Crudo features on many Auckland restaurant menus \u2013 including Olle, Ohui, Takapuna Beach Cafe and Aarth. But who makes Auckland’s best? Photos \/ Babiche Martens, supplied<\/p>\n
Who makes Auckland\u2019s best crudo?<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve heard you talk about the dish crudo and how it seems to be on almost every menu in Auckland. Here\u2019s a challenge for you then. Who does it best? <\/p>\n
Anonymous chef, thank you for this excellent challenge. <\/p>\n
Traditional crudo is done in one particular way but we\u2019ve got used to thinking of it as pretty much any raw fish dish. Kingfish is regarded as the top species to do it with, but I\u2019d be surprised if many people could tell it from trevally or even kahawai in a blind tasting. You get plenty of snapper crudo too, though I personally tend not to get excited about raw tarakihi unless it\u2019s in a high-end Japanese restaurant. <\/p>\n
The fish usually comes with some sort of acid \u2013 almost always citrus, in practice \u2013 though the amount of contact between flesh and liquid varies. Sometimes it\u2019s just quickly plated up while other chefs like to \u201ccook\u201d it in the marinade until it starts to turn opaque. <\/p>\n
And yes, you\u2019ll find it almost everywhere, presumably because we keep ordering it. You\u2019d be a brave bistro owner not to offer it in some form, so the question becomes not \u201cwill I sell it?\u201d but \u201chow should I serve it?\u201d. <\/p>\n
I immediately think of Olle in Milford where, I reported, \u201cyou\u2019re encouraged to take chopsticks and toss your plate of raw snapper, mixing it in with gochugang, shredded pear and nori, and dashi granita\u201d. Staying on the shore, I loved what they did at Bon Pinard: \u201ctuna fillet [with] capsicum, fermented for acidity then chopped with the tuna for a vivid red, vaguely smoky carpaccio, spread over buffalo curd [on sourdough]\u201d. And finally, let me single out Ponsonby Rd\u2019s Jacuzzi where, when it comes to crudo, they have \u201ccreated a whole raw menu around it \u2026. We went with a really lovely Mexican-themed tuna tostada \u2026 big cubes of crimson fish with a decently spicy jalapeno creme fraiche and a bright green salsa\u201d. <\/p>\n
But some breaking news \u2013 this week I ate one of the best crudos I\u2019ve ever come across. You\u2019ll have to wait until my regular review on Wednesday to find out where.<\/p>\n
Open all hours?<\/p>\n
A suggestion for Jesse\u2019s excellent restaurant reviews: it would be helpful to know if the restaurant under review does lunch as well as dinner. Opening hours or kitchen hours could be added, but a basic \u201cOpening: dinner only, Wed-Sun\u201d or \u201cOpening: lunch, Fri-Sun; dinner, Mon-Sun\u201d would allow us to better plan our tasty outings. <\/p>\n
Hi Caroline, it\u2019s a great suggestion. To be honest, I haven\u2019t tinkered much with the boxed text \u2013 that standardised info on the review \u2013 since I took over the job from the great Nici Wickes in 2015. At some point, we changed from scoring restaurants out of 10 to scoring them out of 20, to be consistent with other reviews in the Herald stable at the time. I also added the \u201creservations accepted\u201d etc when restaurants went through a phase of taking walk-ins only. <\/p>\n
Post-Covid, with demand falling away, I\u2019ve found most places are happy just to have a paying customer so it\u2019s exceptionally rare to find a maitre d who won\u2019t accept your booking. So that part of the review might be in danger as well as the phone number, because when was the last time you phoned a restaurant? A lot of new places just operate via a cellphone in the owner\u2019s back pocket. It feels a bit risky to put that number at the top of my review \u2013 call a millennial who isn\u2019t expecting it and you\u2019ll give them an early heart attack. Anyway, we\u2019ll keep both as is for now because old habits die hard. <\/p>\n
But to your suggestion, which we all think is excellent. I will start doing it from this week, and I look forward to including information such as 5pm-late, knowing that in Auckland \u201clate\u201d means the kitchen is still open at 8.15pm. Thank you Caroline, I hope you feel proud every time you see it in print. <\/p>\n
What you\u2019ve asked, and what he\u2019s shared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his fortnightly foodie advice column, Viva\u2019s resident dining-out editor shares his recommendations and insider advice. This week,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9055,1665,3952,3390,3071,9853,168470,75514,32896,156,83891,75512,78,2936,2537,2538,117,111,139,69,3272,34323,28225,67160,42775,10710,180,223,1961,3010,75513,686,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-308858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-9055","9":"tag-advice","10":"tag-aucklands","11":"tag-best","12":"tag-cities","13":"tag-column","14":"tag-crudo","15":"tag-diningout","16":"tag-editor","17":"tag-entertainment","18":"tag-foodie","19":"tag-fortnightly","20":"tag-in","21":"tag-insider","22":"tag-jesse","23":"tag-mulligan","24":"tag-new","25":"tag-new-zealand","26":"tag-newzealand","27":"tag-nz","28":"tag-nzs","29":"tag-opinions","30":"tag-ranked","31":"tag-ranks","32":"tag-recommendations","33":"tag-resident","34":"tag-shares","35":"tag-the","36":"tag-this","37":"tag-top","38":"tag-vivas","39":"tag-week","40":"tag-zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}