Phone: Ph (09) 356 7249
Rating out of 10: Food: 8, Service: 7, Value: 8, Ambience: 8
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.