Ponsonby Road Bistro: first time visit, won’t be the last

I don’t know why but we had never been to PRB – until last Saturday night that is. Rebecca is a regular there and it has always been on my (ice) bucket list haha.

So there we were, party of six, with our southern visitors Pork & Ant.

We got there at 7 – early enough to be able to negotiate a table in the front section which was great because I like light and open! We had a few minutes before the rest of the party arrived so sat up at the bar for our first drink – always a pleasant thing to do.

Service was prompt and friendly. A bottle of Taittinger Brut Reserve NV for a little celebration to start  with followed by excellent breads and fantastic chicken liver pate with chutney & toast

I’m always interested in restaurants that have sardines on the menu – many in Europe, not so many here. I like sardines (from the tin mind you) mixed with vinegar, spread on toast, cheese on top, grilled and then with a spread of mustard pickles. Divine. Most people go oooh! But I digress.

So I ordered the sardine (one biggie) which was very tasty and I enjoyed the flavour blend – it had been marinated in bay, lemon, garlic & paprika and was served on a slice of Catalan tomato bread. The others shared a couple of calamari entrees. No sharing of the sardine I’m afraid!!

By this stage the champagne bottle was sitting upside down in the ice bucket so while the others had a red and a white I opted for English cider (Aspall Crisp Suffolk Draught) which comes in a 500 ml bottle and which I found very refreshing. I’d only really started drinking cider when we were in England in July and I find it a most agreeable alternative.

For a main I had the chargrilled scotch fillet with chunky chips and a parsley-garlic butter which I thoroughly enjoyed as did the other three carnivores. Pork & Deb had the miso & sesame crusted Stewart Island salmon with a salad of asparagus, broccoli & soba noodles and cucumber- yuzu-ginger-soy dressing which they declared superb. (sorry but remembered to take the photo well after I’d started!!)

By this stage of the evening the sun light had disappeared and the restaurant lighting kicked in so it was necessary to use one of the most important apps on the iPhone – the flashlight haha – to read the dessert menu. As I was perusing the menu I was distracted by a beam of light from behind. Turned around and there was an old mate pointing his torch at me – so I’m not the only one to use this approach!!

Actually it’s the “puddings” menu (love it when they call them puddings!!). It’s short in length but packed with tempting variety. However it was an easy choice for me and, while the others shared two puddings, I went for the (not shared) warm Valrhona chocolate pudding with chocolate sauce & crème fraiche. Heaven.

It was a lovely evening and Blair has perfected a menu/service combo that has seen this award winning bistro stand the test of time. And we had excellent and friendly service from Jay our Welsh waiter.

We’ll be back.