Reuben, Auckland city

By JENNIFER YEE for canvas

Reuben is my new Friday night date. You can find Reuben next to the Khartoum Place entrance to the New City Gallery. Now open for evening dining on Friday only, it already has a following from fans of Natalia Schamroth's exceptional breakfast and lunch food.

The dinner menu borrows classic Mediterranean flavours and serves them up in an uncluttered, contemporary way.

Hell must be when two reviewers decide to eat at a restaurant on the same night but in true Reuben fashion, the staff remain unflustered and treat you no differently from every other diner in the place.

Under the watchful eye of maitre d' Tom Maguire, there is a fluid, synchronised and melodic association between the kitchen, the waiters and the diner.

Maria, Robbie, David and I are separately loyal to Reuben, it's one of a small number of excellent breakfast or brunch cafes, where, along with the buzzy atmosphere, the food is fresh, intelligently composed and the servings generous. In fact, it's the type of food you would want to cook for yourself, if you'd thought of it — as Natalia says "it's like cooking at home".

I'm becoming fond of the one-page menu, especially come the weekend when you just want your decision made quickly and the orders taken so you can sit back and wind into the night with that much-deserved glass of wine. And Robbie's choice of the Blue Pyrenees Shiraz 2001 (Victoria, Australia) hits the spot.

We applaud the small, perfectly formed Reuben menu. The Friday night menu will change weekly and evolve from what is market-fresh. There is a simple selection of four entrees, three mains and three desserts plus four white wines and four reds.

We try everything on the menu bar the cheese plate. Safta's chicken and alphabet soup sends us hunting for letters; the chicken liver, pork and parsley terrine with tamarillo chutney is rustic and homely; the salad of goat's cheese, pear and prosciutto and the pasta all get approving nods.

My malloreddus pasta with raclette, fried cauliflower and crumbs is not to share. It's got all the elements — petit rolled pasta, florets of cauliflower, oozy cheese, and crisp crumb with every mouthful. Glorious fork food. In case you are wondering, malloreddus is a new breed of rolled pasta shaped like small grooved edible caterpillars.

Rob and I choose the John Dory main course, David the tender roast poussin with thyme butter and peperonata on mashed potato, and Maria the grilled scotch fillet with beetroot risotto, horseradish and field mushrooms.

John Dory is often overlooked, and I can't fathom why. It has big moist flakes and our fillets are perfectly cooked, lightly crisp on the skin side, accompanied with lemon and black olive tapenade in a nest of fennel, mint and soft, melting white beans. It's a dish I'm going to steal when we bring our own catch in over summer.

For pudding, a delicately set vanilla pannacotta with poached rhubarb is devoured by our friends, and David and I share a small rich chocolate pot with almond biscotti. The Allpress espresso coffee is a good end point. The Southern blue cheese plate with dates and pear is tempting, but will have to wait until we've had our compulsory workout on the new rowing machine.

Service: This crew makes it easy for me to like them a lot. Water appears and is replenished often. Our plates, which come heated for all the hot dishes, are cleared only when everyone has finished eating. We noticed that the kitchen prefers its diners to salt their own food and we're okay with that.

Toilets (shared with the gallery): Clean, minimalist in keeping with the gallery/restaurant.

OUR MEAL: $251.50 for 4 with one bottle of wine. Entree $14.50. Mains $27.50. Desserts $8.50.

OUR WINES: By the glass $7-$9. By the bottle $35-$50.

* Read more about what's happening in the world of food, wine, party places and entertainment in canvas magazine, part of your Weekend Herald print edition.