Auckland Restaurant Review: A Superstar Chef Showcases Groundbreaking Bistro Fare At The Lodge Bar & Dining

This downtown bistro has an award-winning, internationally renowned chef at the helm. Jesse Mulligan pays it a second visit to pinpoint what makes the food so special.

It is easy to forget what a big deal Matt Lambert was in New York before he returned home to New Zealand in 2020. He was on duty at The Lodge when I visited and I said hello to him after the meal. We chatted about his 13-year-old son’s love of baseball and I asked if Matt had ever been to Yankee Stadium.

“Yeah!” he said, as if he’d only just remembered it. “They used to invite ‘celebrity chefs’ to cook in the Legends Lounge. I did it a few times and got a bunch of tickets in return.”

The topic would never have come up if I hadn’t asked, and I wondered (not for the first time) why he would ever have come back. No offence to Rodd and Gunn, but I also wondered why he’d come back and open a series of restaurants under their name. Like, if Kimbra came back to New Zealand it would be a huge deal, but you’d scratch your head if she went straight into a job DJing at Barkers Newmarket.

But of course, when you’re sitting in the restaurant for dinner there are few clues it’s backed by a clothing retailer. Matt reckons they get a lot of Rodd and Gunn customers walking in during the daytime but at night The Lodge could be any other CBD restaurant – architecturally beautiful, dominated by suits and with a good view of Auckland’s diverse nocturnal population loping and stumbling past the front windows on their way to God knows where. I find the lighting a little utilitarian – a little hotel lobby-esque – but it was quiet when we visited so that may be less noticeable when it’s full of people.

Matt has, I think, been under-celebrated because of this restaurant’s unusual origins, and maybe also because his food is very, very good but you can’t really point to it and say “this is signature Matt Lambert” in the same way you can with an Al Brown or a Michael Meredith or a Sid Sahrawat. But there is stuff he does that is unique, and uniquely wonderful. It might not be as easy to grasp as some of those other chefs, but I’ll do my best to explain it to you.

This is bistro cuisine, but he treats the standard bistro menu as a leaping off point rather than an anchor. The familiar proteins and techniques are here but you can never guess quite what the execution will look like. Take the fish and chips which, well, who orders fish and chips at a restaurant? But I saw he’d included it on the tasting menu so I knew it must be something different. In fact it was barely a mouthful – a single chip, beer battered and topped with cured fresh snapper and a good tartare sauce. It looked beautiful, you got a decent hit of everything you love about this classic NZ pub meal and yet you didn’t have to spend your night chewing your way through a plate full of it.

My favourite dish of all was fish pie. The kitchen does a “pie of the day”, which would be a great trend for New Zealand restaurants to adopt (mind you St Marg’s specialised in pies and they’re for sale barely six months after opening so maybe don’t trust me on the business model). I don’t get excited about smoked fish generally but he uses just a very light touch of mānuka on the hāpuku fillets, then instead of the usual heavy chowdery sauce it’s this light, Mediterranean-vibed saute of carrots and fennel in something he calls a “bone dashi” stock. The puff pastry shell is this incredible roasty-dark brown and it’s served with a salad and a second, thinner sauce beneath the pie – technically a “Veronique”, if you’re interested, though much lighter than the French origins that sauce would indicate.

That was a bit of a word salad but the point is Matt is obsessed with layering flavour over apparently simple dishes. Flavour, and texture, and flair and beauty too. Even a side of Brussels sprouts set a new standard – why do we hardly ever get sweetness with this dish? The Lodge’s version comes deep-fried, glazed with a “chilli caramel” and boy, does it work.

Whatever you think of this retail-dining concept, Rodd and Gunn seems to be onto a winner. First Queenstown, then Auckland, then Brisbane – “each one an improvement on the last”, according to Matt, who is about to disappear to Melbourne for their grandest project yet: a four-storey precinct with food and drink on three of them.

The retail sector is changing fast, and so is hospitality. Why knock a brand willing to reimagine both?

THE LODGE BAR & DINING BY RODD & GUNN

Cuisine: Bistro

Phone: (09) 884 4200

Address: Cnr Albert and Queen Street, central city

Drinks: Fully licensed

Reservations: Accepted

From the menu: Fish and chips $18; wagyu Philly cheese $24; summer corn risotto $42; fish pie $32; kumara gnocchi with paua $50; Brussels sprouts $18

Rating: 18/20

Score: 0-7 Steer clear. 8-12 Disappointing, give it a miss. 13-15 Good, give it a go. 16-18 Great, plan a visit. 19-20 Outstanding, don’t delay.

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