By rights, MooChowChow should have amassed a decent body count in the four years it's been open. The stairs to the dunny are positively vertiginous - I can't help looking up to check whether anyone's falling towards me before I attempt to climb - and even getting in is a dangerous undertaking, as complicated as a cross between origami and one of those sliding-tile puzzles.
The Professor and I were as sober as Presbyterians when we arrived last Saturday evening so we took in our stride the fact that they'd closed off the front door, which had made a brief reappearance when the place morphed from Rocco into its present incarnation. (Blocking it off is a 70s-vintage standard lamp with a red shade which gives a fleeting impression of an old-fashioned knocking shop).
Anyway, we walked along the side veranda which narrowed with every step (it must be a shocker after a few drinks) and, just before it became the width of a gymnast's beam, we noticed a waiter frantically gesturing through the glass of a folding door for us to retreat so he could open it without nudging us off the deck. We felt pleased to have made it to our table unscathed.
MooChowChow is where the Auckland trend began of letting top chefs loose on Asian cuisine. Chef Che Barrington has since branched out (Blue Breeze Inn and Chop Chop Noodle House in Ponsonby Central; Woodpecker Hill in Parnell) and others have followed suit - Josh Emett's Madam Woo is a recent and welcome arrival. But dinner at MooChowChow, where the main flavour is Thai though there are bits of Malaysian and Chinese too, felt like paying respect where it's due.
