The reason for using cheaper, less commonly used cuts is two-fold: prices can be kept low and the chef has to work more creatively to achieve divine results. To start with, we're served warm, house-made ciabatta with beautifully soft butter in that irresistible butterscotch, beurre noir-style.
Next I surprise myself by relishing a dish that has as its hero an ingredient I have long detested - brussels sprouts. But this was a plateful of pure pleasure - delicate lime green cups are filled with soft and tangy goat's cheese and shallot jam is dotted about to give bursts of sweetness.
The salmon has been smoked in-house and you can tell - its smokiness is just as I remember from when my father hauled the trout from the smoker: slightly bitter but mostly sweet with the brown sugar he'd doused it in. Our third shared dish is two handmade masa flour tortillas, thin, moist and tender, with a mouth-watering filling of slow-cooked merino lamb and feijoa, topped with a tart sheep's yoghurt.
Our mains are inventive and intriguing, yet approachable in every way. A huge hapuka wing is crispy on the outside, moist and tasty as we dig deeper.
Its pairing with a walnut paste works well, though I am less convinced by the cauliflower, prepared two ways. It was too weak to stand up to the fish.
The wild boar boil-up is an example of this national treasure of a dish. In a richly flavoured stock lies a piece of soft, brined and braised razorback pork cheek, a neat square of tasty terrine, as well as the trotter, and doughboys made from spelt and blood sausage. Puha and kumara are in there too and it is a one-bowl wonder.
When our desserts arrive I can only sit back in wide-eyed wonder at their presentation. The "banoffee" is a white snow-like creation made of slivers of fresh coconut, banana, dehydrated coconut milk and dulce de leche. It is immensely beautiful to look at and who can go past the deliciousness of caramelised sweetened condensed milk?
The other sweet pairs two ingredients born to go together, tamarillo and chocolate, in another visually stunning effort. Tamarillos are poached in sugar and black cardamom syrup, and 70 per cent Valrhona chocolate has been transformed to a smooth ganache, a dark glossy spoonful of which sits alongside the fruit. The pool of viscous syrup is freckled with chia seeds and each spoonful is sublime.
Orphans Kitchen is all new, yet still feels like your favourite local. This will be one of the shining lights in the bevy of new openings on Ponsonby Rd this year.
From the menu: Merino lamb tortilla $15, smoked salmon $15, goat's curd and brussels sprout cups $15, wild boar boil-up $25, roasted hapuka wing $25, side of yams $6, banoffee $13, tamarillo and chocolate $13.
Drinks: Fully licensed, some great "bin end" wines
- VIVA
