Herald on Sunday Rating: 4.5/5
Address: 251 Queen St, Richmond
Ph: (03) 544 1114
Website: boutereys.co.nz
Open: Dinner Tuesday-Saturday
Have you noticed that Americans call a main course an entrée? (They probably say that we call an entrée a main course, but never mind that for a moment.) What I mean is that, on an American menu, the big dish - the one before pudding - they call an entrée. Weird, eh?
The habit derives from the design of the old formal banquet menu in which, after the soup and fish courses, several "entrée" dishes arrived before the main event, which was a piece of roasted meat, preferably an entire animal. The persistence of the word in the American idiom perhaps reflects that country's dogged belief in upward mobility: every working stiff trusts that, one day, he will host a 14-course banquet in his own mansion.
I mention this apropos of precisely nothing. It just jumped into my mind and I thought you might be interested. Now where was I? Ah yes, Nelson.
Well, we went down to see my mate Pic. Pic is the bloke whose name is on the label of the best peanut butter in the universe (see reallygood.co.nz), which won a Cuisine magazine Artisan Food Award last year. He'd been hassling us for yonks to go down there. So we did.
We were in the ideal place to whip up my peanut-butter beef stroganoff, but the Professor's peanut allergy put paid to that, so we followed another Cuisine recommendation and booked for Bouterey's. The magazine named it joint winner (with A Deco in Whangarei) of the Smart Dining (Regional) section of its Restaurant of the Year Awards last year.
Now I wouldn't like to sing too loudly the praises of Cuisine, no matter how impeccable its taste in peanut butter. Enthusiastic assessments by its reviewers have sent me off to some pretty dodgy restaurants over the years. But this time they nailed it: Bouterey's is as good as any place I've been to outside the main centres and far better than most inside them.
The surroundings are unprepossessing. Richmond, a satellite of Nelson, is a charmless shopping strip, its windswept pavements empty except for skateboarders after 5pm, but at least parking is a breeze. And anyway, to step into Bouterey's is to enter another world.
The unobtrusive decor emphasises brown and beige, and sound baffles hang from the ceiling to keep conversation to a comforting burble. The work of local artists adorns the walls.
Actually, they're big on being local here (without being silly about it; one assumes those puy lentils are French). What's on offer changes according to what's in season and the roll-call of growers and boutique producers on the back of the menu suggests they actually mean it (unlike the restaurants whose mission statements say "it's all about freshness" and serve frozen peas in a risotto).
And it's a nice small-town touch to see the suppliers thanked by name: Johnny and Jay picked the chestnuts that turn up in the wild-mushroom ravioli; the quinces brought in by "Allen and Louis" lend zing to the sausage stuffing and the "posset" - an old English dessert that is a cross between a sorbet and a fool - is made with Pip and Dennis' berries.
But if the vibe is relaxed - the service incidentally is super-efficient and very friendly - the place takes food very seriously. In the open kitchen, head chef Matt Bouterey and his co-chefs move quietly and purposefully (though Matt stops for a natter when regulars pass), turning out food of exceptional class that I hesitate to call fine dining only because the food is never fussy.
Instead, striking juxtapositions make for constant interest: caramelised peach with the pate; a poached egg yolk on venison tataki; pink grapefruit (not lemon) with the salmon sashimi. This doesn't mean the natural happy marriages are ignored: of course the pork belly comes with apple sauce, but marinated beetroot as well. And the predominantly local wine list is sensibly priced.
My sole regret is that I could not persuade any of my companions to choose a dessert other than the rhubarb soufflé (sensational), so that apple pie and fudge slice will have to wait until next time. But this was a meal of heart and soul.
Ambience: Relaxed but smart
Vegetarians: One entrée, one main.
Watch out for: Local food
Bottom line: Top of the line
THE BILL
$442 for five
Entrees: $16-$19
Mains: $32-$34
Sides: $7
Desserts: $10-$15
