The Dining Room, Spencer on Byron, Takapuna

A tua-tua fritter with pickled cucumber, eggplant and courgette tortilla, venison and a sweetcorn salsa.

Herald rating: * * * *

Wolfram Siebeck, the acerbic German restaurant critic who memorably described an offering at the award-winning Fat Duck in England as "a fart of nothingness", has expressed the view that the best eating out is more likely to be found in large hotels than in restaurants.

And having emerged shell-shocked from overcrowded, overpriced and overloud establishments in Auckland, I think he has a point. This is particularly true of the service where hotel staff, even if young and inexperienced, are more likely to be serious about the hospitality trade as a career than the casually cheerful incompetents who loom large in some city venues.

With Siebeck's view in mind we paid a visit to the imaginatively named The Dining Room at Takapuna's Spencer on Byron. And the service was indeed exemplary although our main server's badge declared she was "in training".

The food, too, was of a consistently high standard, inventive without being silly, thoughtfully balanced and respecting the ingredients.

Typical was my first course, a trio platter with a delightful tua-tua fritter, hot and tasty, contrasted with a pickled cucumber, eggplant and courgette tortilla and some strips of venison, set against a sweetcorn salsa. The fried haloumi of our other first course was standard but nicely matched with Parma ham and roast tomatoes.

If it comes to offering local produce there can be few options to beat the combination of snapper with seared scallops. The snapper was simply done, skin-on, with the only touch of exotica being the accompanying risotto served wrapped in a leaf parcel.

I opted for the roasted quail with a sage and sundried tomato stuffing. This was the one small blemish, as far as I was concerned, as the quail had dried up a little or had had a hard life, which seemed unlikely for one so tiny. But the flavour was good and mirrored by the balsamic jus.

The portions were adequate but there was room for dessert and these did not show that exhaustion of imagination that so often arrives with this section of the menu. I went the trio route again, citrus elements with a cardamom orange ice, an orange gazpacho and a terrific lime brulee. The hot passionfruit pudding was another little stunner with tiny poached apricots and a lime icecream.

The wine list is sound — and excludes the stratospheric price levels — with our mainstream choices of the Chard Farm chardonnay, C.J. Pask Gimblett Road merlot and the excellent-value Rabbit Ranch pinot noir all doing the job. But I suspect real wine buffs will be surprised that no vintage years are given.

Overall, it's easy to agree with Siebeck's judgment that the times have gone "when the term "hotel cuisine" was synonymous for bland and boring food dished up by lacklustre cooks."

But the advantage of hotels — in that they almost always have generous-sized dining rooms where there is little chance of either hearing intimate exchanges you'd rather not, or getting an elbow in your soup — can mean that they lack atmosphere and the other clientele can be a bit too subdued.

The Dining Room is a little antiseptic and the decision of the hotel to place it only one floor up means that, unlike the rooms, it has no commanding outlook. My view was of sunset over the romantic air-conditioning units of the neighbouring block.

But if the view and the buzz aren't high on your priorities The Dining Room delivers with some elan.


Overall: Excellent food and service but the atmosphere tends to the anaesthetic.
Where: The Dining Room, Spencer on Byron Hotel, Byron Ave, Takapuna.
(09) 916 6111
Our meal: $154.50 for three courses each for two and three generous glasses of wine.
The wine: By the glass $7 to $13.50. Bottles from $32 to $70, excluding champagne.