SPQR, Ponsonby

SPQR's roast duck with fig and coffee bean jus and creamed spinach. Picture / Fotopress

Herald rating: * *  

One of my favourite stories about Ponsonby, and given my reputation as a faithful chronicler of city life you will know that this is comparatively true, is that the suburb was named in 1873. But no one knows which of three possibles it was named after: Sir William Ponsonby and Colonel Frederick Ponsonby, who fought at Waterloo, or the local MP of the time, Mr Ponsonby Peacock. With the way that the place has developed, wouldn't you just love it to have been the third man?

To see modern-day, night-time and morning-after Ponsonby "at its strutting best and most colourfully diverse" (Frommers.com) enter SPQR, "the undisputed King of Cool" (Washington Post), "the den of fabulosity" (Herald on Sunday).

It has been a decade or more since Chris Rupe and Paula Macks began the empire which now stretches half a block with neighbours Chandelier and Orchid, and, yes, the Viva team have had those anonymous phone calls whispering the hot news that all three joints have been sold and the owners are retiring to Italy to breed chianti or grow mozzarella or whatever.

Now I have to put my hand up and admit that I'm not a fully paid-up member of the SPQR Fan Club. This means that I part company with foodies like Julie Le Clerc and Mandy Lusk of Vivace, both of whom can't get enough of the place, or three-quarters of the media community (including the Lady Editor), and at least half the gay community, the fashion community, the real-estate community and lesser forms of life in the Ponsonby fishbowl.

Think the ambience is wonderful. Think that it's a fabulous people-watching spot. The service is usually pretty styley, too. Don't mind it for coffee or a wine on the boulevard. But frankly I've never had a good meal there and I have this ridiculous, old-fashioned notion that's what a restaurant is about.

On this night the place was packed before 8pm but the maitre d' managed to find us a table down the back, on the way to the conveniences. Near the till, it was a great people-watching spot: the room was full of the usual chatter of celebrities, major, minor and in their own dinnertimes.

The menu has remained relatively constant, Italian-based, nothing particularly challenging, surprisingly hearty for a crowd that often arrives fresh from Les Mills.

Winter. We thought we'd eat real meals. I thought I'd start with mushroom risotto.

"That's a main," said the waiter. "Well, I'll just have it in entree-size," I offered, helpfully. "It doesn't come in entree-size," he said, which surprised me because I'd have thought it was quite simple to make it into an entree.

"I'll have the gnocchi," I said. Wilted spinach, a thick gorgonzola sauce, it was rib-sticking if not mind-blowing stuff. She couldn't choose between several dishes until the waiter mentioned the special, sauteed scallops hanging out with their good mates garlic, lemon and a rocket salad, and was more than happy with her decision.

We'd both eyed up seared lamb loin with broccolini ("Do you think that broccolini is a form of broccoli that was invented especially for Ponsonby diets?" she asked), artichokes, tomatoes and mint pesto. Again, she was impressed with the combination. I'd opted for roast duck, rumoured to come with fig and coffee bean jus and creamed spinach, but I won't go into further detail because even in that famously half-lit room, so dark that you can barely read the menu, I could see the burned skin before I tasted it.

So my record of eating at SPQR still stands. Nice glasses of Gisselbrecht chardonnay with the gnocchi and Sleeping Dogs pinot noir - without the duck, though.

Address: 150 Ponsonby Rd
Ph: 360 1710 
Open: Mon-Fri 11am-2am, Sat-Sun 10am-2am
Owners: Chris Rupe, Paula Macks
Food: Italian
From the menu: Pomegranate grilled chicken salad with baby spinach, rocket, roast pine nuts, mint and oven-dried tomatoes $21.50
Linguini with cockles, mussels, white wine, garlic, parsley broth $22.50
Oven-roasted snapper with saffron lime risotto, rocket, shaved parmesan reggiano, virgin oil and chardonnay vinaigrette $27.50
Vegetarian: Salad, pizza, pasta options
Wine: Good list, plenty by the glass
Bottom line: Place to see, be seen, or see if the name suppression order was any good. The jury's still out on the food, though.


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