Herald rating: * * 1/2
Address: 4 Todd Ave, New Lynn
Ph: (09) 827 9950
Open:Breakfast, lunch, dinner, Wed-Sun from 8.30am
Wine list: Standard, well-priced
Vegetarians: Provided for.
Watch out for: A heater that works.
Bottom line: Good-value suburban eatery.
KEY POINTS:
My mother told me when I was a kid that I'd soon stop being fussy about my food once I had to cook for myself. She was right about that. But time has done nothing to change my mind about tripe. I'll happily wolf sweetbreads and livers and brains, but that slithery-rubber-leather consistency of bovine stomach lining is just too much.
Tripe is a specialite de la maison at Acacia. So co-owner Brian Aitchison tells me as he totals my bill and expresses some surprise that I didn't choose it. (Traumatic childhood memories of dinner-time compulsion rise like bile.) They sell 10kg a week. They boil it up on Thursday afternoons, between the lunch and dinner crowds because it smells like dirty nappies, Aitchison tells me thoughtfully.
Then they do it in a white sauce, with parsley, just like Mum and Nana used to, and the punters come from miles around. They include wives who "can't stand the stuff but pick up some for their husbands so he can eat it while the wife is out".
They serve a good deal more than tripe at Acacia, a one-time kebab joint on that triangular park at the New Lynn lights. For the past three years it's been in the hands of Aitchison and partner Errol Syme, who were in charge of the underground Parnell institution Alligator Pear. (Their former life is commemorated by the pear-shaped potato croquette that still comes with all meals). By all accounts, Aitchison has a droll style with the littlies - bringing them two fries on a big plate if they order chips, and so forth. With us, he seemed more aloof, although when one of our number ordered Frangelico and milk Aitchison may have thought, as I did, "What the hell have we got here?"
I had brought my two adult kids and a spectacularly pierced buddy of my son's (the Frangelico guy). Their tastes ran to the voluminous so they seemed likely to give the menu a run for its money. While Aitchison battled with a temperamental wall heater (I hope it's fixed by now; the place was freezing) we got to grips with the bill of fare, which seemed to me a bit long for a neighbourhood cafe. The presence of more than a dozen menu items and half a dozen specials always makes me suspicious that nothing will get the attention it deserves.
The vegetarian-inclined among us certainly felt that way - the entree and main options were, respectively, lentils and chickpea fritters which seemed a bit unimaginative - but the kitchen made a good fist of most things.
A creamy seafood chowder was adjudged a bit bland and the spaghetti in a main was definitely beyond al dente. But the veal meatballs with that pasta were superb and the Caesar salad, heavily larded with the (optional) anchovies and fragrant croutons, was a cracker. Wintry mains of lamb shanks and pork belly were also deliciously discharged and the accompanying sides of crisp steamed vegetables with zingy salsa were, refreshingly, included in the price. I was sated by this time, but Mr Frangelico, a cheesecake connoisseur, tells me that Acacia's is entitled to the "famous" billing on the menu. A pecan pie gained similar levels of approval. In sum, this is a good-value neighbourhood eatery with a touch of class.
