Ph: (09) 379 3557
Cuisine: Slightly flash pub food
From the menu: Jerk chicken $11.90, Polenta squid $9.90, Lamb ribs $21.90, Market fish $26.90, Pavlova $11.90
Drinks: Fully licensed
Rating: 7.5/10
Steady yourselves - I'm about to wax eloquent about a pub. A chef whose food I have long admired has recently taken up the head position in the kitchen of an alehouse. Beki Lamb, ex-Stella, ex-Ella and, until last year, Sunday Painters has moved to Galbraith's Alehouse at the top of Mt Eden Rd.
It's a pub in the truest sense of the word, one where the aroma of hops from the brewery hits you as soon as you enter, the carpet is the tough-wearing variety, the owners are in the house more often than not and it's a pub independent of any brewing giant. It's a bit rough around the edges, but aren't we all?
Beki has revamped the menu; she's smoking her own garlic for the wild boar burger patties, and making the terrine from scratch. There are vegetarian and gluten-free options and a substantial kitchen garden out the back.
Some of the menu items are expected to change with the seasons, but I doubt if the burgers or fish and chips will go very far - there'd be too many regulars disappointed, judging by the number I observed, solo dining, noses buried in their novels or scratching away at a crossword, tucking in to these pub staples. Happy, comfortable, at home - that's how the diners seemed. Some wore suits while others had backpacks and we were told we'd missed the scrabble group, which takes up a table in the corner, by a night.