ROSES
Cuisine: Bistro
Address: 454 Karangahape Rd, central city
Bookings: Thursday and Friday only, walk-ins and limited bookings
Phone: 022 034 9414
Website: Rosesdiningroom.co.nz
Drinks: Fully licensed
From the menu: Flatbread $16; pesce crudo $26; carrot $17; Brussels sprouts $18; slow lamb $30; tapioca dessert $15
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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Advertise with NZME.A reader recently wrote in to my online Q&A asking me to recommend a restaurant where she wouldn’t catch Covid. Or, more specifically, a restaurant with space between the tables and a bit of air circulation.
I sent her to the private dining room at Madame George and was so glad I did — she spent her birthday with George’s newly imported staff members: two fantastic chefs, plus a floor manager direct from Central (the best restaurant on the planet according to the latest World’s 50 Best Restaurants).
So, try the new set up at Madame George when you can, but this week I’m sending you a few doors down to Roses, which wouldn’t have been at all right for the woman avoiding the exhalation of others. Roses is a small sealed room on Karanghape Rd with so little ventilation it feels like you’re hotboxing with The Beths. Each tiny table has a small vase with a flower next to a candle and the flame flickers from time to time not, I think, due to breeze but because it’s struggling for oxygen.
Nonetheless it is a very fun place to eat dinner, from the moment you duck into a very anonymous doorway at number 454, and a kind and bright maitre d’ (and co-owner) shows you to your seat. It’s just him and the chef, who delivers the food to you herself, and the night we visited was the busiest service the two of them had experienced so far — “a proof of concept”, he said, optimistically, and though I never saw him pause and take a breath, I never had to wait for anything either.
They are in charge, these two, for a few months while other owners are abroad and this former pop-up space is operating as an a la carte. Eat here while you can, is the message, though the offering is so appealing I think they’ll find it hard to close it down when mum and dad return.
The woman doing the cooking is Katie Riley, one of Auckland’s best, who I last met at Annabelle’s running a whole menu off a toasted sandwich maker. She is thriving here, using the extra smidge of elbow room they’ve created for her to elevate her menu even further.
It’s a short list of six dishes and as a party of two we were encouraged to order one of everything which, I’ll be honest, was too much food even for your professionally gluttonous correspondent. I would drop at least one of them from your order or eat half of them first then see how you’re feeling. Once seated you won’t be in much hurry to leave again, and the colourful natural wine list offers plenty of reasons to crouch, pause then re-engage with the food.
Even something as simple as a flatbread was indulgent and beautiful: a puffy circle of bread glazed with butter and browned under a grill then plated with a dollop of creme fraiche on top, the dairy melting a little with the heat of the bread and cut with a thin sheet of pickle — think a less spicy version of the ginger you get at sushi shops — and a light sprinkling of thyme so you’d get a big hit of that herb in surprising moments of a mouthful.
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Pesce crudo came with another surprise — tamarillo. That beautiful fruit can go sweet or savoury depending on what you put with it and it worked perfectly with the fish, bringing acidity without the intensity of citrus, and the colour of plum without the sugar. Like a lot of dishes here there was a lot going on, including a hit of aniseed from some chopped fennel fronds.
The Brussels here were as beautiful as I’ve ever had them, served, according to the menu, with a “honey mustard” though I’m not sure that quite covers it: they came tucked into cups of bitter leaves mixed with a sweet, dark dressing and with crunchy hazelnuts heaped on top.
But I loved the carrots too. It’s no longer a surprise to see them on a fancy menu but there’s a lot of variation in the way chefs prepare them so they remain an interesting order.
Here, they were new again, served whole but with a couple of dozen perpendicular cuts “Hasselback-style” to lessen cooking time and create a pretty visual effect. They were blackened by the oven and served with a deep green dressing along with smoky yoghurt and crisped curry leaves.
Slow-cooked lamb was a beautiful centrepiece though, as previously noted, we were struggling at this point. But we made room for a happily structureless tapioca dessert, with ice cream, pistachio and a brilliant kaffir lime syrup poured over it all.
What a find this is, and what a shame if it only lasted three months.
There is an ideal context in which to hear ‘Starlight’ by the Supermen Lovers (extended intro) and it is here, with a spritzy gin cocktail in hand; that sound system just one ingredient in the perfect recipe for a restaurant.
