Metro Review: Veranda Bar and Grill

Metro magazine’s Amy Cameron reviews Parnell restaurant Veranda Bar and Grill.

Philip Sturm, who reportedly ate fillet steak and scallops every week as a perk of running the kitchen while at Mt Eden Prison, is now behind the scenes at another Auckland institution: Parnell’s Veranda Bar and Grill.

Also well known in Auckland for setting up Cibo and Otto’s, Sturm has taken an active role in transforming the 25-year-old VBG. The chunky beams and rafters of the 1880s coach-house remain intact, as does the kitsch painting of a cow divided into all its edible parts, but with a newly stained dark floor and similarly dark walls the place feels more sophisticated, without having lost its English pub-like cosiness.

Our first visit, on a Friday a couple of months after the VBG reopened, was their first-ever lunch sitting. Well, officially it was their second, but no one showed up the first day. Restaurant manager Daniel Finlayson was thrilled to have a booking. With just a few other diners in the room, we appreciated the booth-like snugness of the tables in between the hefty beams. It’s also the best spot to enjoy the restaurant’s celebrated view over the museum, the new dome barely peeking out from behind the columned façade.

The menu retains many of the VBG’s old classics. Fans of the tuatua fritters will be pleased to see they’ve survived, and to learn they are still good: packed full of slightly firm-to-the-bite chunks of flavoursome shellfish, yet still light. Another entrée of lightly seared rare tuna with saffron-infused fennel, chilli crab and a corn-and-broad-bean salsa was a terrific combination of flavours and textures.

Our expectations were high for the next course, and we weren’t disappointed: a special of chicken stuffed with pancetta and blue cheese was rich and satisfying; likewise the tender veal escalopes served atop char-red, succulent eggplant.

A second visit the following Thursday night found the VBG in a much more lively state. Waiter Ryland Wood, formerly maître d’ at Rice (and Shortland Street’s pretty transvestite nurse Samantha), was busy charming the pants off anyone who would listen, while the conversations we overheard between silver-haired men and manicured blondes (“We should just throw people out on the streets and see if they survive!”) did so remind us of the VBG of old.

Things started well with a salad of wine-poached pear, gorgonzola and caramelised onions — cleverly matched with a Pegasus Bay Riesling — but the mains weren’t quite as spectacular as at lunch. Twice-cooked duck with white bean cassoulet had good flavour, but wasn’t as moist as we would have liked. And gnocchi made from Maori potato — a difficult vegetable to make much of — was verging on heavy, though the three-cheese velouté, charred beetroot and toasted macadamias were a clever combination.

Portions at VBG aren’t small, so you’ll need some stamina if you want to sample the excellent dessert menu. Our pick is the super-rich chocolate torte served with fragrant tamarillo and manuka hokey pokey ice cream.

Those fond of the VBG for its well-done comfort food should be well satisfied by Sturm’s makeover. But so too should those who demand a little more creativity in the kitchen.

Rating: Two stars
Address: 279 Parnell Rd, Parnell, ph 309-6289.
Hours: Lunch, Thursday and Friday from noon; dinner, Tues¬day to Saturday from 6pm (bar open 5pm).
Bill: Entrées $18.50-$19; mains $29-$34; desserts $14-$15.
Stand-out dish: Rare tuna with chilli crab, fennel and salsa.
Noise: Slinky jazz.
Chef: Sal Grant.

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