Fresh moves
A stalwart of the Hamilton scene, Iguana, is under new management. Denise Irvine checks out the revamped menu and finds it to her liking.
Aslice of Hamilton’s culinary history has changed hands after 21 years under the same ownership. We’re talking Iguana Street Bar & Restaurant, opened in 1996 in Victoria St’s then fledgling south-end eat street precinct by Hamilton hospitality businessmen Jason Macklow and the late Richard Bate. The pair transformed a huge, semi-derelict building that had once been Hannahs shoe store into one of the busiest and best-looking spots in town.
Iguana always had broad appeal, blending a bar and restaurant, aiming for smart-casual service and honest, good-value food. Macklow has finally sold after a long run. The new guys at the helm are chefs Michael Yorston and Lalit Kumar, who have worked together for seven years at Auckland restaurants including Masu and The Mediterranean.
They’ve been at Iguana for the past two months and the first thing they’ve done is develop a new menu. My sister-in-law, Denise, and I settled into a booth the other night to check it out, and to reminisce on many earlier outings to this watering hole.
Pizzas have been an Iguana staple since Day One, and Kumar and Yorston have wisely retained these as well as some of the popular meal deals. But they’ve pared back and freshened up the offerings, giving things a contemporary lift with thoughtful flavour matching, some Asian influences and seasonal ingredients.
There are steaks, salads and pastas, plus the pizzas, and interesting-sounding dishes such as date and orange braised pork belly with spiced chorizo, golden kumara mash, wilted spinach and granny smith sauce. Venison gets stylish treatment, too, and we liked the look of a new selection of meaty mashawi skewers, a Middle Eastern barbecue classic.
We decided on a dinner special of any two dishes for $45. With this arrangement we could share a starter and dessert and have a main each. We began with prawns, six of them wrapped in shredded kataifi pastry, deep-fried and topped with a lovely Asian spiced lychee salsa. It was a crispy/tasty warm up. My miso-glazed salmon main was recommended by our efficient waitress, Siobhan. The fish was roasted perfectly, tender and moist, and the miso gave it a savoury-salty edge. There was blanched bok choy and warm potato salad to cut the richness and wakame seaweed and sourdough crisps for extra flavour and texture.
Everything was assembled on a black tile that seemed a tad too small for the job. Pieces of my potato salad stack tumbled onto the table as I cut into it and it may have been have been better on a generously sized plate. It was still a pleasure to eat.
Meanwhile, the mashawi skewers across the table were getting a top review: it was a fragrant feast of rosemary and cumin-marinated lamb threaded on skewers and served sizzling on a hot stone for a touch of drama at the table. The lamb was medium-rare, neatly matched with pita bread, sauteed red capsicum and red onion, olive tapenade, chipotle cream and green salad with pomegranate.
We finished with liquorice creme brulee. I’m pretty committed to traditional brulee and don’t like it messed with too much. This passed muster. Liquorice added delicate flavour to the creamy custard without being overpowering and there was vanilla icecream and a brandy snap on the side for coolness and crunch. Nice work, everyone.