Anglesea Grill

By EWAN MCDONALD for Viva


Good things about living in Ponsonby (1): You don't have to put a lot of thought into clothes. For the past 10 years anything has been cool so long as it's black.

Good things about living in Ponsonby (2): There are so many celebs, mini-celebs and wannabe celebs around that you're never short of gossip. Of course, being a journalist, I prefer to call it "research".

One of my favourite research assistants is the Former Teacher of Gifted Children with Unusual Parents, who is in a unique position to know who's doing what to whom and how. So she and her husband, and Ann and I decided it was time we caught up and swapped data on which sports celeb we'd seen in Bambina lately and with which blonde.

Which brought the four of us to Good things about living in Ponsonby (3): The Anglesea Grill.
The seafood restaurant took over the home of a Ponsonby institution, Ivan's. Since co-owners Dean Betts and Peter Morton hooked the corner site it has rapidly turned into an institution, too.

As it should be at a good seafood restaurant, which this is, the menu is not printed but photocopied daily depending on what landed at the wharf that morning. On this night it was all the usual suspects except hapuku (a day later it was back on the menu), most crumbed or chargrilled, some steamed, with a choice of sauces (no, not Watties) and fries or rice or new potatoes.

Three of the party chose seafood starters and slurped happily away. Ann, in a retro mood, picking Oysters Rockefeller ($13.50) because she hadn't eaten them since the 70s. I was all for asking the bartender to mix a brandy alexander to go with them, on the same grounds. I'm allergic to shellfish; my warm spinach salad ($11.75) was okay.

Good Kiwis eat chips with fish. We all chose aioli, too, but then we are from Ponsonby. Betts, who has described himself as "a fish man who happens to be in the restaurant business" and has been so for 25 years, first in California, specialises in sourcing good fish and cooking them simply and quickly. Sear'n'serve, you could say. It's the right treatment for our john dory ($23.50), snapper ($23.50) and kingfish ($23.50).

The food and the warm night called for a light, young wine, Neudorf Sauvignon Blanc 2001, at a fair $40. It was also our first experience of the screwcap. Efficient and clean but where's the romance of pulling a cork?

The Anglesea Grill succeeds because it knows what it wants to do, and takes care with selection and preparation. It's not swayed by fashion, either in food or decor; service is efficient and the prices fair. The ambience is perfect for relaxed dining and conversation.And then it's Good things about living in Ponsonby (4): After a couple of bottles you can walk home from just about any restaurant.

Open: Dinner, Mon to Sat, from 6 pm; Lunch, Wed to Fri, noon to 2.30 pm.

Owners: Dean Betts and Peter Morton