-seared haloumi with sliced tomato, shallots and basil at Onion Johnny. Photo / Greg Bowker
Where: 32 Anzac St, Takapuna.
Ph: (09) 488 6020
Our meal: $178 for two entrees, two mains, two desserts, four glasses of wine.
Wine list: Short, snappy and suitable, if lacking in breadth and depth. Verdict: Busy, vibrant, friendly place but uneven.
Out of 10
Food: 7
Service: 7
Value: 6
Ambience: 6
The origins of the famous English pub meal, "the ploughman's lunch", are lost in the mists of time and marketing.
While there was once such a simple meal of bread, cheese and pickle washed down with beer or cider, it is now widely held that the term
- and pub lunch - came into the language in the early 60s when the English County Cheese Council was looking for a way to sell more cheese. It's not uncommon for businesses to attempt some historical cachet by trying to create a heritage that often bears no close scrutiny.
Certainly Onion Johnny has hooked into an interesting narrative: an "onion johnny" was the name given to the Breton farmers who, until the middle of last century, would ride around Britain on bicycles selling onions.
Wearing a beret and a carrying a stick of bread under their arm, they became a stereotype of the French in the British psyche. I recall a French textbook from my schooldays which had such a character on the cover, pedalling his way past an outdoor cafe with the Eiffel Tower in the background.
Well, the onion johnny has travelled a long way to be the name of a bistro-cum-bar-cum-deli beside the Berkeley Cinemas in Takapuna. The menu tells the story, and photographs on the wall and a farm-style deli suggest this bygone era amidst chic surroundings of a busy bar and smart-casual dining.
Onions get a passing mention on the menu (French onion soup), there are two types of stove-top mussel dishes as well as other hearty farm-style fare (steaks, beef bourguignon, pork ribs) which probably go down a treat in winter. But any actual connection with the onion johnnies is slight. No matter, it is a pleasantly busy place and the service was very good, if a little prompt.
We'd only just been seated when asked if we were ready to order. We secured the drinks menu, ordered wine, and were offered excellent complimentary breads while deciding.
Megan's pan-seared haloumi with especially tasty sliced tomatoes, basil and shallots ($13.50) was fresh and full of subtle flavours and although my antipasto ($22) bore some hallmarks of being sourced from the local supermarket, as much as from their deli perhaps, it was substantial, their pesto wonderfully fresh, and they didn't scrimp on the salmon.
Of the mains, my rosemary, garlic and thyme roasted lamb rump ($32) was as close to perfection as possible - neatly seared but pink and soft on the inside - although it came atop a pile of peas. You really had to like peas. Megan's main - twice cooked sherry and ginger glazed duck ($33) - was a disappointment.
Whatever flavours were meant to be there weren't and it was bland. We ordered a green salad which was certainly generous, but had been dealt a heavy-handed amount of balsamic.
We left most of it. We indulged in desserts - a fine lemon tart for Megan ($10.50) and a slightly dry Christmas pudding for me ($10.50) - and at the end felt Onion Johnny's would warrant a return visit, before a movie perhaps.
Locals had recommended it to me and I can see what they enjoy about it, but it is a room which can get noisy, and on the night was too uneven to be thoroughly enjoyable.
Good back story though, and I hadn't thought of that French textbook in decades.
