Dine, Auckland CBD

The angus beef fillet with basil almond pesto. Picture / Brett Phibbs

Herald rating: * * * * 1/2

It took me a trip around the world and meals at three of the restaurants serving Peter Gordon cuisine to get the point of fusion food. At Public, the cool New York place where Gordon designs the menu, I separated the various elements of my meal, and declared it a triumph. At the smaller and funkier The Providores in Marylebone Rd, London, where Gordon is hands on, I also ate in separate mouthfuls. It was good, but then compared with the rest of the cafe food in London that's hardly surprising.

Then came a lunch and now dinner at Dine by Peter Gordon at Sky City, and I finally got it. These meals are meant to be eaten with each element of the entire dish in each mouthful. How else could even the most ardent foodie explain avocado sorbet (made with salt rather than sugar) for dessert?

It was Barry, one of the most dedicated eaters I've met, who carefully combined every mouthful of his panko-crusted sweetbreads with green peas, cumin spiced carrots and roasted cashews ($16), then sloshed the whole thing round in black mustard dressing. He slid me a forkful. Outstanding.

Mary's kumara and coconut soup ($16) "Peter only does chunky" had its flavours well mixed when it arrived in a large, steaming bowl. My haloumi worked brilliantly with the water chestnuts, pecan, orange, tomato and chilli dressing ($18). Even Brian's sacrilegious scallops and five-spice pork belly ($23) somehow got on the same song sheet.

The wine list accompanies more than adequately. We chose glasses of Pegasus Bay Aria Riesling ($17 each) and Peregrine Pinot Noir ($18) to take us from entrees through to our main courses. Dine chef Cobus Klopper sticks tightly to the Gordon-designed blueprint. With the exception of Mary's quail entree ($22) which she found a little boring (what could you expect from a pile of tiny, gamey legs?) we were well pleased.

Far from being a scrag end, the Angus beef fillet lovingly grain-fed for 300 days, was a prime cut, well worth the $37, crusted, then combined with scallopini salad, roast beetroot and basil almond pesto. The duck breast ($35) on green-tea noodles with tatsoi (an Asian cabbage), chilli, vanilla cherries and lotus crisps was another marriage of opposites that somehow worked and hapuku ($35) on crisp polenta and caramelised cauliflower with pomegranate, mint and rocket salad, was way better than we do the fish at home.

After all that we could face just one dessert to share and decided on what had to be the fusion experiment of all time: Salted yuzu (a Japanese citrus), avocado and mango sorbet with passionfruit, coconut tapioca and a sesame almond tuile ($16). Let's say Barry and the others with fond childhood memories of tapioca and rice pudding, loved it.

Dine has been open since only March last year, when canvas made its first, unsatisfactory visit and we were keen to try again after a suitable settling down period. What let the meal down this time was the setting and service. The air conditioning was too cold. The New Zealand friendliness of Gordon's other restaurants, carefully cultivated by perky waitpeople fresh from Gissy or Ohakune, is deadened here by a more formal approach. Yet despite a public holiday service charge of $47.25 we waited overlong both for water and our orders to be taken.

Sadly, the regimented room with its leather chairs (including a massive armchair at several tables, apparently to be occupied by the person paying) seemed stuck in the 70s when restaurants were designed for overweight men in suits and to hell with the girls in their strapless minis.

Where: Dine by Peter Gordon at Sky City, 90 Federal St, City.

Our Meal: $362-25 for four; entrees $16-$23; main courses, $28-$37; dessert $16.

The wine: by the glass $17-$18 (5 glasses); by the bottle $32-$1500.