my partner and i have dined in many of the best restaurants in auckland, and after an exquisite experience at the french cafe last month we decided to try the grove next. the restaurant comes with lofty credentials, having received the supreme award in the metro top 50 guide for the past two years running. sadly for us, though, our night barely deserved to be in the top 100!
we had booked one month in advance, so when we arrived at the door and were told we would have to wait for our table it set us back from the get-go. we dallied at the bar for fifteen minutes as the table was being reset, and then our lovely maitre d' led us to our seats. we let the moment pass. the menu on the evening was fantastic, so it didn't take too long to decide what we wanted. however there was another long wait to place our orders. we must have been in the restaurant at least 30 minutes by the time we finally placed our orders. we suspected the restaurant was understaffed that evening, as our waiter was doing a sterling job of entertaining more tables than i would have expected in such a fine establishment. he was run off his feet, poor chap! however he never stopped smiling and was undoubtedly the highlight of our night.
my partner and i both ordered the tuna starter, which was delicious. i would suggest, however, that a simple clean white plate would have been more appealing than the abstract glass plates we ate from. they looked like something from the 1970s. we didn't have to wait long for our mains; the lady choosing john dory with white asparagus, while i chose the pork three ways. unfortunately neither of these dishes were satisfactory. the john dory was a replacement for the advertised hapuka, and that was explained beforehand, but the fish tasted dry and very dull, not fresh and melt in the mouth, despite our waiter assuring us it was caught at 430pm that day! i tasted it too and agreed with my partner that it was poor. my own pork dish was equally disappointing. i often have pork belly when i dine out, and this pork belly just tasted odd, as did the other two cuts of pork. i can't describe it, but it just tasted like the pork was off. we had ordered a side of french fries, and this was the saving grace of the meal. it's so disappointing when you have to say the fries were the best thing on the menu at a fine dining restaurant. we finished on a shared raspberry souffle, which is the lady's favourite dessert, but she found it underwhelming, and it contained too much oil at the bottom of the dish. this made the last third of the souffle almost inedible. it didn't taste good the deeper the spoon went.
during the meal we commented a number of times on how sloppy some aspects of the dining experience were, from the lazy display of cutlery on the table, to the simple things like not asking if we might need a taxi. these little touches were what makes fine dining so special.
we were prepared to accept that perhaps the grove was just having an "off" night, but at these prices we won't be back to chance it again.