KEY POINTS:
There is a word for people who tell you that nobody here knows how to make tapas the way they make them in Spain: it rhymes with "bankers". What they say is true but it is also a) obvious and b) quite misses the point.
Spanish tapas can be as plain as cubes of good cheese with anchovies toothpicked onto them. But when cuisines are exported, they adapt, like people, to their new surroundings. Over there, tapas quieten the hunger pangs of the early evening tippler but here, they owe as much to Chinese dim sum as to their Spanish progenitors: you get a chance to try a host of delicious small dishes and if something is not to your liking, there's no harm done because a) it didn't cost much, b) someone else at the table will probably like it and c) there's something else coming along in a moment.
I had been meaning to check out La Zeppa since it opened a couple of years ago and given it has such good pedigree: two of the owners created the excellent Vivace and the head chef, Justin Feaver-Gross, also an owner, was once in the kitchen at the flawlessly reliable Prego. But every time I rang it was booked out. When we finally made it, having managed to secure a table by booking about a month in advance, I realised why: La Zeppa has a few tables, but it is really a bar. It's also very, very popular. The Friday night we showed up, the place was heaving with hormonally charged 20-somethings in their mating plumage. The river of humanity pouring through the door seemed to remain in spate all night. But safe in our dining enclosure, in the middle of which gas open fires cheerily blazed, we didn't feel crowded out.
It's possibly unfair to remark that patrons may struggle to read the menu in the gloom; this is not, after all, a place aimed at a reading-spectacles crowd. But by judicious use of the tabletop candle and a cigarette lighter, the four of us finally identified dishes that appealed and suggested to the waiter that he make them land four at a time.
And jolly fine dishes they were too for the most part. Of the 30 or so hot and cold concoctions on offer, we chose almost a dozen - including three dessert offerings - and most were faultless: grilled aubergine in a sweet harissa; some very Vietnamese prawn dumplings; haloumi and courgette fritters; and a dangerously rich duck liver pate all stood out. A bruschetta with chorizo was rather unappetising and an orange and vanilla panna cotta reminded me very much of Gregg's instant pudding, but these were exceptions.
Best of all there was enough for a generous sample, not a frustrating taste, of each dish for each of us. My only complaint is that the mating calls bouncing off the concrete-and-tin interior made for a deafening experience - but that's what you get for going somewhere so popular on a Friday night.
La Zeppa
33 Drake St
Auckland City
Ph: 09 379 8167
Open: Daily from 3pm (Fridays from noon); closed Sundays
The bill
$204 for four
Eleven tapas at $10 to $12.50
One bottle and three glasses of wine, $87.50
Vegetarians: Almost a third of the menu.
Watch out for: The darkness.
Sound check: Lip-reading an advantage.
Bottom line: Don't talk. Eat.
- Detours, HoS
