By Kerry Tyack
(Industry commentator and New Zealand Supreme Sausage Awards judge)
A visit to Melbourne over Auckland Anniversary Weekend (courtesy of Jacobs Creek) afforded me the perfect opportunity to visit a range of restaurants and bars to find out what the “other half” is doing to drive punters through the doors.
Direct comparisons between us and the Australians is not an exact science because they have one major advantage over us – market size. Their substantially greater population base allows them to reach critical mass more easily and it encourages a much greater diversity in the style of venue, food and drink they can offer.
That said, forays into Australia can be enormously useful if only to satisfy curiosity, engender ideas or to bolster the ego. For someone like me, who comments on the standards we set in New Zealand and the experience we offer the diner, it is always a valuable eye opener.
Melbourne has long had a reputation for being a city where restaurants and bars are top notch. The high end is well catered for, but so too is the family eating out and the casual café coterie. But where this city really excels is in the area of ethnic eateries. Every origin of food imaginable can be found in Melbourne whether in the CBD or the suburbs. It’s hard to believe that Wellington pips it as having a higher ratio of dining venues per head than New York. Food is everywhere in Melbourne and much of it is damn good.
I experienced the truly world class cooking of Kiwi, Ben Sherman, at Attica (voted No 73 in the world), the exceptional tapas at MoVida, the typically audacious treatment of Asian food at Neil Perry’s Spice Kitchen and an amazing, cosmopolitan and incredibly good value breakfast/brunch at Cumulus. In addition, I had great food and drink at Enoteca, superb dining at Cutler and Co and a terrific time at Cookie. But the star for me was Taxi, mostly because of exceptional service, the hip atmosphere and the attention to detail. I could go on and on. Bars I enjoyed were 1806, to a lesser extent Siglo, and especially the really impressive Waiting Room in the Crowne Hotel foyer. There were plenty of others but these were the stars during my brief stay.
Why were these places, almost with exception, so good? Easy! Rock solid service and simple, modern food expertly prepared. Even at the busiest places, we felt well looked after, never feeling for an instant that we were simply just another bloody customer. The wait staff really knew their stuff and added real value to the experience. Most of all there was an excitement, a hubbub – no tension that was obvious to us, and bucket-loads of style.
Has it made me more critical of what’s on offer here at home? No way baby! I am not backing down on any of the things that bug me about dining in New Zealand – a fundamental lack of understanding or what service really means; menu size and compilation, and a general lack of individuality, confidence and excitement. At the same time my experiences in Melbourne reaffirmed for me that we have everything here to be just as good. We just need to focus harder on what it is we are doing, understand the market and manage the resources better and find ways of reducing prices so that diners receive better value and feel inclined to come out and play as much as they do in Melbourne.