District Dining, Britomart, Auckland

As a group of 5 we walked in off the street with no booking to District Dining on Thursday. The restaurant was busy, but they were able to sit us in the bar area where they where happy to serve us. This was the first time any of us had been to District Dining so it was a new experience for us all.

After our eyes adjusted to the low light we looked over the interesting range of tapas-style dishes and, after finding out the portion size from the waitress and the specials, proceeded to order 2-3 dishes each. The verdict (or more-so my verdict) on the dishes:

• Prawn toast, soy mayonnaise - these were very good and one of my favourite choices
• Smoked fish croquette, dill mayonnaise - I didn't expect much with croquette's but these were very good.
• Crispy pigs ears, Szechuan salt - these were done like fries and enjoyed by many.
• Spiced lamb briq roll, Tzatsiki - quite enjoyable.
• Chicken wings, chilli caramel - ok, but the caramel just didn't seem like a good match.
• Crispy squid, cauliflower puree, chorizo, Pedro Ximenez - the squid itself was ok, the Pedro Ximenez (a spanish white grape) was a new experience that I don't think any of us liked, the puree was nice, the chorizo flavoursome and good.
• Veal tongue, pickled turnips, salsa verde - this was a lovely dish. I'm not usually a fan of tongue, but done is this style you wouldn't know it was tongue.
• Chicken liver parfait, Port jelly, Toast, red grape - beautifully smooth and full of flavour. There was however not another toast and we had to order more.
• Steak tartare, Aioli, French Fries, Sourdough - this was my of my favourite dishes of the evening and even those of our group that had never had steak tartare enjoyed it.
• Herbed gnocchi, broccoli, pecorino, pangratto - very nice.
• Duck confit, Kumara, Pomegranate, Ra el hanout - a little dry in parts but otherwise I actually enjoyed this.
• 12 hour lamb shoulder, egg plant, olive, tomato - beautifully tender but lacked any wow factor.

The service was slow. The first items arrived reasonably quickly but then there was a long wait of about 20 mins before the next lot and then a similar wait time until more turned up. The wait staff were however friendly but professional.

The restaurant had a nice vibe and was nicely decorated (albeit dark), although it was too hot.

In retrospect we probably didn't need quite as many dishes, but we did manage to get through them all anyway. From a cost perspective, the food bill was just under $50 a head. There was also a good selection of wine and beer to choose from.