It's not often you get the excuse to eat at a restaurant like The Grove. So when the opportunity came along because......it was Tuesday (not an excuse really I know) I couldn't say no.
Now The Grove has been a restaurant I have wanted to visit for a long time and I just never have. I was biased going in because I simply expected to be impressed. This is mainly due to the fact that I have eaten from various festivals where The Grove have attended.

The negative to begin with was we booked last minute so couldn't have the Grove's degustation menu due to a table only being available for a short time.

Anyway the service was immaculate and there wasn't a single detail missed out by our waiter who pointed out everything down to where the fish came from and what time it arrived!

On to the menu, the entrees, mains and desserts are all set prices per course which then leads onto something that grates on me....surcharge. All dishes are the same price unless we stick an extra $5-10 on top is basically what this says to me.

This aside I had a pheasant and quail terrine followed by an assiette of free range pork and my dinning partner had a radicchio salad for entree and goats cheese tortellini for main. All dishes show an awful lot of skill with precision shown particularly in the balance of the terrine and its layers of quail, pheasant and foie gras. The foie gras part being excellent against an otherwise slightly bland terrine.
The pork dish was so full of flavour and the loin was the absolute standout being incredibly tender and melting on the tongue. My dining partner enjoyed her dishes and commented on the freshness of each dish including the very soft pasta.

Next we were aloud to share a dessert degustation which was the equivalent of 3.5 full desserts! The standout was the chocolate course which was the best dessert I've had in NZ, rich chocolate balanced out with a beautiful mandarin sorbet.

Overall just about as good as I had expected!

I had expected more from The Grove. The service was great and the food looked amazing, but I was underwhelmed by the taste. Food was fairly bland, and I have eaten at muht better places than The Grove for the price.

We have used The Grove for three consecutive years for our media lunch to launch our new vintages of Misha's Vineyard Wines and have had spectacular food and service every time. I rate The Grove as my "Top Choice" in Auckland and congratulate Michael & Annette Dearth, and Chef Ben Bayly on winning their well deserved recent awards.

Andy Wilkinson

The Grove rocks - great service, the New Zealand cuisine menu offers exactly what you'd expect from one of Auckland's top restaurants.

I think we've eaten there three times over the past 12 months and no doubt will be going again soon. Definitely recommended.

Amazing food - The Grove is well worth visiting. I had the express lunch which was great value at $55. Started with seared tuna and John Dory for the main. We ordered the fries with truffle oil as they looked so good on the next door table - and tasted better than they looked!! The Kumeu chardonnay went down really well as did the tasty petit fours and strong coffee. Will be visiting The Grove again shortly.