Restaurant - Le Métropolitain

With a few tweaks I would have liked Le Métropolitain a whole lot more. The French bistro sits invitingly on Cuba Street, and lures you in with curly French writing on the blackboard and gorgeous-looking tarts in the window. Once inside, you discover it is cosy yet well-lit, with a relaxed feel to it.

I wanted to love it, but unfortunately the few tweaks it needed mounted throughout the meal, until the only really positive thing I could say about it was that it wasn’t totally rubbish. My experience on a cold Tuesday evening was that something didn’t quite click, despite the perfectly tasty food.

Having booked a table for two, we were promptly sat at a table for four, to which half the place settings were removed. Dumped with menus, we went without a drinks order or being told the specials for a good ten minutes, at the end of which a waitress came over and hurriedly asked if we were ready to order. We weren’t, but at least I was able to order a drink (a gin and tonic to start, followed by Reserve De La Chezre Pinot Noir). Having finally noticed that the specials were up on the blackboard, I was intrigued by the braised boar with juniper and pink peppercorn sauce, but not enough to order it; luckily, my dining companion was sold.

We began with starters – I went with the classic French onion soup, complete with a Gruyère crouton. I found the crouton mostly soggy, apart from one appropriately crunchy bite near the end – it struck me that the soup would have been a lot more enjoyable had the requisite crunch been there all the way through. My fellow diner really enjoyed his chicken livers, but I found their tomato-based sauce lacked depth.

To the mains: the braised boar was certainly a hearty meal, on top of dauphinoise potatoes, which my companion declared “impossible to be anything but delicious”, what with all that cream and cheese. I found the meat rich and strong in flavour, but disappointingly neither of us could detect a trace of either juniper or pink peppercorns. A sweeter sauce would have cut through the fattiness – it was a dish that had potential but needed more. I had ordered the rabbit parcel, which was served on a portobello mushroom and a crispy lyonnaise potato cake. The potato cake was a little too crispy, but the mushroom offset the flavour of the rabbit well. The mustard sauce was very tasty and complemented the hare well, there was just nowhere near enough of it.

I wasn’t that interested in dessert, but we persevered. I announced that, having made profiteroles before, I found the ones before me – which were filled with ice cream – underwhelming. The chocolate sauce was rich and served in a jug on the side, but when the waitress put the plate down, she took it upon herself to drown the profiteroles then and there. It was the kind of job I could have managed myself as a diner and in fact would have liked to have undertaken, and given the general lack of attentiveness throughout the meal it seemed a strange, staged move. My companion had the tarte du jour, which was rhubarb and almond. The rhubarb was subtle – far too subtle – but it was a fresh, buttery, nicely made tart. We decided after some discussion that if you’d been served it at a dinner party you would have been delighted, but in the context of a reasonably expensive bistro, it wasn’t quite there.

We opted out of coffee, and settled the bill at $152.50. For that price, I wanted more from every aspect of the meal. The service was sporadic and not particularly friendly, and although “classically French” according to my well-travelled companion, I didn’t think it stood up on Cuba Street. He said he’d dined there before and left feeling like he was best friends with the owners, a French couple who were absent the night we visited. That kind of thing is what this place needs, and where it was left sorely lacking on the night we were there. The restaurant was steadily busy, but the two wait staff we encountered appeared slightly frenzied at all times.

Le Métroplitain offers a bistro menu, which appears to be good value at $45 for a choice of two starters, mains and desserts, but for a restaurant whose menu boasts that they’re “delighted to share [their] passion with you” and prices to go with that, I was definitely left wanting. It certainly provides hearty, filling fare, but passion didn’t come across in either the food or the service.

Address 146 Cuba St, Wellington

Phone 04 801 8007

Cost: Entrees $13–$20 (including platters to share); mains $18–$36; desserts $10–$15

Open: Tuesday to Sunday, with lunch Tuesday to Friday and brunch on weekends

Food: A la carte; the bistro menu is good value at $45 for a starter, main and dessert

Drink: Reserve De La Chezre Pinot Noir (Burgundy), $13.50 a glass

[rating: 2 out of 5 FishHeads]