Deliciously posh-peasant

DAVID BURTON

REVIEW: Where there's obvious appeal in the restaurant with a sweeping harbour view, the closeted interior of Arbitrageur offers a more subtle, wholly contrary charm.

Hermetically sealed from the city, Arbi creates its own little world. Every piece of furniture, every square of leather, every object harmonises with the next: the polished silver ice buckets with the gleaming copper tabletops, the spherical lampshades with the chunky Deco pillars. There are no windows, but any claustrophobia is averted by a skylight and the soaring 1950s ceiling.

Last year chef patron Chris Green installed an elegant iron grille to separate off the side wing, thus pandering to the seemingly contradictory demands of his corporate clients, who need privacy yet wouldn't dream of eating in a restaurant that wasn't busy.

Our waitron for the evening was young, attractive, immaculately groomed, and as we have now come to expect at Arbi, French.

Without necessarily seeking to engage us in conversation, she worked unobtrusively, with cutlery coming and going in an elegant ballet of attention, and even though she messed up my wine orders, her menu knowledge was good.

All of this put me in the proper mood for the food.

Green, that erstwhile bulldozer driver from Wairoa, has returned to Wellington after two years of mixing in diplomatic circles in Geneva, so where Arbitrageur's menu was formerly pan-European, these days it veers strongly towards French. The general style, however, might still be described as posh-peasant, in that these provincial classics have been refined and modernised, with exactingly precise presentation.

Pate de tete (served with elegant compartmented dishes of toasted brioche, red-onion confit, tiny cornichons and tarragon-tinted Dijon) is more or less what our grandparents would have called brawn, so it's advisable to simply enjoy its surprisingly mild, subtle flavour without too much detailed dissection of its components.

Fennel soup was classical in its smooth, beautifully creamy texture, but given a modern jolt with spicy Merguez sausage and a slick of turmeric oil.

The pork belly takes a deeper excursion, as only pork can, into the nouvelle cuisine realm of fruit with meat: roast pork belly, dried cherry and peach crust, fondant potatoes, green beans and cider jus. This was very sticky, very piggy tasting (being from a mature beast); altogether delish.

The green beans had been put through a gadget that slices them into fillets, which meant they were cooked through but still crunchy, having needed that much less cooking. And a cylinder of baked fondant potato tasted exactly as it ought, of evaporated chicken stock. Bravo!

Aged entrecote, served medium-rare with sauce bearnaise, was equally by the book, as were the accompanying pommes Pont-Neuf. Named for Paris' "New Bridge" (in fact the city's oldest), these chunky fried potatoes are none other than the over-sized, hand-cut fries that in recent years have become de rigueur among upscale Wellington chefs.

Although there are 1000 wines in Arbi's cellar, most are priced into the hundreds, and some into the thousands.

So the real interest, for those of us who know better than we can afford, is that 24 of the 60 by-the-glass options also come in the half-glass - which is what I thought I was ordering.

"My God, that's a generous pour," I kept murmuring contentedly, until at the end of the evening, when I summonsed our waitron and commanded: "L'addition, s'il vous plait!" (pretentious - moi?) - only to discover I'd been charged for full glasses.

What with entrees, mains, sides, one dessert, one cheese course, tea, coffee and two pistachio truffles, our bill came to $246. Eek!

I'm glad we insisted on having tap water.

ONE THING YOU SHOULD TRY

From the cheeseboard: "Comte 12 Mois - France, complex & nutty, matured by famous 'affineur' Marcel Petite - $15." Apart from Canterbury Cheesemongers and Moore Wilson's Fresh, New Zealand doesn't really have an equivalent of the French affineur, or professional cheese curer/ conditioner. Served at room temperature in two honest slices, this comte gorgeously fills the palate and lingers. It's complemented by generous trimmings - sweet raisin bread, Armagnac-soaked prunes and quince paste - so you don't miss dessert.

ARBITRAGEUR WINE ROOM & RESTAURANT

125 Featherston St

Ph: 499 5530

Fully licenced

Open Mon-Fri from noon, Saturday from 6pm.

Price range of mains: $30-$38

Food: *****

Service: ****

Ambience: *****

Wine list: *****

Cost: $169 (excluding wine)

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