Spanakopita from the menu at Daphnes Bar Taverna, Ponsonby Rd, Auckland. Photo/Jason Oxenham
Auckland is a culinary smorgasbord and there's a delicious new spanakopita at the table, writes restaurant critic Kim Knight.
My experience of Greek food is limited to the spanakopita years that followed my mother's discovery of filo pastry (circa 1989) and a brief period in my mid-30s when, newly single, Friday dinners were quite tequila-focused.
Tequila, of course, is not Greek - but my hangover cure of choice was. On Saturday afternoons, I would join the hundreds crowded around Dimitri's Souvlaki, the food truck (before we even knew they were called food trucks) at the back of the Christchurch Arts Centre.
I have, latterly, come to understand that "souvlaki" refers only to the skewered and grilled meat filling, not an entire, all-encompassing duvet of bread soaked in salad, hummus, yoghurt and chilli sauce. (You will, 100 per cent, drip that sauce on your shirt but the stain will not be as dark as the one that blights your soul, post-tequila).
Daphnes has both souvlaki and spanakopita and just writing that sentence makes me want to camp in the street so I can be guaranteed a table in this insanely busy new restaurant. (Writing that sentence also makes me want to insert an apostrophe - the decision to go without appears annoyingly deliberate on Daphnes part.)
Auckland has surprisingly few Greek restaurants. Patronage on a recent Wednesday night indicates there will be no shortage of opinion on this Ponsonby Rd newcomer. The dimly lit room was packed but we didn't feel hemmed in and even our high stools at the bar - the very last seats in the house - came with plenty of counter space.
Start light with the truly interesting lakerda ($22). Raw, thick-cut tarakihi had been cured in olive brine and it had a gorgeous grapefruit tang, enhanced by the sharp-yet-creamy smudge of labne that covered the plate. This city is swimming in raw fish variations and this version feels truly unique.
Greek cuisine really embraces the dollop. Sauces are thick and dips are gutsy. Daphnes' pita ($3 apiece) is housemade, woodfired and sturdy enough to use as a spoon in a sludgy slurry of jerusalem artichoke and feta ($10) that I urge you to order. I have a friend who makes the most wonderful soup from this knobbly vegetable with its mysterious, slightly sweet earthiness, and this was almost as good. I feared the cheese might overpower, but artichoke remained the star.
There's a handy glossary on the back of the menu that tells you keftedes are fishballs and maroulosalata is a lettuce salad. There is no translation for the calamari ($20) because flash-fried squid has become ubiquitous to the point of cliche. As soon as they started serving it in Greymouth et al, everyone in Auckland said they preferred salt and pepper cauliflower - but that was a lie. Now all the food snobs can rejoice, because in a Greek restaurant calamari is practically compulsory and you don't even need to fake irony when you order it. (You should order it. It's bloody fabulous. Very tender. Very garlicky aioli. Very much better than cauliflower.)
Our final "small" plate was anything but. A layered pastry disc filled with cheesy-spinachy ooze was the Gucci loafer of spanakopita, ridiculously decadent and utterly covetable ($18). We also asked for saganaki, but it never arrived. (Presumably a cardiologist intervened.)
In a first for this column, I was dining with wine critic Yvonne Lorkin and her next-level palate. That mysterious sweetness on the charred and deliciously chewy $24 octopus souvlaki? Ouzo, she decided, and suddenly it all made aniseedy sense. We loved the chunky almonds in robust romesco. However, if you are going to order one souvlaki, make it the ox tongue with the bitter green rocket ($22).
I once watched my grandmother peel a cow's tongue and the ensuing positive-negative strips of raised and indented taste buds scarred me for decades. Today, I'm more appreciative of the fatty richness of this organ that appears sublimely suited to souvlaki - thin-cut, threaded on the skewer like a ribbon and scorched crispy on the edges, it flooded my mouth with flavour.
Daphnes' food looks uniformly great. I had high hopes when the brussels sprouts arrived. I reckon this vege needs to be eaten raw or blasted properly black and crispy. Visually, these sat in the latter camp; texturally they were firmly in the former. A bit disappointing.
There was so much more on the menu I wanted to taste. The $80 price tag on the lamb shoulder indicated it should probably be eaten with a crowd, as did the porae descriptor ("a whole side"). We were just two women and we had yet to get to the glyka.
We skipped baklava in favour of the more unfamiliar galaktoboureko, a lemony, custardy rice pudding inside a sticky flaky pastry tart case ($12). We couldn't finish it. But, like most of what we had at Daphnes, I can't wait to go back and order it again.
Daphnes Bar Taverna, 71 Ponsonby Rd, Auckland, ph 021 906 815. We spent: $236 for two.
As far as drinks go, Daphnes (no apostrophe) is Ponsonby Rd spendy but at least most of the wines are available by the glass. Except the ones you really want. When I think about indulging in a modern Greek menu heaving with jerusalem artichoke dip, spinachy spanakopita, fried cheese, tarakihi lakerda, anchovies, tomatos, calamari, mackerel, kahawai, octopus and chicken, all I hanker for is a glass or six of something crisp, citrussy, white and preferably from Greece. Because Greece makes great wine. Where was the malagouzia, the moschofilero, the blends of athiri and rhoditis? There was only one actual Greek white wine on the list, an amazing assyrtiko from Sigalas Santorini, but available only by the bottle for $100. Who wants to drop $100 on a wine you've never sampled before? I'd happily pay $20 for a glass just to experience it, maybe others might too?
The reds list does have one Greek red by the glass, an agiorgitiko from Nemea at a very reasonable $13, but that's it. Yet this is a menu featuring famously classic Greek lamb, pork knuckle and souvlaki made from things like wood mushrooms, lamb and ox tongue. Dishes that scream out for mavrotragano, mavrokalavitrino, or xinomavro.
However, the wine list has some superb sips from Italy, Spain, France, Hungary and from right here at home, covering a smorgasbord of styles, so you won't lack for vermentino, xarel lo, pinot noir, merlot, grenache, rosé, arneis, sauvignon blanc, pinot gris, tempranillo, sangiovese, riesling, cabernet, chardonnay and craft beers from Hallertau, Garage Project, Urbanaut, Brothers and cider from Morningcider.
Fans of sugar will be happy post-main because the Mavrodafni [sic] Reserve dessert wine, at $15 a glass, is criminally good with the custardy, gorgeous galaktoboureko.
If you're interested in sampling Greek wines, beers and other beverages visit tastegreece.co.nz.
- Yvonne Lorkin
Broadcaster has written a new book about the joys of getting older.