Jesse Mulligan’s Auckland Restaurant Review: Hidden Village Brings Buzz (And Filipino Favourites) To Ponsonby’s Food Court Constellation

HIDDEN VILLAGE

Cuisine: Southeast Asian

Address: Ponsonby Central, 7 Richmond Rd, Ponsonby

Reservations: Accepted

Phone: (09) 360 0733

Website: Thehiddenvillage.co.nz

Drinks: Fully licensed

From the menu: Chicken skewers $13.5; prawn sambal pancake $23; mie goreng $25; beef brisket (small) $25; crispy cauliflower $14

Ponsonby Central had a happy thrum to it on the night we visited. Not everybody wants to eat at The Grove each week and my search for something at the casual-end of city dining had led me and a hundred others to this beautiful corner complex, whose owners must have been a little nervous in the early days when the place seemed to be empty day and night, but who stuck to their game plan — doubled down on it even — and have been rewarded with icon status among Aucklanders looking to eat shoulder to shoulder with each other.

It all looked good and I would have happily eaten at the new Vietnamese place Chao or with the boys at Arepa, a sort of South American Pita Pit where you watch them sauté the meat in front of you then stuff it inside a thick piece of cornmeal bread.

But I was trying to find you something at least a little bit like a sit-down restaurant and settled on Hidden Village, where friendly staff offer table service and maybe three dozen different dishes — and they are really different, from pancakes to curries to pork ribs and a decent list of “tapas”.

Alongside the usual Southeast Asian favourites are a number of dishes specifically from the Philippines, with that country’s flag stamped proudly on to the menu in multiple places to indicate which these are.

Alongside the flag are further icons indicating whether something is spicy or not and, beside some dishes, a small yellow head which subsequent research has revealed is the “yummy face emoji [unicode U+1F60B]” which to me is easier just to write, but kids will be kids.

You don’t come to a food court for the wine list but a couple of the restaurants are licensed, in case you’re feeling thirsty for something harder than Grapetiser. I asked for a bottle of Red Horse, a Filipino favourite listed on one beer appreciation website as “most appealing to male drinkers who are 18-24 years old in the middle and lower socio-economic groups”.

This was me, once, and it wasn’t hard when I took my first sip to be transported back to the Hillcrest Tavern carpark at closing time, wondering where the night would take me from here though suspecting that, as usual, it would involve either a pash or a smack in the head.

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Theories differed as to how much you should pour in at once but the nighttime temperatures were so warm you’d inevitably end up drinking most of that melted ice block — a nifty way of incorporating host responsibility into street food eating. Anyway, at Hidden Village the beers come cold straight out of the fridge, so you’ll have to ingest your agua in the traditional fashion.

We ate some chicken skewers, promoted as “best satay in town” on the menu and while I won’t be handing that award out today I loved their version, the peanut sauce inkier than usual and flecked with sesame seeds. Like a lot of the dishes it came with plenty of fresh coriander leaves, a simple generosity that really elevates a plate of food in terms of fragrance, freshness and visual appeal.

They were generous with fresh vegetables throughout the menu, and it made a huge difference to the quality of the experience. Slices of beef brisket came with wok-fried bok choy and edamame beans; a lovely mie goreng noodle dish was topped with mung bean sprouts and mandoline-thin strips of red cabbage.

Favourites? A beautifully moreish plate of cauliflower florets, dipped in a seasoned rice flour batter and deep-fried until crunchy, served alongside a truffle mayo. The pieces of cauli had a pale, smooth, almost tempura-like quality when cooked, and no trace of the oil.

I loved the pancake too — I’m not sure what country it originates from but it’s a great little construction, the batter so thin it has little holes in some places, and scorch marks from the pan in others. It comes wrapped around a package of raw salad veges and, in our one, prawn sambal — a big spicy hit sweetened with a pineapple-based dressing.

It’s fantastic food — no duds on the menu, as far as I could work out — and though it may not feel like a full-noise night out, this buzzy space is perfect for second dates, out of towners and old married couples who want to be part of the fun.