Herald on Sunday rating: * * *
Address: Green Lane West, Greenlane
Phone: (09) 630 2888
KEY POINTS:
Here's an easy way to win five bucks. Ask somebody the name of the road that runs from Manukau Rd to the Southern Motorway, with Alexandra Park on one side and Greenlane Hospital on the other. From anyone younger than 70, you'll probably make money. The older, cannier ones will know that it's Green Lane.
More correctly, it's Green Lane West. On the other side of the motorway it becomes Green Lane East. The suburb and the hospital are all Greenlane, but not the roads.
It's hard to imagine a thoroughfare less green and less like a lane than that arterial monster, growling with traffic. But I like the old-fashioned sound of the names. It evokes a horse and cart and Sunday best and the days when people prized good manners.
Cornwall Park Restaurant is actually in Olive Grove (straight ahead at the top of Pohutukawa Drive).
The menu runs from the breakfast standards (until 11.30am) through light lunch (sandwiches and muffins) to a more substantial a la carte selection. They also do high tea - that's the three tiers of cakes and savouries on the pedestal - but the three of us (we had the Blonde's mother in tow) had more substantial dining in mind.
We had booked one of the in-demand outdoor tables. This had an upside: dining al fresco is always pleasant, and large expanses of sun umbrella make the terrace at Cornwall Park a desirable place to spend a couple of hours.
The downside was a Dalmatian the size of a Baskerville hound whose owner chained it up before installing herself at a table as far away from the dog as she could, without actually going home.
The dog then proceeded to bark and whine while standing on its hind legs with its forepaws on the fence around the terrace.
Within a few dozen centimetres of the slavering hound sat a very elderly woman who would have been terrified out of her wits were it not for the fact (which I deduced from the nurse accompanying her) that she was not really aware of her surroundings.
The dog owner dealt with this remotely, by bellowing "Don't do that" from time to time.
I was about to attack her with an entrée fork but the Blonde persuaded me to think better of it.
The afternoon was otherwise, like the proverbial curate's egg, excellent in parts.
The waiting staff, although very good for school-age kids, bring the wrong wines and stuff but they are very charming. And, although I can't vouch for the high tea (I'll save that for another column), the food varied between okay and very good.
Grilled fresh sardines are not often seen on Auckland menus; this account of them was a trifle plain but some seared scallops with julienned courgettes were much approved of, as was the Blonde's caesar salad with a rabbit confit.
Less impressive were a couple of sirloin steaks served with liver - they were cut too thin and the liver, cooked too long, acquired that grim chalkiness which reminded me uncomfortably of mum. But the desserts redeemed matters. My walnut slice in particular was like a tiny loaf and, accompanied with maple icecream and syrup, quite superb.
There's nothing wrong with impressing the mother-in-law and this is as good a way as any to do it.
Wine list: Avoids the obvious. Most by the glass.
Vegetarians: Half the entrées and one main.
Watch out for: The dogs.
Sound check: Conversation-friendly.
Bottom line: Needs attention to detail.
- Detours, HoS
