Phone: (09) 307 0486
Rating out of 10: Food: 7, Service: 7, Value: 8, Ambience: 9
There can be little argument that customers at Harbourside enjoy one of the best settings in Auckland. You are presented with the constant changes of the port, spinnakers red in the sunset, ferries hustling about and often the monumental bulk of a cruise ship. On our most recent visit you could, if bored, even catch the movie on the giant screen of the floating holiday camp moored nearby and then watch it daintily manoeuvre out of its parking space.
It's a matchless venue for showing off the city to visitors and not surprising that a group led by the owners of Botswana Butchery, the eatery downstairs in the Ferry Building, bought Harbourside late last year to end the run of Tony Adcock and his team who have operated it since 1988.
At the moment it is still under the transitional direction of Adcock's team and is running as efficiently as ever. It's a production line operation, and that's not meant as a criticism. This is a Rolls Royce production line: sound, dependable food consistently turns up, displaying great ingredients and competent cooking.
Unsurprisingly for a restaurant that describes itself as a "seafood bar and grill" the menu is dominated by fish and we started with two marine courses. We sometimes play the game of "if you could only have one New Zealand dish, what would it be?" and here the two favourites were on hand.