Park Kitchen — Restaurant in North Island

A Dining Experience that I can’t get out of my head, and a tantalising degustation menu fit for a Queen!

When my husband and I come to Park Kitchen (PK), we enjoy our food and the consistent excellent service but this dining experience was a very special one. I’ll tell you why!

PK put on a Wellington on a Plate event - ‘Food, Lust!! - an 8 course Tasting Menu’ - and so the story of an absolutely mesmerising dining experience began!!

We were first treated to a delicious ‘Honey smoked salmon w scallop gravlax’ dish. Then came a perfectly prepared ‘Beetroot carpaccio’ with a divine candied chamomile flower which was so crunchy and contrasted nicely with the succulent centre of the feta bavarois - another element of this beetroot dish.

Our tastebuds were then tantalised even more by an outstanding ‘Smoked eel & oyster beignets’ course with watercress sorrel mousse that was light and creamy - so moreish. Way too moreish!!

A 4th course of ‘Asparagus & ginseng soup w gingko nut sable’ was a nice palate cleanser.

The next course - ‘Pan seared Butterfish w caponata in a clam & saffron Volute’ was bursting with flavour but the highlight ‘main’ was yet to come consisting of roasted pork belly with crispy pomegranate on charred fennel and farro risotto, and with a Pedro Ximenex Demi-glaze. This course was so delicious - perfectly balanced with a mix of sweet and savoury, crunchy and soft. Mesmerising comes to mind once again. How could we be enjoying a degustation menu of this calibre, right here in Miramar?

With six satisfying courses down, we still had two more to go. And of course, there’s always room for dessert!!

The 7th course was a ‘Walnut crusted grape tart w Manchego mousse & fig syrup’. Dietary restrictions set aside, who wouldn’t love a mouth-watering light cheesy mousse to create a contrast with the semi-sweetness of the grape tart?!

The final course was a ‘Dark chocolate & cheesecake brownie w an espresso martini gelato & golden chocolate dipped coffee beans’! The delicious brownie fresh out of the oven topped off the menu for the evening.

By simply writing this, I want so badly to have this memorable experience all over again.

We also did the wine match for each course that started with Champagne and finished with a Karikari Pinotage from Northland NZ - all poured and meticulously described by a talented sommelier, Francis Auclert. He took us to France, Spain and grounded us with some of our very own desirable New Zealand wines.

The serving staff were all very attentive and so unassuming - a perfect blend of recognising what we needed but never intrusive.

We highly recommend PK with its calibre of talent. This event showcased another wonderful side to PK sought out by those who have a love of food and an appreciation of the finer things in life - while enjoyed in an attentive and relaxed atmosphere.

My husband and I are looking forward to their next event but until then, we’ll enjoy PK as a relaxed and happy place to go to enjoy some...

I want to rate this higher as I’ve had many many top quality Park Kitchen brunches - the vege breakfast is usually a winner. However our latest visit put a big dent in PK’s brunch hotspot rankings in my estimation... let’s talk about it. The first sign of trouble was the spoons. Instead of the usual sturdy Acme metal teaspoon that accompanies a trim cappuccino we were greeted with the chilling prospect of a wooden spoon. Childhood trauma aside, I can totally appreciate a wooden spoon in consideration of our environment, however this monstrosity was comprised of that untreated bamboo-like wood which is a textural nightmare. If you dare to lick this abomination you feel like you’re risking tongue splinters. Gah! The oral equivalent of fingernails on a chalk board or biting on tinfoil in your kebab. Please consider reverting to metal spoons. To add to the beverage issues, the coffee was over-roasted and too bitter to finish. I could forgive these issues if the food lived up to expectation, however the once-reliable vege breakfast has dipped in standard considerably in recent times. On this occasion most of the plated items were lukewarm. The hash brown was basically raw grated potato in the centre. And the tomatoes (the one scalding hot item) were cooked whole and unseasoned, rather than roasted halves with a generous sprinkle of pepper as we’ve had on previous occasions. I’m happy to give the kitchen another chance as I do love the location and the service is...

Came here for a spontaneous date night on Thursday evening. Have been here before and it was good so thought we’d come back. Sad to say I was fairly disappointed with our experience. The staff were fine but the food was a real let down. I ordered the 250g sirloin steak and my partner ordered the market fish with a spicy sausage pizza to share. After noticing that there was no mention of vegetables in the steak description I also ordered the chefs veges to accompany the steak for an extra $9. Food came out in a timely fashion. I ordered the steak medium rare closer to the rare side and was quite disappointed when it came out medium and appeared to be unseasoned. The tomahawk rib was charred all over which made it difficult to eat and while the veges were good, I felt they really should have been incorporated into the main dish as being served a large plate of over cooked meat was not worth the $37 charge price without anything to even out the saltiness of it all. I also found the pizza to be soggy and lacking much flavour other than, again, the immense saltiness of the sausage which could have been easily countered with an adequate amount of cheese. However my partner loved her market fish and said the sauce really made the dish. Overall I found the food I ate to be over ambitious, over priced and erring on pretentious. Hope to have a better experience...