Rita — Restaurant in North Island

Fantastic food but service needs some work.

First the food. The amuse was a slice of pickle with goat cheese and sesame seeds. It was like having bagel topping on a pickle. Very good. We then shared the optional roasted aubergine with crepe freiche. Again excellent. The starter was a crayfish and corn bisque. Very light with a lime sauce. The main was a pan fried chicken with grilled cos, mascarpone and roast grapes. The best chicken I’ve ever had! It also came with rolls to clean up our dishes. Lastly desert was a peach tart with a berry ice cream and walnut meringue. A very fresh ending to a wonderful meal.

But the service needs some refinement. All the dishes were described to us when they were brought except for the chicken which was just put on our plates with “enjoy”. Next the tables have drawers with cutlery for the meal to help yourself but it had run out of forks for my wife when desert came so we had to call the server over for a fork. Next in their Instagram site they show a picture of the menu card which you can take home giving detail of the meal, ours game a single word description of eat course with the last simply labelled a desert; did the server forget?

Finally we ordered wine by the glass and they needed to open a new corked bottle for me at the table. While doing so wine spilt on my cloths. Now mistakes happen but that is why most places open the cork away from the table to avoid this. Further we’re from North America which has a tipping culture and I would have expected the glass of wine to be comped, but when I went to pay it wasn’t and this was the first restaurant where the server set the eftpos to ask for a tip. From my understanding in New Zealand the custom is to only tip for excellent service but to set that to tip even when I had wine spilt on me...

Have been meaning to book here for a while now, finally got around to doing it. Upon arrival, we were greeted by the friendly staff. We were the first ones there for a 5:30 pm sitting. Rita is a set menu for $75 per head at the time of writing this review. The staff explained to us what was on the menu and showed us the drink list, and we opted for a beer. They had the Garage Project March IPA, which we order two. On tonight's menu, it was: Stracciatella, beet and plum salad, basil, rocket starter. - What I liked about this was the combination of the beets and plum with a bit of the stracciatlla. The flavours worked so well together. The portion was perfect. Next was the main: Grilled albacore tuna, tuna, saffron, almond and currant meatball, red pepper and red wine stew, potato matchsticks, saffron aioli and potato sourdough. This dish was terrific; the tuna was perfectly cooked and complemented by the red pepper and red wine stew. I have never had potato sourdough so soft, almost like a doughnut dough, and it was the perfect way to swab up the leftover sauce. Again just the right portion size. I almost forgot that they don't serve tap water, it's all sparkling, which is a real treat as a lot of places charge extra for that. The staff were very attentive in topping up the water.

Finally, to top off all this tasty food was a Chocolate and raspberry cake, hazelnut praline cream dessert. Oh my god, the cream was so good. If you gave me a bucket of it, it would be destroyed in seconds.

Overall we had such an enjoyable experience at Rita, even in the current times of social distancing they pulled it off. I'm annoyed we didn't try this place earlier. The staff made us feel welcome and were fantastic. If you can get a booking here do it, you won't be...

Visited 2 nights ago with a friend and enjoyed one of the nicest meals I've ever had. Service was impeccable, my glass of water was never less than 1/4 full and both the waiters were genuinely cheerful wonderful people to be served by. Amuse was a delightful puff of comté and potato that wonderfully crisp and tasty We added an extra entre of goats cheese that was whipped and served topped with house made sweet and sour peppers with an assortment of dried fruits and nuts which all came together as a texturally Devine dish Entre for the nights set menu was a confit duck dumpling served with chilli oil, and fresh coriander. As someone who typically doesn't like coriander I was skeptical of this one but each element played it's part in a symphony of flavour.

The main course - in simple words. The perfect dish for these cold welly nights Lightly fried to perfection was a fillet of south coast butterfish, with a citrus and parsley sauce drizzled over, crisp charred romesco and served with a fresh house made bread roll on the side to mop up the succulent sauce.

To finish was a goats fromage whip, served with poached quince, passionfruit pulp and a honey combe crisp. A deconstructed cheesecake of sorts. Light and fluffy centre piece with it's component elements adding fruit sweetness, a delectable crunch and the perfect summer twang from those passionfruit.

An evening to remember is the true definition of this experience. And at 105 for 3 course. It's pricey but reasonably so. Your paying for quality food in a place that has a wonderful cosy atmosphere and to be served by caring, kind staff who take genuine interest in you and making sure you have a good experience!

Rita, I...