Halo, St Heliers

By EWAN McDONALD for viva

My, my how wrong can one be? When we last brought you here for dinner, about 15 months ago, shortly after Halo opened, we made some comments about the restaurant being at the genteel end of the eastern bays, ladies in nice frocks and gents in jackets and ties.

Now we read in the suburban press that the owner is wondering if it is worthwhile trading in an "elite" area after Halo has been attacked by burglars and vandals 11 times in 18 months.

"We cannot afford to continue losing money through loss of trade," Guy Malyon told his community board in an appeal for support from the St Heliers Business Association.

"Nor can we afford to pay for the material damage caused by these malicious attacks.

Apart from numerous smash-and-grab attacks, there was an attempted flooding using an emergency fire hose, two arsons, stolen chairs and tables, stock taken and staff threatened.

"We are paying enormous rent and rates to trade in a supposedly elite area of Auckland. Yet to be frank we have had nothing but problems from the day we began operating."

By Jove! That's not quite the way that I remember St Heliers: when I was a kid it was maiden aunts, Sunday afternoon teas, Chesterfield sofas and how that nice Mr Muldoon would solve all our economic problems. Reading what Malyon had told the local dignitaries, Ann and I were rather expecting that we might be in for a night at Artie Bucco's Nuovo Vesuvio, Tony Soprano's favourite trattoria, when we parked on the beachfront and toddled in to meet Dick and Stephanie at Halo.

In that earlier review we wrote that Halo "threatened to become something that is rare in this part of the world: a very good restaurant". We have been several times since and have to report, in honesty, that it has had ups and downs.

Dick muttered something along the lines of "you pays your money and you takes your chances," but Ann had lunched there with her Friday afternoon buddies and reported very good things, particularly on the subject of an Indian spiced snapper with pearl barley risotto, pickled ginger and coconut broth.

The very good things may well be down to Justin Rimmer, who is now executive chef for Halo and Malyon's other ventures, One Tree Grill at Greenwoods Corner and the catering activities of the Luna Group. Rimmer spent three years at the Hilton Hotel, doubtless learning at the ladles of its original consultant, Sydneysider Luke Mangan, and his successor, the passionate Kiwi chef Geoff Scott.

Pick the bones out of Rimmer's CV and you'll find that he is a five-year veteran of Harbourside, who likes to cook fishy things from the barbecue to silver service dining. Small wonder, then, that he is one of the featured chefs at the new Auckland Fish Market down at the Viaduct or the Nelson Quarter or whatever it is that our City Cheerleader wants us to call it now.

Halo and One Tree Grill are cleverly pitched to match their neighbourhoods: OTG attracts a relaxed bistro crowd, Halo is slightly more mature. By way of example, OTG grills salmon and serves it with soba noodles, shiitake mizuna salad and a miso broth. Halo's salmon main is a hotpot with baby onions, turnips and a lavender and maple broth. At OTG pork belly is grilled and braised, served on a kumara mash with watermelon, cucumber and coriander; at Halo it's the ubiquitous pork fillet, oven baked, with those homely favourites, braised ham hock and roasted yams, a slightly daring umeboshi salad on the side.

They run a respectable cellar at Halo, perhaps more Eurocentric than most around the city, and Dick had thoughtfully opened a Delas Cotes du Rhone to warm us after the journey around the bays. During the courses of the evening it would disappear to be replaced by a Floating Mountain pinot noir, choices which took care of a broad range of dishes.

"Broad range," in fact, covers Halo's menu. Few plates have less than five or six tastes and you may recall Simon Gault's comments on this page recently about his decision to pare back his food. Sometimes Halo crams too much into one course: tea-smoked and tempura quail on choy sum and shitake mushroom with dancing bonito broth felt like the gustatory equivalent of an oonst-oonst-oonst dance track.

Roasted lamb rack was no-nonsense winter comfort food, bolstered by pea and red onion risotto, swaddled with baby leeks and watercress. There's a bit of a joke in "Steak, Eggs and Chips" - the steak is a conventionally seared beef fillet, but the eggs are of the truffled quail variety; the chips are indeed potato, but slow-cooked with shallots. Dick was impressed, but defeated.

Winter desserts include tamarillos poached in shiraz and variations on traditional themes like apple and persimmon tarte tatin with pohutukawa ice-cream, fig and almond souffle, and a highly recommended dark chocolate mousse with limoncello beignets or baby doughnuts and a passionfruit caramel.

With an eager young staff and the new team, Halo is once again delivering on that early promise of being a very good place to eat. Or as Ann said when we were driving home, "If that's what they call a neighbourhood restaurant, I wouldn't mind having it at the end of my street."

425 Tamaki Drive, St Heliers

Ph 575 9969

Open: Dinner 7 days, lunch Mon-Sat, brunch Sun

Owner: Guy Malyon

Manager: Mike Bancks

Executive chef: Justin Rimmer


Food Modern NZ

On the menu: Baby calamari stuffed with red onion jam on bok choy and preserved lemon $18.50

Salmon hotpot with baby onions, Israeli couscous, turnips, lavender and maple broth $28.50

Shiraz poached tamarillos, hot mint and loose brulee $13.50

Vegetarian: On menu

Wine: Considered, reasonably priced offering of quality wines, predominantly NZ

Noise: Cocktail lounge

Parking: Tamaki Drive

Disabled access / toilets: Excellent

Bottom line: Halo started life very well about 18 months ago but has had its ups and downs. With the arrival of Hilton old boy Justin Rimmer as executive chef for Halo and its sibling, One Tree Grill, and an eager young staff, it is again delivering on the early promise of being a very good place to eat.

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