A taste of...
Apache 122 Wakefield St, Te Aro, Wellington.
We’d heard... The FrenchVietnamese eatery is very good, though I had never been despite having lived in Wellington for more than six years.
The vibe... Though full of diners, the white, minimalist space was welcoming without being overwhelming, with low lighting and a lack of music adding to the easy-going vibe.
We ordered... We started with the kumara bim-bim ($7), a generous serving of hand-cut kumara crisps with delicious togarashi and sriracha mayonnaise. The crunchy morsels were well-seasoned, moreish and an easy share option.
For the main course, my dining companion settled on the bestselling bang bang chicken salad ($25) – made up of lemongrass chicken, spiced cashews, fresh mango, coconut, and herbs, which he described but heavy with coriander.
I went for the vegetarianfriendly monk’s bowl ($24) – a large helping of tofu, charred aubergine, mushroom, tomatoes, spinach and pine nuts. It was far more filling than expected with the large chunks of smoky aubergine, tofu and mushroom more than making up for the absence of meat.
Dessert-wise, we shared the small, but rich, bitter chocolate mousse, known on the menu as broken leaves ($13), which was accompanied by salted pastry, vanilla and cassia anglaise, burnt white chocolate and mandarin puffs. Despite its mainly heavy ingredients, it was light, with a nice texture. The only let-down of the evening was my non-alcoholic salted lemonade ($8), which started off delicious but became unbearably salty by the end, although that could have been remedied with a vigorous stir.
The service… Was flawless; from our server describing how the menu worked and offering recommendations to the speed everything came, we couldn’t fault it.
If you go… Book! My dining companion and I made the mistake of thinking we could simply wander in on a Tuesday. Fortunately, the staff worked their magic and conjured up a table that had a later booking but I wouldn’t chance it next time.
Rating out of 5: 4.5 – Ruby Macandrew