hotel qt museum, which houses hippopotamus, sports decor that is a superb example of modern, jazzy and classic elegant. large paintings, 'naturalistic picasso' (if there is such a thing) and other energetic colourful themes, are set against black back-drops while comfortable chairs and tables, again vibrantly composed, all nestle in cozy pools of selective light.
the restaurant is a baroque beauty - liberal sparkles of glass and crystal, plush tones of upholstery, and bold splashes of colour. i had seen awesome day-time pictures of it, but at night it is truly gorgeous, especially when you enter it.
chef laurent loudeac who's in charge of the place, has had tv and media appearances over the years. he had reminisced of the time when he'd newly moved to nz and was busting his guts with cooking and service when our kiwi chaps told him to chill and take it easy now that he's in new zealand. my much-awaited first visit to this kiwi-french restarant (admittedly a very brief one, but there will be future visits), disclosed that he might be taking it a bit too easy.
the complimentary amuse bouche was goat's cheese straddled by a whole bunch of crunchy, vaguely spicy accoutrements - the whole building up to just zilch, a big disappointment coming from a french chef. an accompanying shot glass of a lychee concoction was like drinking ladies' perfume, something which a lovelorn frenchman might actually do.
it's interesting how your selection of a pre-anticipated dish of a famous restaurant can serially change when there is a flux in the roster. one of their old online menus still sticking around on the web, had chicken with morels as a main course - a tempting evocation of a much-commemorated marquee presentation of bernaud pacaud from paris' iconic l'ambrosie (the menu also references another bigshot with troisgrois' salmon with sorrel sauce, still on the actual restaurant menu as of nov '17). with the former gone when i ogled the current menu, chicken roulade then seemed a decent alternative but this got superceded when that exquisite marine zephyr - john dory - was cited as the plat du jour.
chef loudeac's thinking in this dish is flummoxing. the john dory fillets were fresh, tenderly delicate and delicately flavourful - not the best i've tasted but good no doubt. even with a simple expected thing like a gentle lemon butter sauce, the fish would have really flown but it was weighed down and bulldozed over by a bouillabaise sauce that had simply too much flavour from provencal lentils, which were chewy to boot. for a $48 dish, these were one mistake too many.
opera glace (which the menu called "a spin on the classic opera cake") was again a classic example - one of considerable technical exertion hamstrung by limited taste. the main attraction was a beauitfully presented sphere of not quite ice-cream, not quite cake but something inbetween called a parfait, its upper hemisphere of usual chocolate, the lower one dark chocolate. alas it had a dull frozen taste and eating it become a chore, not helped by the mediocre smeared sauce and innocuous little gels around it.
a lady staff member, dressed simply in a full-sleeve shirt and missing perhaps a sleeveless jacket that would have more appropriate given this is a formal restaurant, prepared crepe suzette for the neighbouring table. however it was an over-drawn affair that lacked finesse, with hardly any classic blue flames visible save for a sudden tall conflagaration of orange that made her duck for cover.
servers often traverse the room and they are pleasant but unco-ordinated. wine orders are solicited again by a different server, the menu is again presented by a person who doesn't know you've already ordered, and a pretty young lady at the reception did not do her intelligence any good by asking whether the meal could be billed to my hotel account considering that i wasn't staying at the hotel (i will consider it in the future though, not for her but given their plush vibrant decor). these are not the sort of faux paux a top restaurant commits, but that still doesn't preclude my curiosity to try out more of the menu on future visits to tres charming wellington.