mister d dining

went for coffee and snack with a friend. coffee and service good. friend ordered thefriedbread which she found very hard on the teeth and almost inedible - nothing more than pieces of stale baguette deepfriedand sprinkled with rosemary, gluten free snack options very limited so ordered olives, spiced nuts and caramel popcorn, a strange combination of olives with no flavour, soggy tasteless nuts and something that seemed like caramel popcorn - everything was way over priced and we left most of it on the plate. below average!

we came by for a lateish lunch after a few drinks. the menu looked very interesting and it was open from the morning. it wasn't busy so we were able to get a table easily. they also do takeaways, which one of our friends did with the doughnuts. the decor around the place was quite interesting with bits of art and other interesting items, like a skull with the bottles of wine.
we grabbed a few things to share to start and then a main each. i am a sucker for octopus and i enjoyed their rendition with the tender octopus, potatoes and creamy sauce. thefriedbread was quite interesting as it was literally a bowl offriedbread. i had the bone marrow raviloi and that was delicious. the beefy broth gave the entire thing a great flavour. my friend had the souffle and that was also quite delicious. i thought that the smoked fish cake bene was a bit on the smoky side but it was still tasty.
of course, we tried their fresh made doughnuts afterwards, all generously coated in sugar. the only difference between them is the different flavours that you inject in. i had the coconut and lime one and thought it was a bot too heavy on the kaffir lime since that dominated the flavour. the manuka honey one was good if you like honey since that was the dominant flavour. the baked sugar was also quite nice since the vanilla in the cream and custard was really nice, which went well with the crispy flaky pastry.
there was a wrong drinks order (coke instead of coconut water) but it was an easy fix. the toilets are located outside the building past the kitchen. if you were lucky you could watch them make the doughnuts on the counter.
it was on the pricier end but i really enjoyed the dining experience here with the delicious food and nice staff.

had lunch here on tuesday with my mum and family, was told when booking they don't really do kids we will still gave it a go , mum had been there with a friend and really wanted to treat us when we came down to see her, we were the only ones in there for the 1st hour and a half, the menu is very rich and seems everything is either deepfriedin butter or made with butter, extremely rich especially for a lunch, tasty but way too rich,friedbread was just like big croutons deepfriedin butter, hard to eat , fish was good but sauce again way to rich , menu is i think way to big, if they do all of these mr d things home made i can see why they other things are forgotten, waiters are a bit stuffy too, was ok at best, maybe give it a shot but definitely don't take your kids !!

the childish amusement of shooting up a donut never seems to fade. the triplet of 10ml of each - chocolate, creme anglaise and strawberry, at mister d was my introduction to the induction of anaesthesia in an otherwise lifeless lump offrieddough about to undergo dental surgery. although i'm sure it wasn't their idea, mr d have given countless napierites similar pleasure over the past couple of years.

unfortunately donut anaesthesia can detract from the rest of the menu and that is a pity because mr d serves up excellent, intelligent, thought-out, modern, bistro cuisine. we've been at least half a dozen times when visiting napier and have never had a bad meal.

the space is large, white, modern, vaguely industrial but more carefully thought out than that. tastefully decorated in clean eclectic-cool. an outside area is at back - nice in summer. the bar area extends towards the entrance and this makes your own entrance comfortable and the protocol obvious (an attribute some restaurants lack). it's a relaxed restaurant and kids are usually evident.

on this occasion it was brunch for four:

service - brilliant - we all agreed one of the best wait staff we had experienced.

flat whites ok - well made, and reasonably good depth of flavour.

poached eggs on a choice of toasted breads: dry looking egg - perfectly poached - alongside dry looking sourdough, thankfully "garnished" with a piece of butter - count your garnishing blessings i suppose.

porridge with poached quince and what looked and tasted like clotted cream (i'm sure it wasn't but that's what it reminded me of): creamy and delicious - the quince was lovely. i don't think it needed the cream; it was already very rich.

a deconstructed hawaiian pizza without the base. let's face it the base is only there to bulk out and support the delicious combination of grilled pineapple and ham. so on an oval plate there were thick slabs of ham, grilled pineapple, tomato, with a peppery caramel topping and a scent or two of fennel or anise. damn good and if you think hawaiian pizza is naf - try it and you may realise that nothing is naf that is also delicious. it gave me a new respect for naf pizzas!

and my own order? - sorry i can't resist... holly bacon and maple syrup syringed donut. the latter was a bit dense but the perfect match of very good smoky bacon with smokey sweet maple and base offrieddonut. basically a rearrangement of pancakes with maple and bacon.

mr d is a napier institution - one of the best places in town for a good dining experience that is both relaxed and delicious.

great place! nice deco, clean and tidy. we went there at2:30pm for lunch. they still accepted our order even their lunch closed at 3. good service. my bf and i had a chicken lamb pork starter. it's really awesome! you must try it! so different compared to other restaurant. and we also had turkey tortellini which was so tasty inside, creamy sauce were perfect match. pan roasted fish cooked with raisin olives chickpeas was also surprised me, but could be more tender. cloudy bay clams withfriedbread was not bad, just need more time to cook with clams.

enjoyedfriedbread it was something different! nice ice coffee and ice chocolate too! definitely coming back to try other menu! another reason to visit napier

terrible dining experience. my sister ordered thefriedbread which came out as deepfriedpieces of an already cooked baguette. she tried one piece and was so disgusted with it she left the whole plate. nzfriedbread is a stiff bread dough mix lightly sweetened, made into small pieces or ball and then deep fried. the result is a moist and quite refreshing product. absolutely pathetic effort.

i had the caramelized onion tart which came out as a small flat pastry base with sweet onion plopped on top and spattered with fragments of olives and feta cheese. it was edible, but a miserable attempt at a dish that when made half decently is a real delight. this was poorly cooked and a huge disappointment.

the prices are exorbitant and the food from the chef is not worthy of even 1 star. do yourself a huge favour, even cafe food beats this hands down, please don't make the same mistake we did.

i am so disappointed and absolutely confused as to why this place has such a good reputation. we had been so looking forward to going to this restaurant but the experience was almost painful. the biggest problem for us and the waitress and chef with the banal uncaring manner was was that we were vegetarian or pescatarian as we do eat fish.
the majority of the menu is based around meat unless you want cereal or other sweet boring offerings. i agree wholeheartedly with the last reviewer that in this day and age it is absolutely crazy to have no decent vegetarian options. we were also forced to order something off the menu with the meat part taken out. result 3 deepfriedcreamed corn balls of mush w one tomato on the side oh and don't forget the jug of maple syrup on the side for the bacon i didn't get. it was so unhealthy and made me feel just gross.my partner was lucky enough to get boring eggs on toast just like at home and my kids got to bounce off the wall with disgusting doughnuts filled with sugar because there was no options for them. it's not right in this progressive age to serve such 'dead' food.
come on mister d people do what you say on your website -quote 'we believe in fresh, local produce delivered with great service but no fuss. we think we’re unpretentious but we really care about our food and large wine list.' this couldn't be further from the truth.

recently came to napier and stumbled across this gem on menumania. so glad we made the effort! we shared the antipasto breakfast style platter & a donut with bacon. the platter was such a lovely, light breakfast and the donut was delicious! like a better version of the croinut. we then came back the next day for lunch and ordered thefriedbread, sashimi salad & chilli soup. again, food was impeccable. the staff there are all so lovely and attentive and the restaurant itself is presented really nicely with nice, modern furnishings. love it. i suggest the owners open a franchise in wellington, we'd be loyal customers!

wanted to try the much talked aboutfriedcinnamon sugar coated doughnuts so partner and 7 yr old stopped by at 1pm after lunch. we were met at the door by a charming young man who gave us a choice of table and seated us. friendly, professional and kind to my slightly overwhelmed child, we ordered coffees, hot chocolate and a doughnut each (and the 3 different plastic syringe-filled fillings to sample). water was placed at our table and we were quickly served (amazingly fast considering the number of diners present). doughnuts did not disappoint ($5 each). not in the least greasy, served with an abundance of sugar coating, warm and resting atop a paper bag (perhaps some folks dont eat them all in one sitting and opt to take away). fillings ($1 a piece) were great (custard and chocolate our favs)

this restaurant was recommended to me by a reputable hawkes bay winemaker at the food and wine festival in auckland so we were very excited about our dinner here.

first impressions were fantastic. modern slick restaurant, great looking open kitchen, lovely tables and seating and nice modern menus. our waitress was polite, enthusiastic and helpful. great start to the night.

the menu read fantastically. so we ordered 2 starters, 2 mains and 2 sides. we also ordered a lovely bottle of hawkes bay syrah.

from start to finish the food was underwhelming, unseasoned, tasteless. thefriedbread starter was exactly that,friedciabatta. it was quite nice. it was screaming out for a little balsamic to dip in as it was very heavy with the aioli. the olives, popcorn and nuts were ok too. nothing special but ok.

the lamb ribs were quite a shock. flavourless, very little meat, no seasoning. terrible. the tortellini was just ok, again no seasoning at all. thank goodness for the cracked pepper and coarse salt at the table. we had to cover the food in both of these to get any flavour from them.

the side dishes were nothing short of pathetic. the potatoes read beautifully (potatoes, stock, onions, rosemary)....where was the stock onions and rosemary??? non existent. flavourless, zero seasoning. absolutely terrible. also the side of vegetables, boring, bland flavourless.

by this stage i was so utterly disappointed and really quite baffled that we just wanted to leave.

we had such high hopes after such great reviews and we couldnt wait to go to mr d's....hugely disappointing. you could say that we maybe they had an off night, but an off night over 6 dishes......
i wonder.

we tasted some fantastic food in other restaurants over our trip to hawkes bay and we will not be going back to mr d's and that really is a pity. style over substance.

need more of a choice with the breakfast menu,friedeggs only, we asked could we have them poached? no only fried. the woman taking the cash didn't even smile let alone ask how our meals were.
disappointed!