Craft, Grey Lynn

Prawns with garlic butter (front) and chargrilled squid with chill jam at Craft. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

Herald rating * * * 1/2


We know we should applaud our brightest and best, and we have certainly heard a lot about celeb chef Peter Gordon lately.

The boy from Wanganui, involved with restaurants in New York, London and Istanbul, is consulting for Dine - which opens tonight at Sky City - and has been interviewed by every media outlet available. He will visit Dine about four times a year, which I'm guessing will be a few more times than I will. Until I cultivate more moneyed mates it could be off-limits to me and my woeful credit card.

He makes a persuasive case for Dine, but I can make a case for a restaurant that won't batter the wallet quite so much. It's Craft, on Richmond Rd where we and other casually dressed and happy diners enjoyed a thoroughly good night.

We had been to Craft once before, to a birthday party held in the lounge upstairs, and remembered it for the easy ambience and friendly staff. The split-level dining area and separate bar area make for a spacious and unfussy layout.

That impression was confirmed from the time we seated ourselves at the bar for a pre-dinner drink through to paying the bill to the woman in the fashionably floral wide-span skirt. We started with a couple of glasses of the German riesling Dr Loosen, which was so palatable we stuck with it throughout the excellent dishes we chose from the diverse menu.

Craft has a kind of tapas thing going on but also some meals that sound quite substantial, for example beef fillet on beetroot and silverbeet, grilled pork belly on mustard mash.

We hit middle ground with deep-fried potatoes, which came with Indian spices ($7 for a huge plate), braised oxtail spring rolls with soy gravy ($18, and both very large and delicious) and deep-fried goat's cheese ($15, slightly dry to my taste but compensated for by the rich dressing of honey).

We liked the sound of much that was on offer - smoked salmon tart, Moorish chicken skewers, lime polenta fries - but my wife likes to compare cerviche with what she has been used to in her family.

Craft's coconut and grapefruit flavours with a mango salad ($16) received high approval and the mental note that we'll give that combination a go at home.

The venison and fig terrine with the walnut and pomegranate dressing ($18) sounded good and I wasn't disappointed. Our waitress talked us through some of the less familiar offerings - I now know what nam phrik num dressing is - and was attentive, good-humoured and kept the glasses filled. To finish we shared their excellent raspberry creme brulee.

All up, our enjoyable night was $140, but that included seven glasses of the riesling - we should have bought a bottle - and we had an agreeable, tasty meal in memorably comfortable plastic chairs.

Craft's ambience is dark and welcoming, and this Sunday saxophonist Nathan Haines plays his farewell gig there from 7pm. That tells me they, and he, have pretty good taste.

Address: 551 Richmond Rd, Grey Lynn.

Phone: 376 5595

Open: Tuesday to Sunday, 5pm till late. Thursday and Friday for lunch from noon.

Chef: Karl Quinn

Vegetarian: Interesting selection from pear pecan and feta salad, through corn cachapa with mole sauce, to feta mushrooms on kumara mash.

Wine list: Good mix of international and local, many available by the glass. Well-stocked bar.

Bottom line: Unpretentious, friendly atmosphere and a diverse and reasonably priced menu.