All the Mediterranean feels
Patient and polished waiters swiftly delivered pizzas and platters amid vines and sweeping views. Bravo, says Denise Irvine.
Fourteen people at a table can be testing for a restaurant, with multiple food and drink orders usually preceded by protracted discussion on who’s having what.
So there we were at Mercury Bay Estate, Cooks Beach, on a sunny Saturday, negotiating on pizzas, platters, wine and beer, and being attended to by patient and polished waiters who didn’t miss a beat.
There was a birthday person (Venetia) in our midst, marking a significant milestone, and she had serendipitously picked a perfect day to marshal us for a long lunch on the Coromandel.
We were outdoors under a rustic, grape-covered pergola, the woodfired pizza oven was cranked up nearby and there were views to the blue sweep of Mercury Bay, famously visited by explorer Captain James Cook in 1769.
Mercury Bay Estate is owned by Simon and Veronica Ward. They have pinot noir grapes on their land, and host visitors at their hilltop eatery and cellar door. Some of their wines are made from locally grown fruit and others from Hawke’s Bay pickings.
Simon’s had wide experience in the wine industry and he met Veronica during a stint working in Italy. She’s from Sardinia, she runs Mercury Estate’s kitchen, and her Mediterranean influence shines in an unfussy menu.
Her pizza dough manufacture is a slow, two-day process, the result being a light, crispy-chewy base that I could happily eat on its own without toppings. Maybe just a lick of olive oil. Toppings are good, though, applied Italian-style with a light touch. Not groaning with a cast of 100 ingredients.
There is also a selection of platters and salads, everything fresh and simple. The platters canvass charcuterie, cheese, seafood and antipasto elements.
The restaurant was busy on this Saturday; we were a big group and we thought we’d have a long wait for meals. Not so. It all arrived speedily, we kicked back and took ages over it.
Our end of the table ordered Coromandel platters, caprese salad, Napoli pizza and a pizza special topped with blue cheese and fresh walnuts. We toasted the birthday person with Mercury Estate’s rosé, chardonnay and a few beers.
Our platters were a thoughtful assembly of smoked fish pate, Coromandel mussels, smoked ham, pickled onions, kasundi, macadamia dukkah and freshly baked bread. It did the job on flavours, textures and variety – a kind of Coromandel-meets-Italy mosaic – with plenty of local ingredients in the mix.
The Napoli pizza was made with tomato sauce, mozzarella, anchovies, capers and olives, and the blue cheese and fresh walnut rendition (my favourite) was a sharp, nutty partnership. The caprese salad – tomato, buffalo mozzarella and basil – was classic understated Italian.
The whole package was all neatly pitched for its surroundings. They’re not trying to reinvent things or be too clever here. It works.
Veronica sticks with her native Italy for dessert. There is homemade tiramisu, gelato, a cake of the day, and affogato. My affogato, served in a coffee cup, was a sweet, punchy, syrupy mix of vanilla icecream, Amaretto liqueur, and espresso. Best affogato ever.
The birthday person can choose this place for lunch any year she likes.