HUGO’S
Cuisine: Bistro
Phone: (09) 320 4387
Website: Hugosbistro.co.nz
Address: 67 Shortland St, CBD
Drinks: Fully licensed
Reservations: Accepted
From the menu: Tuna tartare $28; shishito tartine $28; grilled prawns $18; beef croquette $14; beef skewers $18; duck $48; venison $48
Rating: 19/20
Score: 0-7
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.I finally had the brilliant meal I wanted at Hugo’s, a Shortland St staple which everyone else seems to like but where I’d struggled to enjoy myself on previous visits. The restaurant is in lawyer town, which makes for some interesting regulars.
“Lots of them own their own olive groves,” reported the manager. “So some weeks we can say to people ‘this oil comes from … Steven, at Simpson Grierson’.“
I mean it’s perhaps not as romantic as an EVOO shipped in from a nonna-powered mill in Sicily, but good on Steven for opening up a new distribution channel. And the product is good: I don’t usually start by talking about dessert but, while we’re here, an olive oil semi-freddo (which I definitely said “no thanks” to but which appeared in front of me with compliments anyway) was the loveliest thing I ate, on an evening full of lovely things. It’s not a dessert I often come across in Auckland but it was simple and delicious, served cold, by the slice, with that olive oil both whipped into the custard and drizzled over the dessert after plating.
We were getting the royal treatment from manager Poi Eruera, winner of multiple best personality awards (not to be confused with best multiple-personality awards) and a rare example of someone who can fill every corner of her restaurant with charm and energy. Poi was slinging long blacks when I first moved to Auckland 20 years ago and there’s not much she doesn’t know about hospitality.
But there’s energy in the kitchen too. That’s not something you can often say about bistros, where predictability and consistency often trump seasonality and experimentation. But at Hugo’s you get the feeling things are changing from service to service, as the new-ish head chef Alex Llewellyn puts the ingredients through their paces.
“Oh, what’s he done here …” said Poi, looking over a plate of perfectly cooked venison. “Grilled spring onion,” she decided, “with wood ear mushroom and slices of pickled daikon.”
It was a great main course but then, so was the duck. If I tell you what came with that juicy sliced breast you can probably almost taste it: grilled peach, basil leaf and fragments of brown olive. As with the venison, there was a little sauce on the plate, but not the sort of sticky concoctions that can sometimes characterise this sort of food.
The wine service is brilliant too, as you’d expect from a restaurant where the clientele buy olive groves for fun. Faced with a good selection of New Zealand notables and Old World curiosities, you’d be well advised to pause your usual order and let the server talk you into something.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Continuing my unusual decision to describe the food in reverse order, let’s now examine the starters, which are really special. Chef Alex has spent time cooking all sorts of cuisines in all sorts of kitchens and as a result it’s hard to spot a particular regional through line – there’s a lot of Mediterranean stuff obviously, but some nice pan-Asian flourishes too when it helps.
Take the shishito peppers, which come blistered and smeared on a slice of good focaccia. They’re East Asian in origin but contribute similar bitter, vegetal flavours to, say, the Padron peppers you might be served in southern Spain. So it works when the chef layers them with whisper-thin slices of good prosciutto, a final drizzle of Nduja butter creating a spicy, indulgent mouthful.
We didn’t order the steak but benefited from the offcuts, which the kitchen prepares in two ways: a tasty crumbed croquette with an anchovy on top, and a beef skewer, served with another Asian-inspired sauce made of chilis and crispy shallots. And let me end by saying that we began with two lovely prawns, grilled and served with a spicy cocktail sauce and everyone’s least favourite vegetable, celery: somehow even this unlikable stalk tasted good, sliced thin and lightly vinegared as a sort of chaser to the lush seafood.
Food, wine, service: tick, tick, tick. So what is it like to sit and eat a meal here? I have to say, it’s pretty buzzy. A warm, comfortable room with (oily lawyers aside) a surprisingly diverse mix of diners, it’s a great place to spend a long, wine-fuelled Friday night.
“I experimented this evening and left the website open for same-day bookings,” said Poi. “It seems to have worked.”
Experiment with this, tinker with that – Hugo’s has a culture of continual improvement. In theory this means that, though I had a spectacular time, yours will be even better.
More restaurant reviews
According to dining out editor Jesse Mulligan.
Full Time Sports Bar isn’t your average pub grub. The Kingsland sports bar takes its food seriously.
Hanoi Haven In Takapuna Serves A Knockout Duck Curry. The food gets better and better at this Hurstmere Rd Vietnamese restaurant.
Olle in Milford is Korean fusion at its finest. A rare meal where everything goes right.
Is Piha Restaurant Aryeh Worth The Drive? It’s definitely worth a look, says Jesse.
Ada’s New Chapter Is Just Brilliant. The Grey Lynn bistro heralds a bright new chapter with chef Alfie Ingham.
Britomart’s Seafood Bistro Kingi Has A New Chef. But the team needs work.
The College Hill Wine Room Is A Freemans Bay Wine Bar. It’s not just for the rich and famous.
