St Tropez, Parnell

Entrees include a crepe purse that spills with mushrooms. Picture / Martin Sykes

Herald rating: * * * *

Schiele, Klimt, Manet, Reinhardt, Grappelli, Hardy F., Piaf, Diderot, Blake W., Saul (subject to clearance from the committee at Tarsus) ... Dick and I were selecting a team of European masters.

I'm not sure if we ever determined which code they'd play in. I do recall, just after the calvados, that I insisted Voltaire should be on the left wing, so it was probably football.

That's by the by. As Dick and I were nattering about older European masters, we realised we were in the presence of a fellow who's becoming a modern master.

Jean-Christophe Varnier is chef and, with his wife Simone, co-owner of St Tropez, on Parnell Rise, which has become one of the best streets in town to find a decent place to eat.

Now, I've been dismissive of St Tropez on previous visits. When the Varniers opened it in 1999 it was an elaborately styled Parisian restaurant, all fine dining, but St Tropez often felt as if it was trying too hard.

Now a more relaxed, Provencal-style bistro, Varnier still describes his menu as "classic French with a touch of the Pacific". Nothing Pacific lapped my traditional entree, a crepe purse that spilled with mushrooms, in a light bath of chablis and cream sauce. Dick went for the more rustic chicken liver pate.

You'd expect a guest appearance from duck: Varnier's take is to roast a small portion of the breast and present it on a blanket of beans and mange-tout, tweaked with an aigre-doux, or sweet'n'sour sauce and the fibre of cashews. Dick ooh-ed and aah-ed over steamed hapuka, simple, honest evocative smells as the steam passed through the poncho of vegetables.

They promised all manner of desserts but we would not be swayed from fromage francais with an unusual, walnut-flavoured wine offered instead of port.

A tick for pitching prices at a decent level. None of your Ponsonby Rd $30-plus mains here: don't think I saw anything over $27.

The decent wine list is about 50/50 Kiwi and French. We chose dear old E. Guigal's thoroughly reliable Cotes du Rhone with that lovely dusty taste of the Old World that sits perfectly alongside these flavours.

If you're here because you want to recapture that once-in-a-lifetime night somewhere in Provence, you'll be helped by a staff who mostly speak French because they are, or have the savoir-faire to make you think they are. They know about the food and the wine, and why it is what it is.

So, let's cut to the chasseur - St Tropez is four stars and climbing. 

Address: 149 Parnell Rd
Ph: 309 0996
Owners: Jean-Christophe and Simone Varnier
Chef: Jean-Christophe Varnier
Maitre d': Simone Varnier
Open: Lunch Mon-Fri, dinner 7 days from 6
Cuisine: French
On the menu: Rack of lamb with garlic and rosemary crust, millefeuille of white beans, sun-dried tomato and thyme jus $26; tarte tatin $12.50
Vegetarian: Some
Wine: Strong selection.
Bottom line: Varnier's light touch to classic French cuisine, decent wine list and knowledgeable staff make this the cheapest ticket to Provence you'll ever buy. 
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