somewhere you will never want to revisit without a strong reason (and possibly a strong drink beforehand wouldn’t hurt).

And as it happens, I was feeling slightly adventurous and wanted to try out a new place - and then I saw Capri. It looked nice with a cosy decor and a raised dining area lined along the pedestrian walkway. Why not, I thought… and well, if you haven’t picked up the hints I’ve been dropping along, let me give you one more - it was empty save for one table when me and my friend sat down. No, I thought, maybe this restaurant will be different! Maybe it’ll be one of those hidden gems that others haven’t discovered yet! Maybe the regulars here dine later during the night… sigh. Long story short, we made our order and the below is what we got!

[Seafood Chowder Soup]
Very creamy, but otherwise missing all the spices that are flavorful in nature. As a result, this soup tasted very, very bland. The pieces of garlic bread that came with the soup ended up being the highlight of the dish! I was tempted to ask the waitress whether this was a joke or whether this is the way the chef prefers to cook; I held myself back though, and since there were a few more dishes coming up - I guess I’ll have my answer then.

[Bruschetta]
Interesting how they serve the bread before the soup; the menu description read “with fresh Basil, garlic, [and] olive oil”, which did match the toppings sitting on the bread. Unfortunately the taste also matched… the blandness of the soup prior. At this point in time, I was desperately looking forward to the next dish, hoping that it’s all just been a big misunderstanding… maybe the chef ran out of salt, right?

[King prawns pan fried in garlic, brandy, served on rice]
I will definitely say that the prawns were succulent, but they lacked the natural sweetness which comes with fresh prawns. And in line with their offerings tonight the taste is bland, bland, bland. The lightly flavored garlic rice was perhaps the most flavorful component of the entire dish. Sigh!

At the outset of this blog, I had intended my reviews to be overall positive for the places I go - I’m fairly optimistic that each eatery will be good at at least one thing, and I usually go for the ‘normal fare’ so that if they don’t do the fancy stuff right, their basic offerings should still be palatable. However in the case of Capri, I could only say that perhaps their dessert is the only thing I would consider trying in future. I don’t know if the chef was throwing a tantrum, or had a creative moment or something - my taste buds were out for blood from the blandness of the entire meal! Even steamed vegetables with a sprinkle of salt had more flavor!

Contact details:

93 Tamaki Drive
Mission Bay
Auckland City
(09)521 1898

Hours:
Mon: Thu 10am onwards
Fri: Sun 9am onwards

This Saturday we decided to visit this Italian takeaway (a concept I’m foreign to - its the first time I’ve heard of such a place!) place in St Heliers, the owner of which my friend kind of knew personally. Apparently the current owner had operated a restaurant before in Mission Bay (just next to St Heliers) but got overwhelmed with the amount of work involved in running a successful restaurant, so he switched to operating an eatery on a smaller scale - hence the Italian takeaway was born!

For my dinner, I thought about checking how solid the cafe’s skills are; hence I opted for the simple dish - Spaghetti Bolognese - to see how they will go about creating this traditional dish (as far as I know, I associate Spaghetti with Italian cuisine!). For $15, I got myself a serving of pasta that was cooked right, not too soft and yet not too chewy either, and a portion size that proved fairly filling. The cheese and sauce they used along with the mince was not too adventurous, with the sauce being slightly sweeter and less tangy than the usual pasta that I have from Italian restaurants. As it was piping hot when we received our dinner, we had to leave the pasta in their boxes on a bench, while the three of us squatted by the bench to have our dinner. Apart from enjoying good pasta we also provided free entertainment to cars driving by and unsuspecting pedestrians. What a deal ;)

Overall, if I ever had a craving for some quick pasta in the St Heliers/Mission bay area, I wouldn’t hesitate to visit Il Piccolo again :) The prices they charge for the portion and quality is more than reasonable, and parking is available around the shop too. Am hoping to eat here again along with my friends in the next month or two!