Place to Be

Jesse Mulligan heads to Madame George and finds something for all tastes, plus a bar that takes its pre-dinner cocktails seriously

Atable outside at Madame George might be one of the loveliest places in Auckland to enjoy an early evening cocktail. You can soak up the last of the sun, eat and drink as much as you’re in the mood for, and enjoy the bonhomie of the attractive grown-ups sitting around you. It’s like SPQR for the self-aware.

You should only ever order pre-dinner cocktails at a restaurant that takes them seriously — there are too many bistros whose business model consists of charging $22 for two nips of gin and some soft drink — and fortunately the bar at Madame George has equal status with the kitchen. Every drink is a careful work of art: each a different colour and shape, often pisco-based but wildly diverse nonetheless. Inevitably served very, very cold, the drinks arrive with a final flourish more impressive than it should be: a large block of clear ice with the restaurant’s name stamped into it.

It’s a hard list to choose from (the cocktails have mystifying names, and are filled with mystifying ingredients), which is a great opportunity to take advice from the staff. They are one of Auckland’s great teams, led by silver zorro Pablo, a captain of such charisma I’m sure that when people say, “Let’s go to Madame George,” they really mean, “Let’s go spend some time with Pablo.” Like every restaurateur, he’s spent the last few years in an apocalyptic hellscape, yet maintains the sunny optimism of somebody who’s just finished a long stay at a Greek island resort.

Many businesses were shuttered by Covid, but Madame George scrabbled to stay alive — delivering takeout meals when it had to, and using breaks between lockdowns to gasp for air before being sucked back under like the rest of us. Having lived through it, Pablo tells me he’s now determined that the business will thrive: “We owe it to ourselves, and we owe it to our customers,” he said, while pointing out a beautiful new private dining room which opened this week.

(He was too polite to say this, but I happen to know it took Auckland Council seven months to approve a permit for him to serve food to a table in an adjoining room. Given all the other problems facing the central city, can the council not appoint one troubleshooter to help out the good guys who are trying desperately to expand?)

Every dish on the menu is delicious, and though I didn’t eat a dish I would lie awake craving, the kitchen achieves what it’s shooting for: tasty, Peruvian-inspired cuisine on small plates, with a little something for all tastes.

The short menu is especially good if you like beef, with three options — skewers, steak, and stir-fried noodles (it’s a saucy Chinese-Peruvian thing, and great when that alcohol transforms into ravenous hunger). I think I’ve come to the conclusion that lean beef is not for me, even at its best, so I’ll go back for the chicken: grilled, tender and juicy with a side of generously seasoned green rice.

The skewers are fun, even if our waiter’s laughing description of okra (“like a textural, slimy asparagus”) didn’t exactly whet the appetite. As with many of the dishes, that okra came with lashings of deep, spicy sauce — towards the end of the dish, Pablo appeared with a teaspoon and said, “Use it, I’m not going to look.”

There’s a vegetarian tamale — a Central-American parcel of doughy comfort, wrapped and grilled inside a banana leaf. It’s made with quinoa (for Peruvians a joyful staple, rather than a sad love-child of influencer culture and the Bin Inn), served up with a little jug of spicy sweetcorn emulsion and a salsa of radish and green apple. Ask too about an off-menu green lip mussel (remember mussels?!) topped with another good salsa, its acidity cancelling some of the more intense seafood notes, without erasing the protein’s character completely.

All this said, I think Madame George will become most famous for its raw fish dishes: two similar but not identical options of citrus-cured snapper with sliced red onion and kūmara crisps, or tuna, served pink and fresh. Both dishes come with a bright yellow, spicy sauce but they are made with different chillies and are distinct enough that you can order both without feeling like you’re doubling up.

“Are the chillies grown in New Zealand or imported?” I asked.

“I went to a football game with some Peruvians,” was the unexpected beginning to Pablo’s answer. “At halftime, one of them got something out of his bag and started eating it like an apple. I recognised it as a rare Peruvian chilli and convinced him to give the rest to me, in exchange for some pisco sours. I put it in my pocket, took it home and cultivated it — and that’s what you’re tasting in your ceviche.”

Well, I don’t know what you’re looking for in a restaurant, but if this isn’t it, I’m not sure we can be friends.

MADAME GEORGE

CUISINE: Peruvian

ADDRESS: 490 Karangahape Rd

PHONE: (09) 308 9039

RESERVATIONS: Accepted

DRINKS: Fully licensed

FROM THE MENU: Snapper ceviche $19; tuna tiradito $19; okra skewer $14; beef skewer $15; beef saltado $31; grilled chicken $31; quinoa tamale $29 RATING: 17/20