DAPHNES
Cuisine: Bistro
Address: 71 Ponsonby Rd, Ponsonby
Reservations: Accepted
Phone: 021 906 815
Website: Daphnes.co.nz
Drinks: Fully licensed
From the menu: Shared set menu $85pp
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
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Advertise with NZME.Daphnes has a new chef and with him a bold new menu. The restaurant launched two years ago and though for a while it was the name on everybody’s lips, eventually those lips started talking about newer, hotter places. That’s the problem with attracting a fast following, they’re fast to leave as well.
The old menu was full of long Greek names, so eating there felt a little bit exotic, but you quickly realised that it was mostly meat on skewers, with a bit of thyme sprinkled over for authenticity.
Well new guy Hayden Phiskie has started with a blank page — throwing everything out including Daphnes’ famous skillet cheese, and offering a menu that is fresh and wonderful and even a few steps forward from the excellent food he was cooking at Ada and, before that, Cotto.
No longer bound by the cuisine of Italy (it’s not even clear he’s doing Greek), Phiskie is serving up the best food in his imagination, and that’s a pretty appealing proposition. Even bistro standards like beef tartare are given new life here — the beef comes chopped and loose in a bowl, the traditional toast points replaced with fried bread crumbs which add some lovely fattiness to the raw steak.
“What else is in the beef tartare?” I asked our waiter, a larger-than-life Italian character whose energy is such that you will spot him as soon as you walk in the door.
“I will find out. The chef says it’s secret but I say, ‘There are no secrets — you tell!’” he replied, and disappeared towards the kitchen.
Soon he returned.
“The secret is anchovy,” he said. “And lemon.”
I looked down at the menu and saw that the dish was listed as “Beef tartare with anchovy and lemon”. So while the ingredients may not have been the closely guarded matter of confidence he was suggesting, I appreciated the extra effort (we weren’t even meant to get that tartare as part of the set menu but we’d asked about it and he kept his promise that he would “make it happen”).
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Our table included me, my wife and my father, a trio of particular tastes and preferences. Neither of them had been to Daphnes before and I was excited to show them this well-lit, beautiful room — carefully appointed with fixtures, decorated with beautiful art and alive with the sounds of a busy kitchen and a decent sound system.
“Can you turn the music down?” Dad asked the waiter.
Victoria was in good form too. There was a time earlier in my reviewing career when she would ask me, “Do you want the seat against the wall so you see what’s going on?” but these days it’s every man for himself.
“Do you want to sit next to the door, in case there’s a draft?” she asked with a straight face as we arrived at our table.
Delighted to be chosen as the windbreak for the evening, I kept my coat on and read through the menu. It’s all great stuff and so hard to choose between that I really do suggest taking the tasting menu at $85 per head, and eating whatever this fantastic chef is most excited about on the day. For us this included:
A crispy chickpea pancake topped with chopped beetroot and generous heaps of pistachios, with a perfect ball of burrata in the middle; this dish looked like something you’d buy a ticket for at the Ellerslie Flower Show.
A cos lettuce, halved and filled with tahini yoghurt and more pistachios; this tasted way more exciting than it sounds: savoury and sour and crunchy and fresh, I’d tack it on to your order no matter what else you were getting.
A flat bread covered in chopped greenshell mussels, heavily flavoured with garlic and just enough chilli to make you take a breath and then dive in for more.
This only covers the first courses: the mains were more traditional bistro fare of lamb on the bone, Brussels sprouts and sliced potatoes in a buttery sauce. It was all good but the Brussels stood out — roasted until the outside leaves were dark brown. They had a sweet-sour vincotto dressing and gorgonzola cream, those huge blue-cheese flavour notes perfect against the worthy brassica.
The wines are lovely and exciting, including by-the-glass options from Greece, Peru and Uruguay — less like a wine list and more like a Fifa knockout round.
They have even, bravely, nixed the elderflower martini I remember being pretty popular when they opened. Now it’s made with ouzo but it tastes delicious if you can handle the aniseed which, along with a dash of limoncello, masks the gin-burn just as effectively as the elderflower used to.
What a restaurant! Hayden has brought his whole team with him to Daphnes so I don’t know what the goss is there but back at Ada they seem to be getting on with life and have their own new kitchen team I’m looking forward to visiting.
In the meantime, Daphnes is clearly here to stay, with a wonderful room, a wonderful chef and a wonderful future ahead.
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Everyone Is A Winner At New Ponsonby Restaurant Lucky 8. Every dish costs $8 at this busy, buzzy Asian tapas spot.
Inca Ponsonby Is One Of The Most Exciting Places To Eat In Auckland. At Nic Watt’s Ponsonby restaurant, Peruvian and Japanese fare marry sublimely.
The Restaurant Bringing Buzz (And Filipino Favourites) To Ponsonby’s Food Court Constellation. It seductively mixes its menu, serving satay skewers, pancakes and beef brisket.
