Extreme dining

I don’t know about you, but I find most dining out experiences to be fairly average – not overly memorable, but not too bad either. The middle ground may be safe, but it’s also dull.

In recent weeks I’ve had the pleasure of eating at four places that fall at the dining spectrum’s extremes; three great and one ghastly. Now that’s more like it.

Where to begin? Shall I get off to a glass half-full start, or shall I empty it a bit first?

For some reason I’m really hungry today and just can’t fill up. I finally managed to quench my appetite by rounding off a large lunch with five crisp breads plastered with Nutella. Post-chocolate bliss has ensued, so I’ll get off to a positive start by regaling you with the good dining experiences.

Latin Larder (170 Hurstmere Road, Takapuna): Simple cafe food done really, really well. I love the way they advised that our pies would take 5 or 10 minutes because they wanted to heat them in the oven rather than the microwave. Both pies had lots of tasty filling and home-made buttery pastry. The chicken pide was chock-full of flavour – one of the best I’ve tasted. The gingerbread (also a wait while they heated it properly) was also fabulous. That lunch left me on foodie warm and fuzzy high all afternoon.

Try It Out Restaurant (79 Aitkinson Avenue, Otahuhu): Probably the best Vietnamese food I’ve eaten in Auckland. The pho was absolutely delicious, as was the Vietnamese prawn casserole. The spicy chicken with lemongrass wasn’t spicy, but it was very tasty. I can’t wait to return.

Two-fifteen (215 Dominion Road, Eden Quarter): Yum, yum, yum. These people can really cook and the service is friendly and very professional. If you go, try the air-dried beef with truffled potato and poached egg – it’s one of the nicest things I’ve eaten in ages. The duck confit with green apple compote was also five-star, as was the buttermilk panacotta with poached raspberries and lavender biscuit.

Despite the diverse nature of these dining experiences, they are united by a common bond: a clear passion for the food they cook, quality ingredients and attention to detail. 

Unfortunately not every restaurateur feels this way and now it’s time to go from the great, to the ghastly.

One of my brothers has just returned from a month in Vietnam and has been hanging out for some Vietnamese food. Tempted though I was to head back to Try It Out, curiosity got the better of me and I suggested that we check out a Vietnamese place I’d spotted nearby – Vietnam Cafe (38 Aitkinson Road, Otahuhu).

Wrong move.

Our group ordered seven different dishes – all of them bland, stodgy, ham-fisted travesties of Vietnamese food. It’s one of the worst meals I’ve eaten in a long while and I can’t believe that Vietnamese people cooked that slop. 

Vietnam Cafe's chef and owner appear to take little pride in what they produce. What a sad way to spend one’s working life.