Jesse’s always put this restaurant in the middle of the pack. Now it’s turned up the dial.
Walk through Parnell at 8.30pm on a weeknight and you’ll count more restaurants than people. I honestly don’t know how all these places are surviving. And goodness knows what they thought last year
when a developer announced a new courtyard-style eating precinct, adding another half-dozen kitchens to the mix. Then there is the chocolatier and the specialist eclair shop, both also working late when we visited. It’s like they were all preparing for the arrival of a giant cruise ship that never showed up.
I’ve written some critical reviews too. In fact, one restaurant was so bad I made the rare decision not to even write about it. I’d accidentally visited on opening night and the owner already looked like a broken man, “they mispronounced ‘gurnard’, then served cooked bits of it floating in an ice-cold puddle of dressing”.
Gerome has expanded its menu. Photo / Babiche Martens
I’ve always put Gerome in the middle of the pack – good enough for a pleasant dinner, but not good enough to think much about afterwards. But we’ve been through two Olympic cycles since I last reviewed it, the anecdotal chatter has been good, and there must be something to a restaurant of that magnitude surviving Covid, a long economic winter, and a suburb with about as much foot traffic as a scene from The Quiet Earth.
Gerome has always been a Greek restaurant but they’ve turned up the dial since those early days, now offering several dishes with names so foreign and complicated they appear with an English translation. I’m all good with that – the less familiar the better when it comes to a diverse, cosmopolitan food scene – but it does slow down the selection process somewhat. My wife and I settled on half a dozen dishes that we hoped would provide a good sampling of the menu, and it wasn’t until we received our second baked filo parcel of the evening that we realised we should have taken even more care with our ordering.
The spanakopita and barbecued chicken thighs on the menu at Gerome. Photo / Babiche Martens
The staff are a young, friendly team, who make up for in competence what they lack in personality. I suspect there is a passionate owner behind this business but there are no signs of them when you visit – it is, at least based on this experience, a factory sort of a restaurant, where you get everything you ask for and don’t often have to wait, but where you might leave pining for the personalised charm every single customer receives at, say, Cibo down the hill.
The winelist is a bit all over the place – Pelorus by the glass but $6 more expensive than Juno the week before; a glass of cabernet merlot for a worryingly inexpensive $16 and an alternative option for $35. I chose a delicious Cotes du Rhone, which was priced in between the two, and you should also be able to find something you like (the cocktails look good too, if you’re in the mood).
And the food is really good: a big selection of expertly cooked Mediterranean dishes, with a couple of classics including a fantastic kefalograviera (fried cheese with honey), and a barbecued eggplant paired with white raisins, both of which have been on since day one. I knew they’d both still be wonderful so I forced myself to order something else, including a spinach-filled spanakopita, the filo baked to an absolutely perfect golden crunch and plated with a lovely house labneh spiked with mint and oregano.
Photo / Babiche Martens
Grilled meat leaves me a bit cold but I was happy enough with a starter of roulade (rolled slices of cooked beef standing in for the tartare/carpaccio found on almost every other menu in town) and with lamb on a stick, served with beetroot hummus and a decent couscous salad. A prawn-yoghurt dumpling was tasty if a bit wet once you’d pierced the skin and the watery filling spilled out onto your plate. I just loved the juicy baked chicken thigh, which is listed on the current menu with hilopetes pasta but when I visited was nestled on something that looked more like a risotto, coloured dark inky-green from a selection of pulped seasonal greens.
We were seated next to the front window, which in winter both looks and feels cold. Out of curiosity, I took a look upstairs, which is the size of an extra restaurant, with a big balcony out the back.
Gerome. Photo / Babiche Martens
“That deck must go off in summer,” I said to the staff member who was setting up tables.
“Actually it’s all closed in, so it goes off in winter too,” he said. The people of Parnell are clearly keeping Gerome in business, and there is enough promise here that I can see why they want to support it. I’m not sure it has yet broken out of the middle of the pack, but sometimes a piece of chicken and a decent baklava is all you need to feel happy.
Address: 269 Parnell Rd, Parnell, 09 373 3883
From the menu: Spanakopita $17, beef roulade $29, prawn dumpling $6/pc, barbecued chicken thigh $34, lamb skewer $42, baklava $18
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.
More restaurant reviews
According to dining out editor Jesse Mulligan.