Golden Bay clams at Soul Bar and Bistro. Photo / Peter Meecham
There can be little argument that the perennially successful Soul Bar is seen to its best advantage on a bright summer day with the Viaduct Harbour in full lively action, and most of our visits have been for lunch for exactly that reason. So it was interesting to see how it would fare on another of those dark, wet, wind-ravaged Monday nights, when just getting there meant splashing through icy puddles.
The unsurprising answer was that it fared very well. It was busy and buzzy, the balcony was full (although the view had to be glimpsed through the streaming plastic windshields) and the well-polished act once again delivered a lesson in how a good restaurant should be run.
The menu is divided into sections simply labelled 1, 2, 3 and, appropriately enough for the setting, is dominated by seafood. The first section, priced from $14 to $19, includes imaginative little items such as kingfish tostada with herbs, toasted peanuts and fish sauce vinaigrette, and fashionable kale with ricotta, walnuts and persimmon carpaccio. Tempted though we were by several of the morsels, we moved straight to the more substantial section 2.
There are times when the nation's trademark dishes can be disappointing but it is hard to beat a good whitebait fritter, and these were very good. Although, as usual, I wondered how an omelette came to be dubbed a fritter (and I am expecting the usual emails telling me I'm wrong). The egg was soft, the filling was generous enough to produce that wonderful delicate whitebait flavour and the lemon butter sauce was simple enough not to spoil the effect.
Delicacy is also the hallmark of the Golden Bay clams that were our other choice, set off by very mildly curried coconut, cauliflower, coriander and lime that left a delightful broth, although I did wonder if the coriander wasn't a touch muscular for the clams.
Half of the mains in section 3 were fish and New Zealand's enviable choice posed its usual difficulty, and the hapuku with a meaty accompaniment of sausage and bean cassoulet was hard to resist. But delicacy was a theme of the evening and the john dory lived up to its promise, perfectly cooked with its sweetness well-balanced by a terrific creamy shellfish risotto and the sharpness of samphire.
I had opted for a meaty dish in the duck, which came both roasted and smoked with the smoky flavour dominant. Visually, it was presented as a bit of a mess with the papaya, coriander and mint salad dumped on top, completely masking the duck. But the flavours, augmented with a little mango puree, combined well with the bite of the salad contrasting with the richness of the fowl.
The presentation of the desserts was appealing with my sweet almond torte flanked by caramelised pear, pear puree and a vivid ginger icecream. Our other choice of the lemon and yuzu tart had a pleasing tang to it, and the passionfruit sorbet was intense.
Soul is, as its name implies, also a bar and the wine list is suitably ample with a decent and competitively priced selection by the glass. The service is swift, knowledgeable and efficient without being ingratiating. On our arrival we were seated quickly and drinks arrived on cue and without fuss, a basic skill too many Auckland restaurants fail to conquer.
One of the drawbacks of restaurant reviewing is being asked to recommend places to eat, a chore that I and many fellow reviewers fear as there is no accounting for individual expectations and venues vary from day to day. But I do make an exception for Soul. It may not be at the very forefront of innovative cuisine but it can be absolutely depended not to disappoint, as our latest visit demonstrated.