Herald rating: * * * * 1/2
Address: 166 Jervois Rd, Herne Bay
Phone: 376 5597
Web: www.vinnies.co.nz
Open: Dinner Tues-Sat
Cuisine: Modern NZ
From the menu: Bream Bay paddle crab creme soup, prawn and carrot dumpling $19; Cardrona merino slow-cook lamb panisse, roast fennel, charcutiere sauce $37; Feijoa souffle, pohutukawa ice cream $16
Vegetarian: Dishes on menu
Wine: Trust the sommelier
KEY POINTS:
Geoff Scott is not a man to blow his own trumpet. Well, yes he is. Sundays and Mondays - the two days on which Vinnie's is closed - he tootles off to play with the Auckland Symphony Orchestra, an ensemble of music-lovers who have day jobs.
In his case, a night-and-day job. It's been two years since Scott bought the Herne Bay restaurant.
The chef's food has always juxtaposed traditions, his classical training, and the original, the experimental. Nurtured in Auckland, Milan and London, honed at the Hunting Lodge, White and now Vinnie's.
From greetings on, they do little things well at his restaurant. Little things like the fresh, warm bread rolls and the blood-orange granita that arrives, unannounced, between entree and main. McDonald's First Rule of A Really Good Restaurant states that when a place does the little things like this well, chances are that the big things will not be half-bad either.
Jude began with little things: three Bluff oysters in tempura with dipping sauce - tempura was fluffy, crisp; oysters plump, juicy - with the help of the sommelier's suggested Pewsey Vale riesling.
She moved on to wild rabbit, gently roasted loin wrapped in pancetta and filo, the mild game paired with Italian-styled white butter beans. Chorizo and white truffle sauce lay in wait as the last, lingering aromas and textures. Sips of Ostler pinot noir.
For me, the most enticing entree (this will offend the gastronomically correct, so they can butt out now) was a round, humped, brown pie, on sweet red onion marmalade, that gushed stroppy roast mushrooms and voluptuous foie gras. I make no apologies and neither should the chef. It is a perfect marriage. Wine? An unusual choice worked: Terravin Tahu sauvignon blanc to cut through the pastry, the fat.
Yes, it is winter and so the famous lamb shanks in red wine are on the menu, as they have been at this time of every one of the past 20 years. I thought about them, mentioned it to our table-adviser. "No," he instructed, firmly. "You must try something new."
Fair enough: John Ingle has waited tables and chosen excellent wines for me at Merlot, Number 5 and elsewhere, and his advice has never failed.
Something new was pigeon - not the city's flying rats but plump, North Canterbury farm-raised geezers. The breasts were roasted and laid on a hardy cauliflower and garlic tart, balanced with a muscatel and pistachio salad and Madeira jus. Bold flavours, sweet off-sets, cooked and presented in a classical style. Fromm pinot noir; you have to kick this in the guts.
They do the little things well. Six fromages francais arrived on a wooden tray, borne by a waiter named Baptiste wearing precisely the right accent to describe and recommend them.
It can't be easy for a chef to shuck his toque and run the whole shooting match rather than just the kitchen. Scott does it by surrounding himself with smart, experienced people, the neatly choreographed team on the floor allowing him to concentrate on the food.
Geoff Scott is not a man to blow his own trumpet so we may have to do it for him. The top table of Auckland restaurants has had a disappointing sameness for some years. Last year, Meredith's and The Grove demanded elbow room. This year, set a place for Vinnie's, too.
