Bowmans

By EWAN MCDONALD for viva


A walk along Mt Eden Rd is a trip back into an Auckland that has all but disappeared. Most of the old shops from childhood are still there but they're not hardware stores or bookshops with lending libraries any more. They're stereo and DVD centres, takeaway and espresso bars or, if they look totally cool, hairdressers.

Richard Lewis and Charmaine Walsh took two of those shops and ripped out the dividing wall but left the leadlights intact to create Bowmans. The look is understated elegance: with its French vanilla walls, dark wooden floors and starched white tablecloths, blackboard menus on the walls, it is strongly reminiscent of a neighbourhood bistro somewhere in France.

Our first visit to Bowmans won't be the last. The restaurant is four years old (longevity is always a good sign), has won beef and lamb hallmarks each year and been a finalist in the Corbans Challenge. The owners describe their food as New Zealand cuisine with Pacific Rim and European influences, complemented by extensive wine lists.

First star: just about every wine is available by the glass (remember, we're in Mt Eden and many patrons drive here) and the menu matches every dish with an appropriate glass of wine. You might have seen other menus with occasional suggestions but such attention to detail shows that this is a restaurant where the management cares. Beyond that, there is an extensive, handwritten cellar book of premium wines at reasonable prices. Four of us turned that manuscript into a bestseller.

Second star: the food is intelligent but doesn't shout "Look at me." Entrees included deep-fried wontons with Puy lentils, which piqued the appetite without dulling the later courses; two plates of green-lipped mussels dressed with basil cream and sundried tomatoes, their success measured in the slurps from around the table; chargrilled squid with crispy noodle salad. Entrees are mostly $13.90.

A third star for the mains. The barbecued duck breast was superbly cooked although its fans suggested the rockmelon was an odd accompaniment; the honeyed lamb rump, on polenta with a cassis jus, was a couple of minutes past perfectly pink. Best choice was one of the blackboard specials, roast pork loin - you know, the one you wish you'd chosen. Mains range between $24 and $29.

Bowmans offers a range of desserts lacking in many city restaurants: simple steamed puddings with fresh berries and a tasty liquorice bavarois for our table, which was by now groaning under more glasses than in the Studio of Tableware just down the road.

Those sweets (around $10), plus the friendly if unnecessarily tactile service, and the honeyed voice of Sam Cooke on the jukebox, made this a four-star evening, just a few quibbles off a five-star one.

Open: Dinner Tuesday to Saturday.

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