Phone: (09) 623 3213
littlejimmy.co.nz
The Professor is living proof that I do like a woman who speaks her mind. So I loved our waitress at Little Jimmy. Asked about a dish described on the menu as "cured" fish, she puckered her features into a grimace as she essayed an explanation. Mention of a salad of wood ear mushrooms seemed to induce a state of mild panic. "It's rather ... unusual," she said at last and when I told her we were too, she didn't seem entirely reassured.
It's an occupational requirement, really, to be attracted to the more outre dishes on offer. And at Little Jimmy, it's easy, because the menu is pretty much a cliche-free zone. The burrata - when they have it; they didn't the night we went - comes not with basil, tomato and something balsamic but with figs and grilled peach; chilli and sweet caramel duel for attention on the lamb ribs; the beef short rib is curried.
Half-bar, half-eatery, Little Jimmy, which opened last week on the corner of Manukau and Empire Rds, is owned by Guy and Sarah Malyon of One Tree Grill, which, I am told, has repositioned itself slightly upmarket to accommodate its "little brother". Chef Mark Nicholson, latterly from the Raven and Cook deli down the street, has worked with Sean Connolly at The Grill.
They've done a great job of the fit-out which includes whimsical graffiti by artist Ross Lewis (a fat man fishing from a whale's back), old-school gold lettering on the windows and cutlery with spanner handles.
