Restaurant Rec: Bar Céleste
A few girlfriends and I decided to try Bar Céleste, located on the very trendy K-Road in Ponsonby. My first impression was that I am not nearly cool enough to be eating at a place like this, mainly because I had a very polite hipster direct me to the front door when I stood awkwardly as he punched in a door code to what is apparently an apartment entrance right next to the restaurant. I didn’t realize that Bar Céleste is as narrow as it is. The place feels like it is 4 meters from one wall to the other, meaning everything is very squished together. Somehow the serving staff makes it work, and no one ended up with a pate of food dumped in their lap.
We made our reservation for the $89 Carte Blanche experience. There are options for a $69 Carte Blanche, a $45 vegetarian Carte Blanche, or an à la carte menu. There was no explanation about how much food this was, only that it included all of the carte blanche items, plus raw bar choices, delicacies, cheese, and dessert. None of the options include drinks, but the wine list is extensive. Even better, our server was one of the best I’ve had in Auckland for wine recommendations. Whenever we asked for help - which was necessary because we never knew what was coming out of the kitchen next - he would come back with three options. The first was a safe option, the second was an unexpected option, and the third was a fancy option. They were all spot on. Over the course of the evening we had a bottle of Cremant, an orange wine, and a chenin blanc. Unfortunately, our server was really light on the details of the food coming out so my descriptions are weak. I never had a great idea of what I was putting in my mouth, but it was generally delicous.
Up first were a dozen Te Matuku oysters. They were meaty and delicious with a plentiful amount of brine. They were quickly followed by an equally fresh kingfish crudo with oyster cream, herb oil, and cucumber. My only complaint is that they served twelve of each of these items… to a group of five. It made divvying up the dishes slightly awkward, but we’re all friends and worked it out. Still, it would’ve been better to have ten or fifteen so things were easily divisible.
After the raw dishes, we moved on to heartier food, including freshly baked bread served with salamis and gerkhins, a delicious beet and ricotta salad, some of the best roasted potatoes I’ve ever had that had a very gently kick, and a slightly overcooked (though still quite tasty) white fish in butter sauce.
This was followed by a perfectly cooked steak in bernaise sauce with a side of roasted Brussel sprouts. Unfortunately, the steak came with some fries that we all agreed were bad. Like shockingly bad. Probably previously frozen bad. I’m not sure what happened with the fries as everything else was a hit until then.
For dessert, we had a lovely cheese and honey plate with more of the bread from eariler and a ganache au chocolate dish that someone tried way too hard with - it turned out to be a slippery textured chocolate pudding with entirely too much olive oil and sea salt on top. The chocolate concoction was inedible. Fortunately, we were so stuffed by this point that no one had room left for dessert.
Overall this place was a lot of fun and it worth checking out if you want some unusual wines with generally very good food (the fries and the chocolate mess not withstanding). If I lived in the neighbourhood, I would consider this a top wine bar choice.
