Stracciatella and mushrooms from Karangahape Road French tapas bar Atelier. Photo/Dean Purcell
Stracciatella and mushrooms from Karangahape Road French tapas bar Atelier. Photo/Dean Purcell
Uneven table service didn't stop critic Kim Knight from enjoying the theatre of a French tapas bar where the cheese is a sculpture and the prawns are on fire.
In their own words: "French tapas, wines and cocktails."
First impressions: We've had a great day, thanks. We'd love a drink,thanks. But what we'd love even more is for young male waiters to stop infantilising women with the "we" word. You don't know us, and we don't know you, but I'm willing to bet you wouldn't ask a table of middle-aged men, "How are we?" Anyway, apart from that, Atelier is a big space that has been really cleverly compartmentalised so it doesn't overwhelm. The lighting is low and the chairs are comfortable - very conducive to extra rounds of fine wine and excellent conversation.
In the kitchen: The owners and executive chefs are Kelian Monteil and Alexis Petit, who also created Point Chevalier's Ambler and Wynyard Quarter's Wander.
Atelier's seating options include stools with a view of the wine list. Photo/Dean Purcell.
On the floor: We ordered fish and sourdough and received beef cheek and baguette. The mistake was quickly corrected, as was my friend's articulation of "mille-feuille". Look, we mostly had good service - but sometimes reading the room is as important as knowing how to pronounce it. (For the record, you say the first set of ll's but not, apparently, the second.)
The neighbourhood: Nothing represents the changing face of Auckland so much as the repositioning of K Rd as a "dining precinct". Add Atelier to the long list of reasons to trek up the hill for after-work drinks and, if you're missing the edginess of the old days, grab an outside table - someone will almost certainly be along shortly to remind you to scratch the surface.
Inside Atelier, the French tapas restaurant and wine bar on Karangahape Rd, Auckland. Photo/Babiche Martens
The menu: The bread is cheap, but you pay extra for the butter (four options, including a $4 vegan confit garlic "vutter"). Cheese comes soft, hard, blue and bursting with cream, meanwhile the mid-size plates are a more sophisticated "tapas" experience than the robust simplicity that term usually implies. Smoked trevally rillettes, for example, are elegantly ring-moulded and prettily adorned with fried capers, salmon caviar and cornichons; tiger prawns arrived in a mini frying pan that the waitperson set on fire, tableside. It was a nice bit of theatre but, long after the alcohol had burned off (and the waitperson departed), those feelers were still aflame. My friend blew them out like a birthday candle but this is a dish best dealt with before your second wine order.
Best bite #1: The humblest item on the menu was a surprisingly complex hazelnut hummus that packed more nuts than a chipmunk's cheek and came with wavy purple kūmara crisps for scooping - highly flavoured and highly recommended as an entry-level nibble. For stomachs that need more substantial lining (the wine list is a book), consider a serve of bread-and-flavoured-butter. Espelette chilli and lemon ($4) tasted like lemon curd living dangerously. I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would.
Sculptural snacking from the menu at Atelier. Photo/Dean Purcell
Best bite #2: They had me at "truffle" but it was the sculptural appeal of the oyster and enoki mushrooms under a gooey, creamy stracciatella (with bonus leek "fondue" and aforementioned truffle flavours) that really sold me. More shades of beige than an Omaha bach, but at least twice as interesting.
The jury's still out: An unfortunate incident with jerusalem artichokes (aka "fartichokes") didn't put me off ordering the market fish which is served with a pile of these nubbly, nutty earth apples and a lot of beurre blanc. Unfortunately, I think the mix-up with the beef cheek carried over into the kitchen, which sent out the replacement fish too soon - it hadn't been seasoned and was raw in the centre. (A shame, because the powdered herb coating on the rolled fillet really did make for a spectacular-looking dish.)
On the side: Bitter salads make the best companions and so it was with a refreshing witloof and pear classic.
Dessert: Notwithstanding the diction dramas, it's hard to mess up pastry, cream and caramel. Mille-feuille was an obvious crowd-pleaser. A calvados and tonka mousse was, by contrast, a serious disappointment. Where was the flavour?
Perfect for: Classy drinkers and/or Francophiles.
How much: We spent $345 for four. Sample prices: breads $6, smoked trevally $18, stracciatella $20, market fish $42, mille-feuille, $16.
Raising a glass to you, Atelier. Literally any glass, because looking at your list, I'm seriously impressed that apart from one champagne, every wine (and there are about 50 listed) appears to be available in a single serve*. Bloody bravo! Those oysters with tamarillo mignonette? Try the Māori Point Gold Digger Sparkling Rosé Pet Nat, and if charcuterie or pork croquettes are more your thing, go a glass of Millton Gisborne Viognier or Dicey Gamay Noir. If you like your beef in tartare form or as a slow-braised cheek, Atelier have more Bordeaux styles than you can wave a baguette at (treat yourself to a goblet of Chateau de la Cour St Emillion Grand Cru, $26). Syrah fans could tuck into a $17 glass of Smith & Sheth Cru Heretaunga for extra peppery thrills. It goes without saying that pinot noir is perfect for the truffle stracciatella, so try a glass of 2020 Felton Road or glorious Gachot Monot Cote de Nuits. More of a poisson person? Then pair the trevally rillettes or market fish with Clos Marguerite sauvignon blanc or Alba Martin albarino, but whatever you do, please leave room for a cocktail. A Smoked Boulevardier to be exact because Bruichladdich and Rosso Campari will settle that tummy nicely.
