Hammerheads Restaurant, Okahu Bay. Photo / Babiche Martens
Address: 19 Tamaki Drive, Okahu Bay
Phone: (09) 521 4400
Web: www.hammerheads.co.nz
Open: Midday-late, every day
Cuisine: Seafood
From the menu: Vanilla and lime cured salmon, verjuice reduction $19; Seared game fish, grilled zucchini, potato, pimiento, olive and watercress salad $34.50; Baked Baileys and white chocolate cheesecake, mascarpone, spiced poached pear $16
Vegetarian: Occasionally
Wine: Depth charges
Herald rating: * * *
Unlike many women of my acquaintance, Bridget has a birthday every year. I was out of town for the relatively Big Day, she reminded me when I got home. "You like seafood," I said. "Dinner at Hammerheads."
Neighbour to that other shark encounter,
Hammerheads surfaced in the old Navy League/Sea Scouts berth on Tamaki Drive in 1990. For the Okahu Bay site a seafood menu is logical, but perhaps it's not a good omen that the beach over the road is regarded as a Chernobyl for kaimoana by more than one marine biologist.
We toasted Bridget's landmark with cocktails - neatly crafted whisky sour for me, concoction of flavours called Tropical Daze for her. It was a severely sub-tropical night. Never mind, there was a fire going. From the smoke that perfumed the large room, more than likely in the wood-fired pizza oven.
I like fish, though shellfish and moi don't get along. And here, chef likes to load many flavours on every plate, and many combine fish and shellfish.
Bridget's entree set the tone: seared scallops, crab, cucumber and avocado salad, fried shallots, coconut and lime dressing. It was, she assured, excellent. The shellfish had been whipped in and out of the pan with a light hand; the offset of light and sharp flavours balanced the dish.
Couldn't say that for my chicken marinated in not-sure-what; potato and artichoke salad; a whisper of goat's cheese; pine nut and basil dressing (sound like pesto? It wasn't). It read like a Mediterranean cruise on a platter. The reality was satisfying as a snapshot in a TV travel show.
Catering to an older, rounder and more jerseyed crowd than at, say, Cibo or Rocco, the mains are considerably more substantial than stylish. Bridget chose roast duck, was fazed when her meal approached the size of Rangitoto. And that was only the duck.
Bok choy, sugar-snaps, rounds of orange and a citrus glaze. For carbs, she'd have had to find room - and table-space - for a side-order. "It's excellently cooked," she reported.
The menu says all entrees can be served as mains, and I chose snapper. What I wanted was lemon-scented snapper, with roasted eggplant and mint salad, pickled green papaya, red grapefruit, lime and chilli, from the entree list. None of that shellfish, see?
What arrived was the snapper dish from the mains menu - grilled fillet, with leek and sweetcorn risotto, rocket pesto, onion relish - and seared Boston scallops. Bridget noticed, just in time to swipe the sweet little treats.
Can't recall exactly what I told the waitress. But when a restaurant has two snapper, or pork, or beef options, table-staff should confirm the order.
Not that I minded: the snapper was expertly grilled, though the risotto couldn't compare with one at a street-corner trattoria in Milano the week before (come on, you knew there'd be one gratuitous reference to the recent absence from these pages). Again, that vast range of tastes and textures meant the dish was confused, unfocused.
We partnered the snapper with a glass of Bilancia pinot gris and the duck with Mt Difficulty pinot noir, the difficulty being that Hammerheads charges $20 a glass.
Rounding off the meal, so-so vanilla panna cotta and Bridget's rather gorgeous Valrhona chocolate and liqueur cake, cherries and mascarpone.
It's been around for almost 20 years, it's got that harbour view - and you can park at the door. A lot of people apparently enjoy Hammerheads.
I'm not one. The kitchen does the basics well, but the food lacks either subtlety or panache: it veers from honest tucker to flights of fancy. Side dishes are necessary; you're already paying top dollar. And - not just because of the snapper episode - front-of-house staff need to sharpen their act.
