Back to Somerset Cottage for lunch

Somerset Cottage

Cuisine: Contemporary New Zealand

Address: 30 Bethlehem Road, Bethlehem, Tauranga

Phone: 07 576 6889

Website

Drinks: Licensed and BYO wine

Reservations: Recommended

 

Now we're into 2021 and an email arrived to say they're open again, I realise I forgot to mention our last visit to Somerset of 2020. They usually only do lunch on Friday but there was an extra lunch service on the Wednesday before Christmas so since Jan and I were both on holiday we headed in for a quick bite before bracing for the upcoming festivities. I know I've written about them before - that's the thing when you live close by. I promise I'll get to some new places from next week on!

 

The lunch menu is actually the same as at dinner - half weekly, half unchanging, vegan options - but since it was a fine day we got to sit outside on the rather lovely back porch and look across the gully at the scenery. We tried not to just order the same things we had last time. Luckily the weekly menu offered several new options.

 

We'd taken along a bottle of 2014 Stonecroft Old Vines Gewurztraminer to drink since Somerset is one of the few restaurants around that allow you to BYO wine. I should mention that they do also have what I reckon is about the best wine list in the Bay, filled with unusual interesting drops all personally picked by owner Anne (and intentionally reasonably priced).

 

The wine was solid and intense, showing a little bit of age, rich and luscious, not too sweet and brimming with floral perfumed notes. Damn fine!

 

On to food. Jan just wanted a main (yes, it was the same one she had last time...) and her usual salad. I fancied two entrees, and I got to eat Jan's veges which automatically come with the main course. Then we shared dessert.

• Crispy cauliflower coated with a sticky gochujang sauce           $20
• Beef cheek arancini, red wine glaze                                               $20
• Crispy battered Bostock chicken, Korean style glaze                  $39
• Salad of cos leaves with grano padano and classic vinaigrette    $9
• Korean doughnuts, salted caramel and chocolate sauce              $9 ea

And it looks like we had a Korean meal from that list! Actually, it seems Somerset are on a small Korean journey since there are three Korean-influenced dishes on the weekly menu. We just happened to have all of them. We're still blown away at the crispness of the coatings and the way the sauce seems to soak into it without making anything soggy.

 

Arancini

Cauliflower

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cauliflower and chicken actually have a totally different coating, the cauliflower more like breadcrumbs and the chicken resembling tempura. Meanwhile, the arancini was excellent, the meat inside unctuous, the sauce deep and dark and with the added bonus of mushrooms. 

 

The only part of the meal I had reservations about were the vegetables (we forgot to photograph them) which were broccoli, courgette and more and were served cold with a mixture sprinkled over the top - cous cous, almonds and more. It's the cold thing I'm not sure of: gimme hot vegetables or a cold salad not the other way round. (I do struggle with even the concept of a hot salad - but then I'm a bear with a very small brain...)

Chicken

Salad

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doughnuts

 

 

 

As to the doughnuts they were excellent too with a hint of the cronut to them. I should probably mention that they did look alarmingly like Mr Hankey The Christmas Poo from South Park (Jan did her best to disguise that in the photo!) but they tasted fantastic and pretty much as fantastically unhealthy as a cronut. Since we only had one each it was easy to forgive ourselves for what tasted like an extreme indulgence.

 

Yum. Lovely lunch. It felt like a complete escape from the world for a couple of hours. Some people perceive Somerset as more expensive that other restaurants though I think it's pretty much on par with Clarence, Harbourside, The White House and others, and the BYO deal makes it very attractive even with the corkage charge. I notice on-line this morning that the weekly menu has changed again - looking forward to trying more new dishes...    

 

Wine & Pate at the White House

WHITE HOUSE RESTAURANT

Cuisine: New Zealand
Address: 15E Minden Road, Te Puna 
Phone: 07 552 4443
Website 
Drinks: Fully licensed
Reservations: Recommended

 

(I've written about the White House before, but that was lunch and yesterday I was struck again by how nice it is as just a casual drop-in spot...)

 

And actually, the title says it all. I just thought I'd pop this quick post up as it struck me that there are probably people in the vicinity of Te Puna who are perhaps not taking advantage of having a handy restaurant open all day most days (Tuesday to Sunday from 12 midday).

 

We remembered on the way home, so as we were passing we called in for a quick pate and glass of wine.

 

• Hihi The Full Monty Chardonnay (Gisborne) 2017      $13
• Prophet's Rock Pinot Gris (Central Otago) 2018           $15   
  

What a nice way to wile away an hour. The wines were both excellent. The Chardonnay was a deep yellow and had a strong butterscotch edge along with the lovely creaminess you get from malolactic fermentation. It is not an expensive wine but does its bit to help support Gisborne's claim to be New Zealand's "Chardonnay Capital"

The Pinot Gris was really very lovely, the dominant flavour being pineapple, with a little mixed fruit salad sitting behind that. It was both fruity and dry, very well balanced and with a hint of the textural "oiliness" you get from Alsace Pinot Gris.

 

Homemade Chicken Liver Pate (GFO)                                                   $18 

toasted ciabatta, dijon mustard, caramelized onions, gherkins & walnuts

 

And the pate was top notch too. There's nothing hard about making pate - you just have to do it right and here they do. The various accompaniments work well. I'm a sucker for the candied walnuts and the dijon and caramelised onions both complement the pate. The dukkah and almonds were good with it too. Simple pleasures.

 

There we go. Just a reminder that good food is lurking just up the rise at the back of the Te Puna shops. And if you call in to the White House don't forget to check out the Te Puna Deli which you'll drive right by - it a home of great artisan chartcuterie and cheeses as well as fresh organic veges and all sorts of good stuff.

 

A Big Bowl of Fish at Dumpling Delight

Dumpling Delight 

Cuisine: Dumplings, Nothwestern Chinese

Address: 20 Wharf St, Tauranga

Phone: 07 5712166

Website

Drinks: Beer, soft drinks - some unusual 

Reservations: Probably unnecessary

 

I do like this place. They are so sweet and friendly that the occasional chaos or the downhome need to collect your own plates and cutlery doesn't really matter. And the food is good. This is a brief rave because I tried a new dish and it blew me away!

 

We just popped in for some quick dumplings and I took the chance to try something I've been eyeing up since the first time we went to Dumpling Delight. Their Big Bowl of Fish. If you've been there - or up Devonport Road to Sichuan Style - you might have noticed really large deep bowls coming out from time to time. Most regularly these are beef or fish in chilli oil (Sichuan Style rather poetically calls it "...in thick spicy tongue-numbing sauce"). We've had the beef one here (rather wonderful) but never the fish. Till now.

• Pork Delicacy dumplings, pan-fried     $13.80 / 16 pce 
  
• Lemon Chicken                                        $22
• Fish Filets in Hot Chilli Oil                     $24
• Steamed rice                                            $2.50 each

 

 

And all I can say is WOW! It's a HUGE bowl, filled with hot-pot sauce from which you scoop out the fish fillets, bean sprouts, cabbage and bok choi. The sauce itself was deep and rich and redolent of chilli and beans and Sichuan pepper and all sorts of intense Northern/Western Chinese flavours, a strong underlying sweetness mitigating against the sea of chilli. And for all that it's not too hot (we went medium) since you're not really eating the soupy oily sauce itself, just the stuff in it.

 

Even more impressive was the amount of fish, thin fillets with a unique slippery velvety texture, and just masses of it. Three of us each had plenty. And bean sprouts are lovely lightly cooked like that. If you like a blast of something unusual and haven't tried this one I'd say definitely give it a go. Great dish, great price. 

The dumplings were as good as usual and are a helluva reasonable deal for 16 of them. They're handmade and are particularly juicy. And having them fried on the bottom adds a great textural edge. The chicken was just fine too, not too sweet, crisp, moist. But this was all about that fish. That big beautiful bowl of fish... Yum!

RESTAURANT REVIEW INDEX JANUARY 2021

AUGUST 2020 - JANUARY 2021

At the start of each month I'll post a current index of restaurant reviews. Some may obviously be a little out of date. All the restaurants here are in the Tauranga region...

1 - 100

88 Chinese Restaurant

B

Bar Centrale (1)

Bar Centrale (2)

Bluebiyou

C

Chidori

Clarence Bistro (1)

Clarence Bistro (2)

D

Dumpling Delight

M

Mudan

O

Oscar & Otto

R

Rice Rice Baby

S

Sichuan Style

Somerset Cottage

Sugo

T

The Barrel Room

The Cider Factorie

The White House

V

Volare (1)

Volare (2)

Z

Zozo

Yum Cha at 88 Chinese Restaurant

88 Chinese Restaurant

Cuisine: Cantonese and Dim Sum 

Address: 801 Cameron Rd, Tauranga

Phone: 07 5712388

Website

Drinks: Licensed (small wine and beer list) & BYO wine

Reservations: definitely a good idea

 

 

88 Chinese Restaurant has never had a good name; it is hard to think of a more generic anonymous moniker, though it is of course a lucky number for some Chinese, which is why so many restaurants have it as a name. But for the past 25 years or more it has served the best yum cha in Tauranga, first down in the CBD on Devonport Road (at the actual 88) and, following a move last year, on Cameron Road near the hospital. The new premises may be bigger but it now seems busier than ever. I almost hesitate to write about it here lest more people discover the wonderful food and reservations become even harder to get.

It was the first Sunday in the new year and four of us rendezvoused there for a yum cha lunch.

 

For those not familiar with the concept, yum cha is a Chinese lunch service comprising a selection of shared small dishes (known as dim sum). Traditionally in larger restaurants these dishes are brought round on trolleys for the tables to select. More commonly these days you will just be given a menu and are tasked with ticking the items you desire. Then everything arrives randomly. You should also be provided with small dipping bowls of soy sauce and chilli oil.

 

I guess you could regard this as the Cantonese equivalent of Tapas, or the small sharing plates of every nationality that have become so popular over the last decade. We had:

• Deep Fried Combination Dumpling        $6

  

  Pork Dim Sum (Sui Mai)

• Spring Onion Pancake                              $6
• Beef Ribs in Black Pepper Sauce             $7
• Pork Ribs in Black Bean Sauce                $7
• Pork Dim Sum (Sui Mai)                           $7
• Prawn Dumplings                                     $7
• BBQ Pork Rice Roll                                   $7
• Spicy Wonton                                            $9
• Deep Fried Prawn Toast                          $9
• Deep Fried Squid                                      $9
• Malaysian Tofu (deep fried)                     $9
  
• Roast Pork                                         reg  $15

 

In typical fashion I forgot to get pics of some of the dishes. Mainly the ones that arrived later while we were already munching. But here's a bit of a gallery of what I did manage to photograph...

 

Beef Ribs in Black Pepper Sauce

 

 

 

Deep Fried Prawn Toast

Malaysian Tofu (deep fried)

Roast Pork

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Deep Fried Squid

 

 

 

Spicy Wonton

Prawn Dumplings

 

 

 

Pork Ribs in Black Bean Sauce

BBQ Pork Rice Roll

Spring Onion Pancake

Some thoughts: they really do a very good yum cha here, at least for the dishes that they offer. There are a lot of things you would regularly expect at yum cha - from many many different dumplings to stuffed vegetables - that are not available. Perhaps it's a Tauranga thing. But there are a few real stand-outs:

 

The Pork Sui Mai are outstanding, not filled with mince but as they should be with chopped meat, great texture, as good as any anywhere.

The Prawn Toast is also outstanding, with a generous layer of juicy prawns pressed against the crisp toast.

The Spicy Wontons are a thing of legend, primarily because of the beautifully balanced sauce. This time used cabbage instead of bean sprouts which wasn't as good but I assume they were temporarily out of the latter. 

The combination dumplings nail that unusual texture perfectly, a sort of weird "combination" of chewy and crunchy. Unique and worth checking out. (I didn't get a pic)

The BBQ pork rice roll also nails the unusual texture of the rice "skin". Not my favourite but people who like it rave about this version.

The Prawn Dumplings (Har Gow) are often very good. Sometimes the "crystal" pastry doesn't work but mostly it is excellent and the prawns have the correct "bouncy" texture that Chinese prize.

 

The only thing I would avoid is the Shanghai Pork Bun (Xialong Bao) which are a star of yum cha when made well but here are bought in frozen and are not worthwhile.

 

The restaurant is also open for dinner with a full Chinese menu, and does takeaways. They also offer roasted meats which can be taken home. The BBQ pork is particularly good for this as it makes a great addition to stir fries and other Chinese dishes and never tastes quite the same when you make it yourself. The wine and beer list is small but being able to BYO wine is great as a good Gewurztraminer is a wonderful match with pretty much all the food here.  

 

Yum Cha menu (1)

Yum Cha menu (2)