Dine, Federal Street

Crispy crackling: The roast Waimarino pork belly. Picture / Richard Robinson

Herald rating: * * * 1/2

A few years back, I spent a memorable New Year's Eve at Peter Gordon's Sugar Club restaurant in London. After five sublime courses, I floated happily into the freezing night. It was one of the best meals I have ever had — perhaps the best.

So great expectations weighted a visit to Gordon's new restaurant Dine, at the just-opened SkyCity Grand Hotel. You reach Dine via the hotel's vast vestibule, where a collection of Karl Maughan garden vistas, a huge Shane Cotton and a series of Robert Ellis paintings add a strong New Zealand flavour to an otherwise anodyne — if expensive — decor.

At night, Dine is soothingly dim, with a high ceiling, dark timber panelling, cabinets stuffed with ceramic art, and two large floating circles of lights, reminiscent of a Spielbergian starship.

The main dining room hosts three long series of tables, with each table in the middle aisle featuring a large plush armchair. I would feel silly sitting in such a chair; it says something about hierarchy, and when eating, all should feel equal.

One can peek into the kitchen via a window from the foyer, or from your table through a hatch. Occasionally, we could see the tousled hair of Gordon himself, as he supervised shifts before flying back to London. He never came into the dining room to inspect the floor on this, his first retail opening night. He should have.

Much has been made of Gordon's radical approach to fusion cooking, a style which hit Londoners between the eyes but to which our palates have long grown accustomed.

So it was no surprise to find starters that included ingredients such as truffled yuzu (a tart citrus), hijiki (seaweed) and umeboshi (pickled plum) supporting a barely seared slice of tuna topped by a beer-battered Clevedon oyster. That was wolfed happily by Greg, and Arnold made short work of the "fantastic" panfried scallops more simply presented with sweet chilli sauce and plantain crisps. I have to confess that for the first time in my life I ate veal, sweetbreads no less, rich and melt-in-the-mouth, with a blackbean puree flavoured with morimo miso.

So far, so good, but then came the night of the long waiting. Now, a word about our waiter, who was pleasant and helpful. He was doubling as a wine server, and that proved inefficient. He had to travel the length and breadth of the room taking wine orders, filling glasses and delivering meals. Although there was a full platoon of wait staff about, we became increasingly annoyed by the unnecessary delays and general absence of care. The faces of other diners told the same story.

Nevertheless, our mains — when they finally arrived — were perfectly adequate without having that wow! factor one expects from this level of dining. Arnold enjoyed panfried blue cod on roast cauliflower with battered okra, lemon salsa — and a bone.

After a bout of dithering, Greg had passed on the crab-crusted hapuka and the roast duck breast, and settled for grilled Hereford Prime beef fillet nestled on couscous and grilled mushrooms. He couldn't fault it, but it is almost impossible to stuff up a good fillet.

I started with a hiss and a roar on the crispy roast Waimarino pork belly, with crisp crackling. But the belly, a large portion, which tended to dryness at the lower end, got the better of me and my big eyes.

Nevertheless, in the name of research, we had to sample dessert and this is also where Dine has a problem. Greg, allergic to nuts and some seeds, faced a six-item dessert menu, three of which he could not have: warm macadamia kibbeh, an avocado and mango sorbet with a sesame tuile, and a chocolate pecan mousse cake.

And so the three of us approved of — but didn't rave about — the poached pear with a guava sorbet ripple, but were deeply sorry to have also gone for the tahini panna cotta with honey-roast fig and ginger agar jelly. It was bizarre in taste and gritty in texture. As Greg noted after one spoonful — and this could apply to the disappointing care as well: "I don't understand this at all."

WHERE: Dine, SkyCity Grand Hotel, 90 Federal St, City. (09) 363 7030
OUR MEAL: $287.50 for 3; entrees $16-22; mains $28-35, sides $7; desserts $16-18
OUR WINES: by the glass $10-21; by the bottle $36-$1190; bubbles $32-$425; dessert wines $50-$790