The Grove

I very much loved this place.
Staff: Service we received was excellent, the waiting staff knew all about each dish and were very professional. The waitress even threw in an extra glass of wine for our desert because she really wanted us to taste it.
Food: The food was some of the best I’ve had, I liked that you could pick any 5 parts of the menu rather than one of of three for each course. We picked 4 meats and one dessert, needless to say we were surprised about the size of the dishes for a degustation and we were left quite full when the time came for dish 5! But hey thats a good thing right.
Paring of wines: Excellent, each matched perfectly, and if your unsure if you want to have wine with every dish don’t worry. You can ask for it every one or two.
Ambiance: Lovely atmosphere, perfect for that anniversary or date.
Value: Given the food quality and portions the value is excellent.

Found on Unilocal,and also recommendations from local IBM sales guy. Both Annette (owner) and subsequent Hostess were both very accommodating and warm. Entrance on side of church was a bit interesting.
Sea salt on tables is a nice touch.
Ambiance is nice, went with the 9 course:
Bread was hot and fresh; nice local organic butter
Tuna was very fresh and delicious.
1^st meat was equally good.
Risotto was nice.
Young chicken was quite flavorful and plated vey well
Both salad and lamb were quite delicious as well as displayed wonderfully with excellent flavors abound.
Duck was quite good w excellent flavors, accompanied by truffle fries. (Alas –fries were just warm temp, unlike all other entries which have been extremely hot/​fresh from oven)
2^nd meat– wagyu– w broccoli dish was even better than prior meat entrée.
Chocolate parfait was quite nice w caramel and mandarin flavors
I really enjoyed the lemon soufflé — great flavor and textures.
Fresh honey and raisins were a wonderful end note.
Truly a great experience.

The first thing you should do after booking a flight to Auckland, New Zealand is make reservations at The Grove, 2014 Winner Metro Restaurant of the year!
The Grove is famous for their Mini Degustation Mondays. For $ 55 your table can customize the perfect 5 course menu from the dishes they offer. My favorite dish was the tuna and salad. While these dishes stood out every dish was exceptional.

The Grove has street-​cred on the fine dining scene. It’s one of those places that’s always been on my list to visit. So, with a booking made and friends gathered, it was finally time. Nicely positioned off an open courtyard next to St Patrick’s Cathedral. I liked the interior styling, elegant and welcoming on a rainy night. I thought the service during the evening was attentive and accommodating to our requests. There’s a simple system here, order three courses for $ 79 or you can have five for the same price, albeit a bit smaller (however, the whole table has to agree and that’s far too hard for us). My first course was the hapuka with pickled purple carrot, ginger, garlic and date. It was the standout dish for me. I had the lamb rack with white anchovy and ricotta beignets for a main, and a prettily constructed poached fig dessert to finish. Overall, it was the hapuka dish I will remember, perhaps not the other two courses.

The food is absolutely superb. We went for the $ 55 5-​course offered Mondays for much of the year, which also made it good value. Every course was intriguing, artistic and flavorful, clearly a highly talented and creative team in the kitchen.
But cannot give it 5^th star because, contrary to some other reviews, we found host/​owner to be pompous and irritating. Example 1: when explaining the various degustation options, he quoted the 5-​course at the normal price and did not mention the special Monday offering (fortunately we knew in advance, and he acknowledged it when we queried him). Example 2: an ingredient for one of the dishes was «faux fois gras), and when we asked him what exactly that entailed he said snippily «fake fois gras» … well duhhh, we know the translation of «faux» but that doesn’t tell us what it’s made of (turned out after further questioning it was primarily chicken liver). Other interactions also gave us cold feeling (though must clarify that the waiters were very efficient and professional, problem was only with the host). I don’t know, maybe because he’s American and we’re American we just didn’t hit it off. Too bad, it left a bad taste in an otherwise delicious evening.

This is my favourite restaurant in Auckland for many reasons. Starting with 1: the food. Its world class. Small designer delectable offerings that really push your palate. You will be tempted to try things you’ve never had before and a great mix of meat and vegetarian. 2: ambience. The design of the venue is elegant, soft, yet social. The perfect place for a date or intellectual dinner conversation. 3: the service. Personalised and exceptional. You are treated like a friend and a VIP all at the same time. A must visit for Auckland’ers and visitors to the city. Well done Michael and team !

Metro’s Restaurant of the Year in 2010 and 2011, three chef’s stars, and one of Auckland’s best fine dining establishments. Needless to say, I had high expectations for The Grove… and left with my expectations exceeded!
As part of the Auckland Restaurant Month special offered during August, we created our own five-​course dining experience from an ever-​changing and eclectic selection of seven savoury and three sweet dishes all for $ 55. August and Auckland Restaurant Month may be over, but apparently The Grove offers this same $ 55 five-​course option every ‘mini degustation’ Monday… it is possible to dine fine on the cheap! With recommendations from our waiter, we chose:
— Terrine of duck, poussin and hare, haricot vert and shallot chutney
— New Zealand yellowfin tuna with coconut, cucumber and avocado
— Confit salmon, yogurt, beetroot, pancetta and rye
— Glazed wagyu beef cheek with wakame, agria mousseline and savoy cabbage
— Soufflé a la moment with home-​made ice-​cream
Chef Ben Bayly has crafted dishes that are both a feast for the eyes as well as an experience for the senses. There were some individual components of the dishes that weren’t too my fancy (I found the shallot chutney too sweet, and the beef on the salty side) but really, that’s just me nit-​picking. The salmon dish was crazy good for its harmonious blend of textures and flavours: crispy bits of pancetta and rye against melt-​in-​your-​mouth salmon and a playful pop of salmon roe. The fresh tuna was equally as tender. Crispy potato slices plus creamy agria mousseline and succulent beef cheek made for a delightful combination.
The dish that blew us all away was the highly recommended raspberry and white chocolate soufflé, which towered high above its ramekin — a sign of a successful soufflé! It was light and airy in texture, and the combination of raspberries and specks of white chocolate was just delightful. Seriously, I cannot rave about it enough!
Despite its fine dining appeal, The Grove is intimate with its dim lighting, and upholds a cosy, warm ambience… even though it was cold and raining outside. The five courses were all served with ample time between each. We began our dinner at around 9pm and finished at 11pm (late but it was the only time available when we made reservations two weeks in advance). Even at this time, the restaurant was still completely packed but service remained excellent: attentive yet unobtrusive.
The Grove has definitely been one of the most memorable dining experiences of my life! Book early and go… it is totally worth it.

Michael Dearth is such a fantastic host!
Had to start with that because he is such a roost. I went for after work wines and platters and it was beautiful! Was a bit chilly so we were given lovely wee blankets to put over our knees… Great touch
Cheese platter was delicious with lovely touches like wild goat bits and artichoke bobs. Wine was divine too!
Not normally into such a ponsy place but The Grove place is delightful and welcoming, I’m into it! Can’t wait to try Baduzzi now and see what he has done there

Chef Ben Bayley puts a lot of hard work into crafting elaborate cuisine in Grove, but the flavours lack that crucial punch. This restaurant in Auckland CBD has an L shaped interior, with window-​side seats that look out onto tree-​shaded streets being the real estate of choice for a romantic afternoon. You can enjoy succulent discs of partridge and pheasant, served with silken potato, excellent red sauce and rich buttery vegetables. There’s also a terrine of chicken and leeks, but like a radical presentation of venison, it falls short on sheer taste. A boudin of crayfish and blue nose, however, sings exquisitely of the sea. Service is above average, but lacks memorable personality. Desserts here can be elaborate and visually impressive — but a fig-​savarin and a Choco-​citrus versions flattered to deceive but this does’t apply to superbly silken banana soufflé with coconut ice-cream.Technique here is indubitably on nonchalantly cool display but unless flat-​out pleasure is factored into its elaborate mix, Grove will not find its groove. Approx $ 120 per person. 2.75÷5 = Close to Good. Photos

The best tasting menu /​degustation menu I have ever tried!!! Wow! You just cant fault the presentation, the cooking and the taste! Will definitely come back again!!!

It’s no surprise The Grove won restaurant of the year by Metro magazine two years in a row. Michael Dearth’s restaurant has become a local institution of fine dining. The interior is tastefully appointed with a New York loft-​style feel to it with exposed brick and natural timber flooring.
However, where The Grove truly excels is in their creative menu and wine pairings. In particular, their degustation and wine pairing menus are among the best I have ever had. Creative, unconventional and downright delicious every time. The service is impeccable and their cocktails are always excellent. This is an upscale restaurant so expect the prices to match, but the food, service and wines always deliver.

The Grove can do no wrong, I swear to God. Year after year after year this place tops the best restaurants lists all over town, people talk about it and recommend it to visitors, and top chefs who live out of Auckland flock to The Grove when they’re doing a fly-​by-​night visit to the city. Yes, it’s in the city and yes you might panic about parking, but make sure you take up their offer of the valet service; you’ll feel swish as all hell.
I ate at the grove recently and ordered an entrée and a main. The entrée was crayfish with tomatoes and baby basil — in the past I’ve shied away from eating crayfish but I thought, when in Rome! I’m glad I took the plunge because the cray was divine. For the main I branched out again, lifting my no-​mussel rule for the fish and mussel fritters with courgettes and fennel. I was surprisingly not put off by the mussels, probably because the texture of the fritters was amazing and the dish flavourful. Would love to try these again!

I have had one meal at The Grove and it was pretty spectacular. I was there for an event, so my review may be a bit skewed seeing as I didn’t have to pay for my meal and it was a set menu. We started with some amazing canapés. Canapés are my shit, I love those things. I will judge an event based on how good its canapés are. The actual meal was bloody delicious. I want to give them 4.5 stars. The other .5 of a star is missing because I have a weird thing about giving something 5/​5, and also because I don’t think I’ve been enough times to properly say it’s that good. Anyway, I had some crayfish thing with tomatoes and even though I fricken hate tomatoes, I pushed through and it was still one of the better dishes I’ve ever had. They gave us sous vide salmon which was tender and rich and melt in your mouth. The wines were excellent. The actual environment was pretty nice, I think I’d go again. I still like The French Café more though.

The Grove has won multiple awards, from everyone from Metro through to your Great Aunt Martha’s walking group, and it’s not hard to see why: exemplary service, very special food and a stylish dining room. Seemingly everything on the menu is very, very good; the sort of place where people are liable to groan with pleasure after they’ve put something in their mouth.
It is a fine dining place, with the prices you’d expect to go along with that, but they obviously care about their ingredients, cooking them well, and creating a fine environment for a night out, and seriously, if you’re OK with paying $ 25 for a big breakfast & coffee cooked with little skill and cheap ingredients, you should be OK to pay only a few dollars more for a much better meal here.
Don’t think this is a stuffy place where you’ll feel out of place if you don’t know the rules; the staff make everyone feel at home. We once went here when one of our party was very «under the weather» (boozed) and the staff coped well with it, discretely just not topping up that person’s glass, and making sure a taxi was waiting when we left.