Gerome — Restaurant in Waitematā

This is a long overdue review. I celebrated my birthday at Gerome exactly 4 weeks ago and believe me when I say that I can still remember every details about my experience with this lovely place. Starting with how easy it is to book their function room and to Viktor and Andrew who've been very helpful and on top of everything. Viktor made all of my requests possible, he really went out of his way to make sure that everything will be PERFECT. The price point was very reasonable, me and my friends did the set menu. They asked me ahead of time if there's any dietary restrictions to which I said no because there were only 2 of my friends who have dietary preferences - it's just an unspoken rule in our group to not bother much if majority wants to eat a certain food. BUT during that evening they asked he table again about our dietary preferences/restrictions which two of my friends shared theirs politely. To our surprise, they made seperate plates of dishes for them! And those dishes were tried by my non-vegetarian friends and even they liked it.

Now, the set menu that we had, ALL OF THE OOD WAS BURSTING WITH FLAVOURS. I kid you not! Everything was just very tasty. We are all very happy and beyond satisfied - even my fussiest friend enjoy all of the dishes and all of us couldn't stop talking about it even after a week of my birthday. Some are already considering of going to Gerome for their future events which I am so glad, because really, this place is somewhat under the radar and underrated here in Auckland. I know so many places which are highly rated but the food aren't as half as good compared to what they served here. I sadly wasn't able to take any photo of the food because everything was just flying off the plates.

Lastly, thank you again for looking after our group,...

We went there for my birthday dinner. The ambience is very nice, cozy and elegant space inside. The host was nice and attentive. We ordered few diahes and they came out in a reasonable time. Our choices were: Cheese and figs - fried cheese was very nice, I would preffer fresh figs as they are in season now and not overly sweet because of the molasses, maybe a light drizzle of honey will be a better choice for me; Panfried fish with punpkin skordalia, couscous and fennel salad - the snapper was moist and well cooked, the pumpkin skordalia on it s own was delicious, but for me fish and sweet pumpkin puree is not a great combination. The couscous was lemony and nicely cooked. I would preffer also the fish to have crispy skin, which was not. Lamb skewers with beetroot hummus and beetroot couscous - very good lamb meat, nicely grilled. Beetroot hummus and couscous was good addition. Chicken thigh with spinach/ greens risotto - chicken nicely cooked and tender, would preffer the skin crispier, could have a bit more salt. The green risotto was nice, a dash of parmesan on top, bit al dente. I would like the risotto to be creamier, as it was a bit on the dry side. Dessert: galactobureko and chocolate cheesecake - very generus portion of galactobureko which was delicious, it didn t need the plum icecream (store bought brand - not impressed), for me would pair better with simple whipped cream or home made icecream. The chocolate tiny half sphere didn't impressed much, tasted like a chocolate moussy thing without having a cheesecake flavour. Aĺl in all, a 4/5 I think will be a fair...

Wow. Auckland is lacking in Greek restaurants so this place fits a need, but beyond that, virtually everything we tried was top notch. I went with three other people and we shared four of the small dishes (meatballs, lamb skewers with potato skordalia, fried kataifi prawns, and the highly anticipated kefalograviera, which is basically a wedged of melted cheese, crispy at the edges.) The skordalia was a bit stodgy and tasteless (more garlic needed?) but everything else was great, including the Greek salad, house chips, and grilled pita we ordered on the side. We weren't stuffed and since we were celebrating a birthday, we ordered one each of the four desserts. My favorite was the lemon pie, which was served in a deconstructed style; my companions preferred the loukoumades, a sort of warm doughnut in saffron syrup with lots of almond chunks. Just the portokalopita was a little disappointing--basically a slice of pound cake soaked in syrup with far too little halva crumbed on top. Will definitely be going back. Update: after an absence of a few years (not dining out much because of Covid caution), the husband and I splurged on Gerome's Christmas lunch. We sat on the front porch under cover of a large umbrella so felt very Covid-safe, and feasted on smaller portions of many items from the menu. As usual, the kefalograviera was a high point, I also really enjoyed the corn keftedes (a sort of crisp corn fritter). It was a bit too much meat for me, but that was OK, I will enjoy the leftover kebab meats and skordalia for lunch today! Pricy, but a wonderful Christmas present...