Prime, Waterfront

By EWAN McDONALD for viva

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! He chortled in his joy. There's a great new restaurant opening in Auckland tonight. The sort of grown-up, go out for dinner, eat a real chef's food, sort of place that we haven't seen since - um, well, for a while.

Oh no, we haven't tried their new menu, haven't been to one of those preview/meet and be greeted/"Degustation, sir?"/PR shindigs, so we can't be exactly specific about it.

Aha, there you go, you say, that's blown his credibility. How can he write about a restaurant if ...

Because it was just a shabby journalistic trick intended to draw your attention to the news that Prime, better known as the best breakfast- and lunch-only spot in the city, is opening for dinner tonight. As it did for a time last year but regrettably stopped after a few months.

Or perhaps not so regrettably. For the Prime mover is Chris Upton, also the principal of O'Connell Street Bistro, one of Viva's top five in Auckland, so he can concentrate on that restaurant in the evenings; and his business partner-head chef, Sean Armstrong, who moved downtown from O'Connell Street to Prime when it opened in May 2002.

(Thought: if Prime remains open in the evenings it is likely to become a contender for this year's Viva A-list. Better still, consult the Rules Committee to see if one owner can have two on the list. Oh, that's right, we are the Rules Committee.)

At first glance, O'Connell Street and its younger brother have much in common: the clientele wear suits and like to indulge themselves in the best of food, wine and service, and can take longish lunches.

Upton and Armstrong have been in the industry for many years. Upton was trained in Britain and spent four years on board the QE2 before opening Café Melba in Vulcan Lane, and O'Connell Street. NZ-trained Armstrong worked at the Michelin-starred Green House in London before joining Upton at O'Connell Street.

In reality Prime is not one but three businesses: an espresso bar in the lobby of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Tower, the bistro in the tower and on the terrace nearby, and a catering operation.

That size, the stark, minimalist décor, the blinding Auckland summer sun on the terrace (not getting a little carried away here, are we? - Ed) give it quite a different feel from the refined, restrained, miniature O'Connell Street.

There is some commonality in the menu, a friend and I agreed as we lunched there recently (convenient to the office for me, to the Birkenhead ferry for him).

He pointed out the pappardelle pasta with braised rabbit, smoked bacon and a pesto based on walnuts and watercress, which Armstrong brought from O'Connell Street, and recalled that a critic had once written, "Any attempt to remove this dish from the list should be met by protest marches _ these are some of the best flavours in the city". A memorable line for a memorable dish, and he should remember it because he wrote it.

As Upton says, "Due to the nature of our location - a corporate tower - our menu and wine list are priced to satisfy our clientele, secretaries out for a quick lunch through to business lunches." Most recently, Prime has developed a range of tapas which Upton says have proved popular.

Agreed. Four platters were very popular with the two of us: little mergeze sausages with a roasted pepper and tarragon salad; tempura squid with tamarind, sweet chilli and coriander sauce; croquettes of chorizo and aged cheddar; lime and chilli falafels with a roasted red pepper pesto and tzatziki. Strong, clean flavours, every one discernible in the straightforward preparation, cooking, presentation.

The fish dishes, too. Snapper, crisp-battered and fried, on a plain base of watercress, orange and avocado; bluenose, the day's special, a little more elaborate with a prosciutto wrap, tuatua fritter, roasted fennel.

Upton is up-front about the fact that the wine list is not as extensive as O'Connell Street's (and that would be darned difficult), because Prime has primarily been a lunch restaurant, but there's a diverse selection. Service is similarly designed to meet the corporate customer's need for speed and efficiency.

From tonight that won't be a Prime consideration. Diners can linger in the twilight. Brilliant.


Open: Dinner Wed-Sat from Feb 11, breakfast and lunch Mon-Fri

Owners: Chris Upton, Sean Armstrong

Head Chef: Sean Armstrong

Food: NZ bistro

On the lunch menu: Tapas - Waikanae crab cakes with mango black bean salsa; Akaroa salmon carpaccio with pickled vegetable salad; aubergine and feta cannelloni with tomato and olive oil vinaigrette $10.50: Honey soy roasted chicken breast with spicy corn and courgette fritters and sweet chilli coriander salsa $24.50: Fillet of Akaroa salmon with potato rosti, roasted aubergine and crayfish sauce $24.50: Assiette of fruit with poached apricot and vincotto, chargrilled pineapple and rhubarb spaghetti and ginger cookie $6.50

Vegetarian: Please ask your waiter

Wine: Very fair selection

Smoking: At separate bar or on terrace

Noise: "Where do you think the Dow will be at close?"

Parking: Buildings in area

Disabled access/toilets: Lift and escalator access, good facilities

Bottom line: Downtown's best breakfast- and lunch-only bistro opens for dinner, Wednesdays-Saturdays, from Feb 11. Chris Upton and his business partner-head chef, Sean Armstrong, made O'Connell Street Bistro one of our top five restaurants in Auckland. Need we say more?

* Read more about what's happening in the world of food, wine, fashion and beauty in viva, part of your Herald print edition every Wednesday.