Atlantis, Auckland central

Atlantis restaurant is at the entrance of the Ascott Metropolis hotel. Picture / Babiche Martens

Herald rating: * * *

Atlantis. Now there's a funny name for a restaurant, especially when it's in a room that's housed one or three establishments which have sunk without trace. Seems like coming home and telling the family, "Hey, I've bought a boat. Let's call it Titanic."

Launched by the Sydney-based hotel management a few weeks back, it's at the entrance of the Ascott Metropolis. They employed Varick Neilson as executive chef. Tempted him back from a Queenstown lodge to the city where he made his and other names with Bistrot 305, Varick's and the like.

Vic told me about it; he'd been to the joint on other business. As a thank-you for the tip, I invited him to join me.

When we arrived, after 7, the dining-room was in darkness. This is generally held to be an unhappy sign in the restaurant trade. We repaired to the bar on the other side of the foyer and waited for someone to punch our lights on.

"The name suggests seafood," I thought. So did the sample menu posted in the foyer. However the full menu, brought by the sole waiter, a helpful young Brit, is conservative, built on traditional pillars. Starters include barbecue quail, chilli and garlic prawns, duck liver pate; mains of duck leg confit, chargrilled sirloin, roast pork.

Cheese tarts have lately become de rigueur entrees, from Bowmans' gorgonzola, spinach and macadamia filo to O'Connell Street's roasted roma tomato and tomme de chevre tartin. I suppose we have to be grateful to the vegetarians for something. Vic appreciated this gutsy rendition stuffed with blue cheese and wild mushrooms.

For me, salt and pepper calamari. This has become so pervasive that I reckon Viva should do a poll to find the city's best. Despite its colourful bath of mango salsa and red-pepper vinaigrette, safe to say that this one is highly unlikely to trouble the judges unless the kitchen can produce the main ingredient in a less rubbery condition.

Neither of us had seen chicken roulade for some time. It's a dish from provincial hotel dining-rooms of the 70s. To my mind it's a fussy concoction and the version delivered to Vic, stuffed with mushroom mousse and wrapped in prosciutto, did not change my prejudice. Even the accompaniments recall an earlier era: a bed of creamed savoy cabbage and potato fondant.

I'd considered the pan-seared fish but demurred on learning it was hapuku (my loss, yes, but I'm a snapper snob). Spiced lamb loin, with those Med-peasant touches of sun-dried tomatoes and olives, garlic jus and pesto. If it was a workingman's dish, he wouldn't have taken on much fuel from this effete rendering. The potatoes were "Ecrasse", which I believe translates as "watery and lumpy".

We finished with a cheese platter. The menu didn't specify which. I thought Foodtown, but Vic reminded me they were finding it hard to get the stock at the moment. New World, then. Very new.

I left the wine to Vic. He has some expertise in that area. "It should extend further than its strong, one-company emphasis" is his opinion.

We exchanged emails next day. My thought: "The food had a bored feel. And that is a word that one would never apply to Varick, so maybe he's carrying out instructions from on high (or Sydney) to follow a particular style. Compared with other hotel dining-rooms - White, dine, Partingtons - it's staid. Dated."

Would I go back to the Metropolis? Yes. To Atlantis? No. Take the lift one floor up to Otto's.

Address: The Ascott Metropolis, No 1 Courthouse Lane CBD
Ph: (09) 300 8800
Open: 7 days lunch, dinner
From the menu: Barbecue quail, roast beetroot and rocket salad, honey and mustard seed jus $18; Lemon kelp spiced grilled salmon, olives caper potato and tomato, with river cress oregano and olive oil $33; Apple and tamarillo crumble with hokey-pokey ice cream $12
Vegetarian: Not on this menu
Wine: Narrow list