The tablecloths are white and the 10-course degustation will cost $225 but don\u2019t call Ponsonby\u2019s newest restaurant \u201cfine dining\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s intentional dining,\u201d says chef Matt Lambert. <\/p>\n
On Wednesday, he and wife Barbara open Return, a 62-seater in the heart of Auckland\u2019s most infamous dining precinct.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI\u2019m really excited to
\n be talking to Ponsonby Rd again,\u201d Lambert told Viva. But what will he be feeding it?\n <\/p>\n
\u201cIt will not be shared plates. Order the food you want. I hate going out to dinner and everyone\u2019s like \u2018let\u2019s just share\u2019 and they pick things I don\u2019t want and lo and behold, the only thing I liked was the one thing I wanted. I don\u2019t want anyone to experience that ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
The restaurant is a New Zealand first for the couple, who met 20 years ago when they both worked at The Grove \u2013 he was a young chef learning from Michael Meredith; she was an American traveller working front of house thanks to family connections with restaurant owner Michael Dearth.<\/p>\n
In 2013, the couple opened The Musket Room in New York, gaining a Michelin star in a record four months; an accolade they held until their shift back to Auckland in 2020.<\/p>\n
Return (on the site most recently occupied by Luke Dallow and Thane Kirby\u2019s Gigi) has been described as \u201ca more grown-up version\u201d of The Musket Room. It will serve modern New Zealand cuisine including p\u0101ua, pavlova and a play on fish and chips, across an a la carte and two degustation menus (priced at $165 and $225 a head).<\/p>\n
Lambert says he looked at several sites before settling on an address that had been \u201cpart of Auckland\u2019s hospitality fabric\u201d for a very long time.<\/p>\n
\u201cLong before Return, it was home to Ponsonby Rd Bistro, a restaurant that played a meaningful role in shaping how this city ate and gathered. We are entering a continuum and will treat it accordingly.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt Return, the standards are serious, but the environment is welcoming, this is not fine dining, it is intentional dining. Nothing here is accidental, everything is deliberate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bone marrow and kina will feature on the snacks section of the menu at Return, a new restaurant on Ponsonby Rd from Barbara and Matt Lambert. <\/p>\n
The restaurant\u2019s main design features are a 16.2m-long swamp kauri counter top and a chocolate-brown travertine fireplace. Meanwhile, its logo features the t\u012bt\u012b, or muttonbird \u2013 a migratory shearwater with homes in the Northern and Southern hemispheres.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was playing with a lot of ideas for names,\u201d says Lambert. \u201cReturn felt bang on. The connotations of travel and my own journey is pretty awesome. Coming home \u2013 it\u2019s kind of huge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henderson-raised Lambert, who most recently worked for Rodd & Gunn\u2019s The Lodge group, said it was \u201cspecial\u201d to open a restaurant on home turf.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis restaurant is for everyone. Like you can come in a Motorhead T-shirt and tight black jeans from West Auckland in the 1980s or from the surrounding areas in a suit … if you have fun, then we did a good job. That\u2019s what restaurants are for, to be happy and fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
More food and drink<\/p>\n
Easter eating and restaurant dining.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The tablecloths are white and the 10-course degustation will cost $225 but don\u2019t call Ponsonby\u2019s newest restaurant \u201cfine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[188385,102369,3043,169,4187,181876,22503,307,156,6204,76634,30506,54677,117,111,10511,139,69,90,2680,26890,26894,2642,2539,1527,2737,188384,16550,1533],"class_list":["post-356403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-10course","tag-102369","tag-call","tag-chef","tag-cost","tag-degustation","tag-dining","tag-dont","tag-entertainment","tag-fine","tag-lambert","tag-matt","tag-michelin","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newest","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-opens","tag-ponsonby","tag-ponsonbys","tag-rd","tag-restaurant","tag-return","tag-star","tag-tablecloths","tag-white","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356403","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=356403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}