09 February 2012
REVIEW - Truffles: classroom dining at its best
18 August 2006
Te Waha Nui Online
Truffles
Cnr Wellesley St & Mayoral Dr
Open Mon-Thurs lunch & dinner
Amy Kelley finds a fantastic value-for-money dining option right under her nose.
There comes a point in every relationship where the need to impress with date venues ceases. Where the most pretentious joints in town once provided an excuse for dressing up and spending large, unassuming neighbourhood restaurants now comfortably take their place.
I’m lucky my relationship has reached this point, because Truffles – one of two restaurants run by AUT University's hospitality students – is not first-date material.
We arrived with much apprehension. Twenty-five dollars per person for a three-course meal sounded dangerously cheap… were we dining guinea pigs at risk of being utterly disappointed?
Or worse, food-poisoned?
But it becomes immediately apparent that Truffles deals in classic silver service.
The tables are impeccably set, the napkins artfully folded.
Each waitperson, in spotless black and white, has a tea towel draped over one arm.
The lights are dimmed and funky urban beats play in the background.
Black cloth is draped here and there and tealight candles adorn each table.
Granted, they made an effort. But even the star-printed gauze slung over the sterile grey ceiling can't hide the fact that it is a classroom.
Which brings me to service. Most of the waitpeople are overseas students and, whilst smiling and eager to please, would benefit from a few lessons in pronunciation of specials.
We were amused to be offered the "win" list and told the vegetarian dish of the day was not roasted, but "toasted", pumpkin.
We inspected the menu while munching on warm bread rolls and were impressed by meal descriptions, which were more like those of a signature restaurant than a frumpy training establishment.
I started with a spicy golden lentil soup, he with warm duck salad. Both were suitably light but full of enticing flavour.
His duck was ever so tender. My soup was lifted out of the ordinary with the addition of a crunchy vegetable bhaji fritter.
Thanks to Truffles' limited size, staff get right what so many others fail miserably at: the pace of meal delivery.
There was just enough time to let each course settle without causing us to wonder how long it had been between dishes.
But had we been made to wait a little longer for our mains, it would have been worth it.
The presentation was well above what we imagined and our taste buds were not
disappointed. My roast turkey breast was perfectly cooked and stuffed with a delicious confit of cranberry and stone fruits.
Alongside was a generous serving of crispy vegies, including roast potatoes I declared better than Mum's.
His lamb shanks were melt-in-your-mouth tender, the accompanying polenta tasty, but he thought the dish over-filled the plate.
For a moment we were so taken away we almost forgot we were in training territory. But as our slightly under-confident waitress attended to the table, Truffles' manager swooped over and corrected her arrangement of our dessert cutlery.
By this time we were comfortably full but felt a duty to sample the desserts. My boyfriend beat me to the chocolate offering, the proud winner of a rich steamed pudding.
I settled for an apple crumble tart, but was pleased to find the sweet crust, lightly spiced apples and accompanying fennel ice-cream just as divine as his pud.
So, does the food at Truffles disappoint? Certainly not. Do we think it is value for money? Definitely.
Of course, there is no denying Truffles' origins. If you're looking to impress or want an evening of intimacy, go elsewhere. The attentions of a "fifth wall" of waitpeople, assembled on the sidelines can easily suffocate a table of two.
But come with a large group prepared to create your own party and you will add the one ingredient missing from this recipe for value-for-money dining.
