WHERE: 2 Mt Eden Rd, Auckland. (09) 379-3557
OUR MEAL: $99.40 for two starters, three mains, two beers and a glass of wine.
OUR WINE: By the glass $7.50-$17.90 (the Te Awa was $8.50), by the bottle $35-$98.
OUR BEER: $7.50 for the lager, $8.90 for porter and bitter.
VERDICT: A great spot for the ale aficionados and those in need of a hearty meal. But we knew that.
OUT OF 10
FOOD: 7
SERVICE: 8
VALUE: 8
AMBIENCE: 9
KEY POINTS:
Who was it, way back when, whose catch-cry was, "Life's too short to stuff a mushroom"?
One of those Beauty and the Beast panellists, I seem to recall. For semi-rural dwellers like me, mushrooms came from paddocks and were interfered with as little as possible.
Stuffing them was for the city folk. Now, everyone has done it, and some still are doing it. On a chilly Saturday night in early May, we head off to the reliable comfort of Galbraiths Alehouse.
The comfort - and the fact that our first choice, the Italian restaurant across the road, is booked out - are what draw us in. Dave the Fish from New South Wales is back in town and, again, we don't go to a fish restaurant.
Never mind, Dave, there's fish for breakfast chez nous. Housed in the old Grafton Public Library building at the top of Mt Eden Rd (for the few Aucklanders who haven't been there already), Galbraiths is warm and welcoming.
Tables big and small are well-spaced, and the feeling is of a library reading room sans books. Or a traditional English pub - open fire, mirrors courtesy of various breweries, a shelf of steins.
Galbraiths is beer-drinker's bliss. The onsite brewery provides a selection of traditional tastes - Bitter and Twisted English-Style Bitter, Bellringers Best Bitter, Bob Hudson's Bitter, Grafton Porter, Bohemian Pilsner, Resurrection Trappist-Style Ale (at a whopping 8.7 per cent alc/vol) and Munich Lager.
And if that's not enough, there is a full page, close-typed, of domestic and international bottled beers, as well as a few guest beers on tap. We arrive at six or thereabouts, and Galbraiths is just thinking about filling up, so there's plenty of choice of tables.
Bill starts with Porter, Dave has Munich Lager, and (sacrilegiously) I have a glass of Te Awa sauvignon blanc. Jolly fine it is, too. In spite of being a predominantly beer pub, Galbraiths has a comprehensive and well-considered wine list for wimps like me.
The food is like the place itself - not fancy or pretentious, but solid and reliable pub grub. Bangers and mash, fish and chips, lambs fry and bacon and lamb shanks.
There are a few more elaborate offerings, like beef Wellington and chicken parmigiano, but most meals we saw being whisked past us were the old faithfuls.
The men start with bread and dips, a tasty but unremarkable selection, and I order feta and basil risotto cakes, which come with aioli and are very good indeed.
The robust flavour of the rice is matched by the garlicky sauce, and the size of the serving is well-judged. By this time we're ready for another drink. Bill decides that the Porter is not quite right and switches to Bellringers, which pleases.
Dave is fine with the lager, as I am with the Te Awa. The mains arrive promptly. Bill's liver and bacon is tender, with the mash soaking up a plentiful helping of onion gravy.
Dave is likewise well-pleased with the pork, apple cider and herb sausages with red cabbage, mash and gravy. I'm on something of a vegetarian jag at the moment, so go for the (now familiar) portobello mushrooms stuffed with blue vein, roasted kumara and pumpkin, finished with a parmesan crust and tomato and mint salsa.
It's an odd mix, and I'm not sure that it worked. The mushrooms were on the dry side, and the vegetable flavours were somewhat overpowered by the cheese.
I had to wonder if the interference was warranted. Galbraiths have introduced a cunning tab system, which I haven't come across before. You are issued with a sort of swipe card, your orders are registered on it, and at the end of the evening it's a moment's work to download the contents and present you with the bill.
I think it may still be suffering teething problems, though - the second round of drinks didn't make it to the final tally, which I didn't realise until I came to write this review.
Sorry, guys. Going to Galbraiths is like going to visit an old friend. We'll be back, of course, when I'll settle the outstanding bar bill.
- NZ Herald
