Matterhorn Restaurant

We went to Wellington's Matterhorn restaurant last night and it was very good indeed - as one would expect from a restaurant which is the winner of Cuisine's Restaurant of the Year.

We arrived around 6:30 and had to do the obligatory wait in the bar. This seems to be standard for Wellington restaurants these days. Chris thinks that this is their way of pulling more money out of your wallet as you have to spend at least half an hour in the bar before a table becomes free even when the restaurant doesn't take bookings and you can see empty tables. She may well be right as we spent sometime in the bar with a bottle of Italian red and then asked about our table and Lo!, one was instantly available. It was just around the corner from one which had been free the entire time we were at the bar.

The place is very dark and very badly lit. Both Chris and Camille had to resort to holding the single table candle over the menu so they could read it. We had to do this in the bar as well when reading the wine list. My eyes must be better than theirs as I could read the menu however it would have been nice to able to see the food a bit better. The place has an excellent wine list. We decided on European wines for the night as sometimes we find NZ wines are so full on that they can overpower the food. Chris did the wine choosing as she knows far more about European wines than we do.

The food was excellent as was the service. I started with a tuna sashimi which was absolutely superb, followed by a roast duck breast accompanied by various bits. The duck was very good though there was a little too much salt involved with part of it for me. Camile had an olive selection starter followed by an eye fillet with smoked rib and Chris had garlic bread (best garlic bread I have had) followed by fish.

I was hoping to be able to give details of the meals but alas my memory has let me down and the Matterhorn's website is badly written. It refuses to recognise that I have flash installed (yes, a completely flash based website - a major annoyance!) so I can't see if they have their menus online to give me a few prompts. Crap website so no link to it. Sorry Matterhorn but it doesn't take much to provide a non-flash alternative or at least get your designer to write something that recognises Flash plugins properly.

Definitely a good place to dine!

Update: I have just found part of the menu on another site.

The duck: Roast duck breast & pithivier of leg with crushed broad beans, date & preserved lemon conserve & a lightly spiced jus.