mister d dining

a trendy place for bay people to meet up. the wine list is small but good. dave and prue are true hospo veterans who know what they are doing. they are friendly and train staff well. the food is big. too many carbohydrates though! but pricing is fine. the doughnuts are their trade mark and do not disappoint. it is family friendly and they servegoodcoffee. i go often when in the bay just to see who is there.

incrediblygoodpastries and desserts. the friendly wait staff recommended the tonka bean cream, milk chocolate whisky mousse, poached rhubarb, mint, which was to die for. also the best meringue i’ve ever tasted - fluffy and not overly sweet, blended with interesting textures from the pistachio and crystallized strawberry. fennel crusted lamb croquettes were tasty and not overly oily.

food was pretty expensive for what it was. my dish wasgoodquality but very small (single sausage and 1/4 cup of kumara mash for $36) and my partners risotto had a weird taste and texture topped with really overcooked duck

let’s start by saying these guys have the best donuts i tried so far to this date, it’s just a masterpiece on its own, perfect size, perfect texture and flavour, even without the syringe that accompanies it i bet you this will be the best donuts you will ever try in your life. where we visited napier several weeks back i was looking for great restaurants and i discovered this place. looking at online reviews people are raving about the donuts they sell. at first, i was sceptical as i had tried a really great one and i swore it was the best i tried then this happened. though i tried al’s delis donuts at room temperature, with mr d’s i tried a freshly cooked one, still hot of the kitchen so it’s quite hard to compare both, like comparing apples and oranges. will als’ delis doughnut begoodwhen it’s hot or will mister d’s doughnut will begoodwhen it’s cold, i haven’t tried but what i know they aregoodas they are served.

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. the fried bread was quite interesting as it was literally a bowl of fried bread. 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 wasgoodif 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 deep fried in butter or made with butter, extremely rich especially for a lunch, tasty but way too rich, fried bread was just like big croutons deep fried in butter, hard to eat , fish wasgoodbut 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 !!

had the cheesy baked eggs w/ spinach & they were super yummy! the eggs were maybe still a little runny but they were sogoodanyway. the ciabatta was freshly roasted so yum! keen to try the donuts here sometime too.

the food isgoodbut service unfortunately terrible! we ordered our dishes at 8.30pm and we needed to wait until 9.40pm to get our food. i am aware this sometimes happens on busy nights but what makes the distinction between agoodand bad restaurant, is that someone comes to see you to inform. at mister d, no one came to see us to inform the food was going to be late, no apologies, no complementary drink/coffee. although the food and taste are great there is still a bit of work for the owner i would say!

had lunch here, gnocchi wasgoodand reallygoodservice.goodambience.
just wish the menu had more chicken main course dishes.
complimentary bread could have been better.

i came here for breakfast as the hotel dining didn't appeal.  it was a verygoodcall!  a welcoming atmosphere; interesting food choices and great coffee!  it was sogoodi returned for lunch.

came for the doughnuts, they were fresh but not what i expected. they were a bit doughy, which made it really hard to finish the whole bowl size of doughnut. coffee and service wasgoodthough.

we just had the most deplorable restaurant experience any of us have had at mr. ds. it pains me to say as it could have been a great experience and so many others have obviously enjoyed their experiences here. but we left this restaurant with the worst tastes in our mouths, both literally and figuratively.

a group of 11 of us, which included 4 children and 1 infant, made reservations for lunch at 12:30 on a mildly busy saturday. we ordered straight away, some mains, a few entrees, some starters for the kids to share, including bread, and some coffees and bloody mary's for the adults. when the coffee and bloody mary's didn't arrive until 1:15, we were already 3 inquires deep into repeatedly asking "how is the food tracking for the kids". after being assured each time "the bread is being plated now" we proceeded to watch table after table receive their bread, their meals, their desserts, and in some cases even leaving after having arrived later than us.

the bread finally arrived for the kids at 1:45, with nothing more than a sorry and no further explanation. the 7 year old in our group, who was miserable with hunger along with all the rest, put it most appropriately when she then said "it took this long just to get the bread?"

the entrees and starters arrived shortly before 2:00. the mains and the kids donuts around 2:15, at which point we had already settled the bill, with a pathetic offer of reimbursing us for our donuts for the troubles. yet still after many direct inquiries, there was no explanation given for the catastrophic delays.

we finally left after 2:30, having to take our donuts as takeaway since everyone's day had now been disrupted by the laboriously overlong ordeal.

when inquiring one last time upon leaving about what went wrong in the kitchen, we were told "i'm sorry, we didn't realize you were in a hurry". we weren't in a hurry until we realized we were going to spend all afternoon against our will in this place.

if a restaurant believes that waiting over an hour for bread, and nearly 2 hours for mains is "normal pace" then they don't deserve our or anyone else's service, and they need to take agoodlong look at their service and training.

mr ds for us stands for mr delays. save yourself a few hours and a lifetime of frustration, and some money (the bill was still over $400 with our measly donut discount) and go to bistronomy around the corner.

friendly and helpful staff, plenty of seats so did not have to wait long to be seated on busy festive season. meals were generallygoodand enjoyed the complimentary bread while waiting for food :)

came on monday for breakfast delis. came today at 11.05 for brunch and all we could hear was the chef saying it's five past 11 alredy. and he continued to slam doors ect and when the chefs angry you can taste it in the food. being a chef myself it's not really agoodlook especially being in an open kitchen and the customers are in ear shot. all you need to say is no that's it. food was nice but was let down with the attitude of the chef.

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 of fried dough 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 gooddepth 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. damngoodand 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 verygoodsmoky bacon with smokey sweet maple and base of fried donut. basically a rearrangement of pancakes with maple and bacon.

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