Number 5, CBD

By MICHELE HEWITSON for viva

Is it mean to be picky about peas? I don't think the Television Critic was being mean about his. I think he was more bemused. On the menu he was promised "grean" peas with his shrimp cannelloni with scallops.

We had a bit of a laugh with the waiter about this typo; we thought they might have been some new, rare kind of pea. They weren't. They were green peas. Is there any other kind?

The waiter obviously thought we were nutters but you get a lot of them in the restaurant business and the waiting staff at Number 5 are brilliant at pretending they think you are a valued customer rather than a pain in the butt (Although I did wonder why they phoned us at home the next day to ask how we liked our meal).

Still, Number 5 has the best waiting staff in town. They will bring a heater over to your table if they deduce you are a little chilly. Now that is lovely. It's like having someone putting your slippers by the fire before you get home from work.

Still, the TC didn't understand the point of those peas. I didn't, either.

There is a lot I don't understand about eating out at restaurants, according to the letters I get. Thank you for all of the wittily penned abuse. Some people don't understand that an experience can be good in parts and not so good in others. That one seems quite simple to me, a bit like life, possibly, but then according to the charmer who emailed the other day, I obviously suffer from a multiple personality disorder.

Cheers. At Number 5 the people who run the joint have no such problem. They know what they're doing and they do it in solid fashion. You don't get any silly stuff here. Neither do you get anything on your plate which might give you a start.

I quite like to get a start now and then, even if I might not like what it tastes like.

There is nothing much on Number 5's entree choices that would cause my gran to have a conniption. We both thought we could go for the kumara crusted king prawns with spiced crab bisque and mango salsa. I won.

He had the home cured salmon ($16.50.) It was home cured salmon and it was what it said it would be. My prawns, two big fat buggers, came covered in what looked like deep fried hair.

This was the kumara crust and it made eating the things interesting, until it got boring. It was quite hard to tell which bits were prawn antennae and which bits were crispy kumara. Great bisque ruined by plonking the salsa in middle which turned the bisque, and the salsa, tepid.

My veal rack was, voguishly, under-cooked. I don't think veal is very good under-cooked. This wasn't.

I filched some of the TC's pasta. Good pasta. Pity about the peas.

The panna cotta arrived, wobbling prettily. It was a lovely panna cotta but the TC said his vanilla bean brulee was only "fine". He is terribly hard to please when it comes to brulee but he does persist in his disappointments.

Were we disappointed by Number 5?

Aah, well, possessed as we are by our multiple personality disorders (we share everything, except his brulee) we were, and we weren't.

It is an awfully nice place to sit for a few hours near the fire (or the heater). I would quite like to take the staff home to take care of slipper duty and the room is old-fashioned and comfy with its gilded mirrors and drinks trolley and the Dot cartoons on the loo walls. It is very friendly. And so is the food. There are few surprises, it is mostly nicely done without being show-offy or tricky, but it is all a little dull.

Number 5

Address: 5 City Road, Ph 309 9273

Open: Dinner Monday to Sunday

Owner: Martina Lutz

Chefs: Mike Greenbaum and Mark George

Food: Contemporary Kiwi tucker

On the menu: Marinated venison carpaccio with mushrooms and blue cheese, $16.50; prime eye fillet steak with braised oxtail, potato galette and caramelised baby onions, $35.50; chocolate and raspberry tart, $14


Vegetarian: Some stack thing is on the menu if you must

Wine: Extensive by the bottle; good by the glass

Parking: Possibly

Bottom Line: A bit staid, a bit faded, like your favourite slippers

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