St. Marg’s K’rd – 469 Karangahape Road, Auckland, 1010 New Zealand
We went there because
It was an annual Christmas catch up that has been going for many years, we try to find somewhere different every year and this was new and shiny and a bit “off-piste” for us, so we thought why not. I hadn’t even heard of it (which is not that unusual), so when I turned up a bit late thanks to a glitch in the public transport-time continuum, I was pleasantly surprised to see a light and bright heaving bistro (it was lunchtime on the Friday before Christmas).
The food…
I wasn’t going to be fooled by a fancy fit-out and wall to wall happy patrons, I wanted food and food we got. We shared a few plates although, I had to steer clear of some due to my allergy requirements. The Oysters with white balsamic, gin and cucumber vinaigrette looked the part and tasted even better, my friends ordered the burrata which to me has been a dish that I often wonder what all the fuss is about, wonder no more, this was outstanding. You know when somebody keeps saying you have to try this it’s really good (kind of like pinot gris drinkers, that can’t accept why everyone doesn’t love what they do) and then you taste it and don’t want to say how good it is, but you’re not that good at lying? This was one of those occasions (for the record that has never happened to me with pinot gris). The crudo was also pretty impressive and I’m led to believe that the croquettes more than cut the mustard.
For the mains, the fish pie seems to be a go to dish at St. Marg’s, it looked like it was bathed in butter, it was and it apparently tasted appropriately like it should; for lack of confusion, bathed in butter can be a very good thing (although maybe not for your cholesterol). The main selection was a bit limited for the gluten free among us, so I opted for the 500g T-Bone, which came with burnt butter, sour cream, garlic butter and sauce bearnaise (okay that may have actually had more butter than the fish pie, but there were no complaints from me). The others talked fondly of their Fish and Chips and Buttermilk Fried Chicken Burger (separate dishes) also.
We did the “I’ll have dessert if somebody else does” and I ended up with the pavlova which through some form of witchcraft had a gin and blackberry compote inside of it that escaped upon incision. It was a great way to end a rather large lunch, needless to say I didn’t have dinner.
The drinks…
This is where things went a bit south, the tradition with this annual lunch is to drink chardonnay and this was not the place or maybe just not the day to be doing that. Of the four or five chardonnay’s on the menu, the first one that we ordered was sold out, the second had only two thirds of a bottle left and the others weren’t really to our taste. Maybe that was our fault for not checking the status of their chardonnay menu (probably had plenty of pinot gris to crow about). Other than that there seemed to be a good variety of beers and other beverages.
The service…
It started off well, but there were times when we felt forgotten and found ourselves searching for attention (maybe it was fuelled by our terrible taste in wine). The place was heaving, so it was a great test for a relatively new establishment, we just felt that the service was lacking a little.
The atmosphere…
As mentioned above the place was heaving, packed with happy loud people, the vibe was like I hadn’t experienced in a while. Hopefully it was a sign of things to come.
The price was…
$340 for the food of 4 sharing dishes and 4 mains some sides and two desserts.
Overall
Great first impression, faultless food, drinks might have been a victim of circumstances and service could be more attentive. For a relatively new opening I would say that it’s exciting and if you are looking for a new fresh bistro in that part of town, it will be hard to go past (just check the chardonnay stocks if that’s your tipple). Overall I would give St. Marg’s K’rd a decent 8/10.
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