Address: 597 Mt Eden Road
Phone: (09) 638 9676
Website: bowmansrestaurant.co.nz
Gorgonzola is the first blue cheese I remember meeting. My father had a passion for this mouldy stuff, an enthusiasm which as a small boy I found mysterious, if not disgusting. Now I can appreciate its appeal and it was a pleasure to encounter it twice at Bowmans.
It turned up first in our vegetarian main course, an imaginative spinach and gorgonzola tart which went down very well with the bite of the cheese matched with the blander spinach. The accompanying assortment of crushed peas, cauliflower cream, macadamia and pumpkin seeds suggested a certain lack of confidence that the main component was interesting enough. It was.
The Italian charmer turned up again on the cheese selection where I paired it with a French hard cheese, Comte Fort Lucotte, and they made a lovely couple. The cheese list is short but well chosen and that is rather the motif at this restaurant which blends the understated appeal of a neighbourhood eatery with rather more ambitious food.
There are only five first courses, not counting bread and a tasting platter, and the regular mains list has, in addition to the vegetarian option, one entry each from fish, beef, pork and lamb. There is no chicken.
But this is perfectly adequate for most needs if the food is well done, and our choices all worked. I toyed with the idea of the cocoa-rubbed ostrich as a novelty but having something of an aversion to honey, with which it came, I switched to the manuka smoked salmon. This was a nice small fillet, rather than slices, and its accompanying mandarin, avocado and pickled carrot salad added a sharp little citrus contrast.
Our other first course was the smoked duck which was richly flavoured and not masked by the rhubarb and the cauliflower puree accompaniments. The seared scallops had, perhaps, been left in the pan for a fraction too long but these things are a matter of taste.
Having been reminded of my father it seemed right for my mother's dictums of "don't gild the lily" and "leave well enough alone" to surface with some of the garnishes to the dishes but my main course, the special of the day, couldn't have been simpler: rib eye beef with garlic mash potatoes and black olive tapenade. The meat was superb and perfectly cooked; a mouth-watering crust and tender inside, in that way it's so difficult to match at home, which is, I suppose, one of the reasons we eat out.
We do, however, cook some of the dessert offerings ourselves, which cut down our own particular options. But this does not suggest the line-up, which included poached tamarillo, rata honey panacotta and baked caramel tart, would not find a welcome with many customers.
I went for the cheese options which were served in excellent condition and our other choice was the Valrhona white chocolate mousse. White chocolate always seems slightly pointless to me, a bit like non-alcoholic wine or caffeine-free coffee. But this was voted pleasant even though the white chocolate's lack of muscle was cruelly exposed by the intense bitter chocolate truffles with which it came.
The wine list is not extravagant but more than decent and we were happy with our 2007 Nga Waka Martinborough Chardonnay and the 2006 Obsidian Weeping Sands Waiheke Cabernet Merlot. The absence of my first choice of dessert wine led to my first acquaintance with the 2007 Yalumba Late Harvest Barossa and that was a fortunate meeting I intend to repeat.
The service is of a level above the usual suburban eaterie and on an unpleasant mid-week evening there was just enough buzz from the other customers, some of whom may have been tempted by the special winter offer which provides good value with three courses for $59 a head.
Rating out of 10
Food: 7
Service: 7
Value: 8
Ambience: 7
Our meal: $173 for two three-course special menus and five glasses of wine.
Wine list: Above adequate. Mostly New Zealand and Australian but with some reputable imports and reasonably priced offerings by the glass.
Verdict: Bowmans has long had a reputation as one of the better suburban restaurants and it deserves it. Decent food, good service, comfortable surroundings and a pleasant atmosphere.
