Pick ’n’ mix pastiche
Pasifika with a hint of the East comes to Auckland’s waterfront
The vegetarian was very keen to try the sweet potato bread with toasted coconut butter. Bad luck. There was no bread because they needed to save what was left for the softshell crab sliders. No, said the waitperson, they did not do vegetarian sliders.
This could have gone quite badly, but redemption was swift and came with miso hollandaise. An extra dish of wood-fired asparagus, explained the waitperson. For the vegetarian.
The Good Luck Coconut has a really strong service game. From our rain-soaked arrival to our departure a few hours later, staff were friendly, efficient and (it’s truly amazing how often this is not the case) there when you needed them. All of which bodes well for a restaurant situated in the direct path of several gazillion grazing tourists.
Some of those tourists were at the table next to us. They brought their backpacks and their children and they ate prawns. Lucky kids. I was in the workforce six months before I discovered shrimp didn’t have to come in a tin.
How far and fast has our food scene come?
In the 1990s, I thought I was sophisticated when I ordered nachos. Now I go out for dinner with vegetarians and pay $28 for seven carrots. Sorry, seven “heirloom” carrots with coconut labneh, barbecued onions and a couple of skinny strips of aubergine that I initially mistook for carrots.
“Are you finding it all quite average?” asked the vegetarian, who didn’t realise the waitperson was standing right behind her. I am not suggesting these events were connected, but the extra asparagus did arrive shortly after.
In this neck of the woods, “average” is actually high praise. I’ve eaten some truly tragic food along this strip that is a sun trap on a good day and a tourist trap every day. You could definitely do a lot worse than the Good Luck Coconut. (The $12.50 asparagus is delicious).
The overall offering is described as the “best of the Pacific with just a hint of flavour from the East”. This is a reasonable proposition for a waterfront eatery. One day someone in the Viaduct will go full noise with an authentic Pasifika restaurant. In the interim, punters appear happy with pick ‘n’ mix pastiche — bamboo on the walls, tiki-mug kitsch and artwork that echoes the grainy, botanical renderings of early colonial artists.
We kicked off with karaage chicken ($19 and pleasant enough) and shiitake dumplings ($14), which were the prettiest shade of palm leaf green but had a flavourless, gummy interior. Mushroom sapasui ($23) was divisive. This dish has its origins in chop suey and the Chinese settlers and indentured labourers who came to Samoa in the late 1800s. It’s usually made with bean thread vermicelli (and meat). This version deployed spaghetti-like noodles, a lot of oil and not much soya sauce. There were plenty of mushrooms and green peas but it was little more than a Friday night fried vege noodle take-out at a restaurant-strength price.
The Good Luck Coconut is from the team behind Little Jimmy. Last time I ate at the latter, the lamb was the stuff of legend. It is a perfectly formed neighbourhood bistro and I had high hopes for this new venture.
The waterfront site is ambitious. More space, more foot traffic — more competition. The service is exemplary, the seats comfortable and the food is plated by someone who really knows how to make you eat with your eye. But the coconut rice ($6) was a little dry, the steak ($37) a little insipid and a chocolate “custard” ($15) more akin to a light mousse. Tourists will visit only once but they’re going to need to dial up the flavours to get repeat visits from locals.