Bouchon, Kingsland

By EWAN McDONALD for viva

FRENCH bistro, Kiwi local. Some might still harbour grudges about the Rainbow Warrior or that semifinal in the last World Cup, but our breweries have at last come up with something more user - and environmentally friendly than the booze barn, their last contribution to a convivial lifestyle.

They are now supporting casual, suburban eateries that owe much to the Gallic model.

Like Bouchon, the Kingsland cafe and creperie (doesn't that sound so much more evocative than pancake parlour?) of Alexandre and Lynette Roux (and didn't a man named A. Roux have to open a restaurant, like someone born M. Schumacher would run a driving school?)

Expat French, Francophiles and Kingsland literati with a burning desire to be mistaken for Jean-Paul and Simone chat over large cups of milky coffee beneath photos of streets that you nostalgically recall as the one that you used to walk down to the romantic little two-star bargain hotel in Paris, though they're just as likely to be in Marseilles.

Bouchon, with a feel of the South, no doubt because of aperitifs like Suze and cassis, won hearts and stomachs from its opening early this year as the only place in town that does a fantastic galette (savoury) or crepe (sweet) pancake, and to be honest that's its best act.

The coffee can bring to mind that old line that the best place to go for coffee in Paris is Italy.

We've been during the day and the evening, eaten from the considerable choice of crepes and galettes or the somewhat tighter offering of mains.

Loved the quenelles, those large gnocchi-style cigars beloved of French schoolchildren, flavoured with pumpkin and quinoa, seed of a leafy Andes plant that's distantly related to spinach and can be substituted for any grain.

Adored a tangy carrot and coconut soup, had a bad evening after duck, stringy and overcooked, on carroway loaf.

The French were playing someone or other in the World Cup that night. Perhaps chef's mind was elsewhere.

Owners: Alex and Lyn Roux

Open: Tues-Fri noon-late, Sat 8am-late, Sun 8am-3pm.

Food: French

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