Antoine's, Parnell

Antoine's provides remarkable ambience and superlative cuisine. Picture / Carolyn Robertson

Herald rating: * * * * *

Allons enfants, the plat de jour est arrive! "For Bastille Day," Madame Editress said kindly, "you can go to your favourite French restaurant," which was rather decent of her, because it's a little place called l'Epouvantail in the Marais.

That suggestion was met with a decidedly Gallic shrug so I offered France-Soir in Melbourne or Bastille in Wellington. Mais, non.

Those are bistros and for the Republic's birthday one should go the whole neuf metres. And that is Antoine's, since 1973, as it says on the front page of the menu. "It's been around longer than I have," said the Valley Girl, as the waiter slipped the silver ring off the starched linen napkin and gracefully flicked it over her lap.

It's been around so long because of touches like that, and having to ring the doorbell of the lovely old villa down the lane when you arrive, and the waiters ... well, waiting at attention in their white shirts and waistcoats in the dining-rooms, the ruched curtains on the windows for discretion's sake.

Is it a French restaurant when le patron's nephew is one of our mythic cricketers and Uncle Tony Astle describes his food as "New Zealand with French undertones"? Of course it bloody is.

Antoine's menu proves Astle, though he has been criticised for not doing so, can keep up with the changing moods and times. Before this onerous assignment, I ate with a Man Who Should Know - because he is one of our foremost chefs and trained in Antoine's kitchen - and said, "Sometimes the food can be a little dated, a little heavy ... "

"Cobblers," said the Man Who Should Know, though that might not have been the word he used. "That boy can cook. If he was in London or Paris he'd have Michelin stars. He was serving a bavarois 20 years ago that everyone is serving now, except that they're calling it a panna cotta. He's a genius."

Rebuke accepted.

Astle's current menu underscores the "NZ cuisine" comment on the menu: a room-temperature salad of smoked eel fingers latticed with a few of my favourite things like artichokes, courgettes, snowpeas and piko piko fronds, set off with a stilton vinaigrette.

As soon as the waiter combined the words "half a lobster" and "in the shell" the Valley Girl was gone.

For the next course she took a non-French option, cannelloni with peppers, aubergine, a macho tomato sauce, each steaming, aromatic ingredient spooned on to her plate. "I can smell, I can see, I can almost taste how good that is from over here," I said. She was too busy eating to answer.

Mine fell into that rich and meaty category: quail, boned then roasted, parcels of sauteed duckling livers and mushrooms, and the final weapon of mass destruction, porcini essence. Classique, gorgeous, and it received the treatment it deserved.

The wine waiter, who had a French undertone in his accent, offered chardonnay, sauvignon blanc or Framingham gewurtztraminer 2004 for my eel: spicy wine, smoked flesh, good choice.

We ummed and aahed over the mains match, started with chardonnay and veered towards pinot noir until he offered cotes du Rhone. No argument; we were here to mark Bastille Day, so my old mate E. Guigal was called into play. Damn it, if his wines were good enough for Elizabeth David, his soft, red, 2001 was good enough for me.

"What about dessert?" I asked, lusting after things such as designer bread-and-butter pudding. "We could have the cheese," she said, so - before I could recall that old de Gaulle line about it being impossible to govern a country that has 265 different varieties of fromage - we did. Sacre bleu, that's the best platter I've had in this country: Kapiti's and Spanish manchego and soft French creams and a salty blue.

Antoine's provided remarkable ambience and a superlative meal. When Chef came to the door to wish us good night, as he does for all his visitors, one almost forgets that he adds the GST on top of those gob-smacking prices.

But some things are worth it.

Address: 333 Parnell Rd, Ph 379 8756
Open: Lunch Mon-Fri, Dinner Mon-Sat from 6pm, Supper Mon-Sat until late
Owners: Tony and Beth Astle
Chef: Tony Astle
Food: NZ cuisine with French undertones
From the menu: Bloody Mary jelly with prosciutto, artichokes, asparagus and citrus-infused virgin olive oil, $25
Lightly spiced salmon fillet, oven-roasted, on artichoke hearts with karengo lemon butter reduction, $39
Trio of grilled lamb loin, kidney and brain on ratatouille, minted lamb jus, $40
Spiced-prune gnocchi with Antoine's vanilla icecream, $18
(all prices exclude GST)
Vegetarian: Occasionally
Wine: Superlative

* Read more about what's happening in the world of food, wine, fashion and beauty in viva, part of your Herald print edition every Wednesday.