- District Dining
- 50 Customs Street East, Britomart
- Starters - $10 - $16, Mains $18 - $30, Desert - $14
By James Murray
The best thing in Auckland to come out of the Rugby World Cup was the regeneration of the Britomart area.
What was a pointless waste of space is now littered with trendy bars and restaurants, most of which are pretty good (see Café Hanoi, upstairs at Tyler St Garage, Ebisu).
One of the newest additions is an Australian import; District Dining, marked with a discreet sign and shuttered windows along Customs Street East, is the New Zealand branch of a Sydney restaurant opened by two Kiwis. Confusingly, they don’t sell pavlova.
They already ran a fine-dining place called Assiette but wanted somewhere a bit less formal and a bit more affordable.
The result - and I assume the Auckland version to be similar to the Sydney one - is still on the sophisticated side of affordable. The prices are reasonable too although - as with all sharing style restaurants - having eyes bigger than your belly quickly means you spend the same if not more than you would at a normal restaurant.
District Dining offers two sizes of food – Something to Start and Something to Share. Fairly straightforward, although the waiter has to come over and tell you that some of the Something to Share courses are actually much bigger than other Something to Share courses.
The Something to Start list has a fatal flaw though, it’s all a bit beige. Everything, aside from bread, olives and possibly the chicken wings, has been fried in some way. At any rate there is an absence of colour here that is slightly disappointing.
The caramel chicken wings are probably the highlight, quite succulent and the marinade has a nice little kick of chilli.
The prawn toasts are not really lifted above the sort you can get in most Chinese restaurants and the crispy pigs ears are a little pointless – an expensive bowl of pork scratchings.
The problem, I think, is that these courses would make great bar food, but you’re not in a bar. I could see myself happily washing them all down with a pint of beer, especially the salty pigs ears, but I was sipping a nice pinot gris reading a menu that lists the establishment’s art as well as food.
Things definitely picked up during the Something to Share part of the meal. I went for steak tartare as it’s rare to get the opportunity and stupid to pass it up. The missus went for slow-cooked shoulder of lamb and we both decided the heirloom tomatoes, fennel and prosciutto sounded good.
All three hit the mark. The steak tartare was made with high quality beef and came with crisp French fries and two good chunks of sourdough toast. The meat was smooth and beefy, but could have been a nip more piquant.
The slow-cooked lamb came with a meaty gravy, aubergine puree and smoky tomatoes. The tomatoes were eerily reminiscent of English smoky bacon, which gave the plate a nostalgic feeling. The lamb was cooked perfectly, soft and juicy.
There could have been more prosciutto with the tomatoes, three small pieces meant the meal lacked some balance; plenty of juicy tomatoes, plenty of the clever fennel sorbet but not enough of the salty meat to balance out the sweetness of the rest of the dish.
Desserts were good and seemed to fit the restaurant’s philosophy regarding District Dining being an unpretentious place with a sophisticated twist. A chocolate brownie was well made and went nicely with a mango sorbet. Better than this though was the Eton Mess, with plenty of berries (fresh and dried) a good chewy meringue and sumptuous cream.
My advice if you are going to eat at District Dining; skip the Something to Start section altogether and focus on the Something to Share section. There were a few other dishes there that were difficult not to order (the snapper and salmon in particular looked good).
Skip the beige at the beginning and you’ll have yourself a tasty meal.
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