On a boutique vineyard established in 2000 on the sparsely inhabited south coast of the island, owner Antonio Crisci, whose CV includes Non Solo Pizza and the rightly legendary Toto, started this restaurant in 2009. The site is beautiful, although the building's immediate surrounds could do with a more conscientious planting regime if the intention is to create a little slice of Tuscany Downunder; the front terrace is positively zen.
I have enjoyed chef Sal Grant's food very much at The Mulberry and the revived VBG in Parnell, so perhaps he was just having a bad day. That pasta was divine: ravioli filled with braised beef and a delicious brown sage butter sauce and some fantastically good gnocchi with a wickedly oily pesto in which the basil was joined by what tasted like roasted tomato. But the rest of the meal was spoiled by stumbles large and small.
The mozzarella in the insalata caprese was superbly creamy, but two of the slices of tomato had the grassy and metallic taste of the seriously overripe. The Professor's octopus carpaccio, plated with a chilli citrus salsa and broad beans, looked and tasted just as busy as it sounds - the delicate flavour of the octopus was indistinguishable.
I ordered a prosciutto of duck and received a beef carpaccio along with a condescending insistence that it was what I had asked for. When the right thing finally arrived, it tasted perfectly nice, but the serving idea was ill-judged: the crisp ciabatta slices were too big for a mouthful and the whole thing disintegrated when bitten into and ended up back on the plate.
For a place that takes the trouble to call to make sure you are coming, Poderi Crisci pays surprisingly little attention to detail. The absence of oil, salt or pepper from the table perhaps suggests that the chef wants you to try the food as he made it, but we had to ask for napkins and mine was liberally flecked with the tissue paper that had got mixed up in the wash.
Water is not provided (they want you to order the pricey stuff, presumably) and the background music was not loud enough to be audible as more than a bass beat but just loud enough to be irritating.
Judging by the three I tasted, this place does some excellent wine. But it was a long way to go - $35 a head return on the ferry and $100 in taxi fares - for a lunch that was barely half good.
Need to know
Value: $$$
$ = $20-$40; $$ = 40-60; $$$ = $60+.
(Price guide reflects three courses for one person without drinks.)
Also try
My Waiheke dining experiences have been rather ill-starred. Viola was warmly recommended but has closed. A meal at Cable Bay Vineyards three years ago was perfection on every level.
