The Engine Room (3)

115 Queen St, Northcote Pt. Ph 480-9502, engineroom.net.nz.
Lunch Friday; dinner Tuesday-Saturday.

Best Upmarket Bistro * Runner-up: Supreme Award

The winner of its category in every one of the eight years since it opened, The Engine Room serves the best double-baked goats’ cheese soufflé in town. That’s also true, or as good as true, for its steak frites, veal schnitzel, churros con chocolate… in fact, so much of the menu is so popular that they find it hard to make room for new items. What makes the food so good? Consider that schnitzel: it comes with a salad of fennel, radish and two sorts of cabbage; and a rosti made with agria potatoes; and a caper butter so delicious the memory may keep you awake at night. Ingredients you may not expect, flavours lively and beautifully balanced, everything cooked just so. As for the soufflé, it’s the dish that revolutionised vegetarian cooking in this town, because it made everyone else realise how much higher they could aim with meatless food. Carl Koppenhagen (pictured) is the genius who cooks all this, and Natalia Schamroth (also pictured) runs the floor — and an inspired list of wine and cocktails — with an efficiency that just oozes charm. $$$$

5 Spoons

A favourite dish: Veal schnitzel.

Free-range chicken and/or pork / Takes large groups / Craft beer selection