Watermark Buffet Restaurant, Devonport

By JAN CORBETT for canvas

It's just so easy to make fun of a buffet-style restaurant, so I'm not going to. I am instead going to extol their virtues. First up, they eliminate the problem of ordering-envy: you know, when you see your companion's meal arrive and think, "I wish I'd ordered that."

They also eliminate any possibility of waiting too long between courses or not having your meal arrive at all.

They are child-friendly. There's no chance of going home at the end of the evening still hungry, although the sight of people overloading their plates can be an appetite-suppressant.

And they make it particularly easy to entertain groups larger than four, a feat that seems beyond the capabilities of way too many a la carte restaurants.

The only risk with a smorgasbord is mistiming your arrival at the Bluff oysters, leaving you
hovering with an empty plate in that ghastly hiatus post-depletion and pre-replenishment.

So when I heard Devonport's Watermark restaurant had converted to a buffet-style, I thought it might be worth a try.

With uninterrupted views across the harbour to Bastion Point, Watermark occupies one of the best sites of any Auckland restaurant. And when it opened over a decade ago, it was a trendy, highly rated place to dine.

Except that the last time I recall being there, for a special-occasion dinner, the wheels had clearly started to come off. We had an appallingly bad night that began with an unpleasant exchange with the maitre d' and an outrageously long wait for our meals.

So perhaps smorgasbord was considered the answer to the service problems.

I should start by saying it's a $26 a head buffet, but I still feel they could have done a little better.

For seafood, they offered mussels in their half-shell, and prawns whose most recent environment, I suspected, was the freezer. Maybe some marinating, or more things in shells or rendered into
terrines would not have gone amiss.

I overlooked the cold meat (ham) and salads in favour of sampling the the hot dishes such as poached fish, crumbed chicken, a salmon pasta dish, lamb casserole, vegetables (but not enough), and roast beef, which I have to say works better in this format if there's a white-hatted member of staff actually carving it.

The food was perfectly adequate, but that's about all.

Service was friendly and the plates were always efficiently cleared between samplings. The place was packed on a Sunday evening, but at least half the diners were there for a birthday party. They had the good grace to adjourn to the courtyard for speeches.

The only glitch was when my request for a fingerbowl, after wrestling with the prawns, was rewarded with a bowl without water — a young waiter still with some things to learn.

From the small wine selection we enjoyed Montana's barrique-fermented chardonnay ($30).

And it being a long summer evening, we enjoyed the view.

What I'm going to conclude about Watermark is this: if you want a casual, by-the-sea, relaxing meal with a group of family or friends at reasonable cost, this is the place for you. But don't expect to be wowed by it.

Ambience: Neighbourhood casual.

Cost: $26 a head to eat as much as you want, plus wine.

* Read more about what's happening in the world of food, wine, party places and entertainment in canvas magazine, part of your Weekend Herald print edition.