Just fabulous.

My best dining experience in NZ to date. All the other reviewers paint much more eloquent pictures of fancy ingredients and exquisite gastro moments than I ever could.
We had a bloody brilliant time at the Grove and will certainly go back.

Compliments to the chef!

We dined at the Grove on Friday the 23rd of December, a busy time of year and the restaurant was filled with diners from 6.45 pm when we arrived – we were early and expected to have to wait for our table but the staff let us know that we could make our way to the table now if we liked which was great!

We ordered our entrees and mains the scallop entree was amazing! which we all ordered.

For our mains I had the fish & the others had the deer – all tried each others and hands down can say it was beautiful (i suffered from a little food envy as the deer with the cherries and beets a beautiful combo) the shoe string fries with black truffle oil are delicious.

Wine list is amazing and dessert that one of us had looked incredible and my friend was in heaven! she had the selection of different treats and the presentation was beautiful.

Would definitely recommend & will be trying it again soon!

This would be one of my couple of most favourite restaurants in Auckland. For special occasions or get togethers this is always spectacular. Heavenly food, I’ve been about 5 times and have never had a bad meal. Exquisite flavours, beautifully served, for a really special lunch or dinner go here! Not cheap but certainly memorable.

We have waited a long time to dine at The Grove and we were not disappointed. We were slightly early so ordered a martini each and relaxed in the comfy leather chairs. Bar was busy so drinks took a little while but were worth the wait. We had the degustation and every dish was brilliantly balanced and very well matched with a range of international wines. The highlights were the pan fried Hapuka, yellow tail carpaccio and the filet with smoked marrow….divine! The owner Michael was attentive and welcoming. Top drawer evening. Lives up to noise. Will definitely be back.

I viisted the Grove for lunch with my wife and her sister on a holiday to Auckland – I had eaten there several times before whilst on business and wanted my wife to share the experience.

We were not disappointed. We had the tasting menu, which was superb, although the boar dish was our favourite! the owner, Michael, was on hand to recommend a wine to accompany the food – Destiny Bay Destinae and, for a real treat, Magna Praemia. Michael even went out of his way to arrange a private visit and tasting at the winery as we were on vacation.

It is very difficult to maintain the quality, and service, associated with fine dining and each exeprience is different. Previously I had found the quality of food to be excellent and, for business, the attention from servers to be just right.

On this holiday visit, the service was excellent, the food was a delight and the wine selection was perfect. The fact that Michael took the time to arrange the visit to the winery on Waiheke Island, a trip which we would strongly recommend, and we would not have made without Michaels help, is a credit to him and the restaurant – they stock Destiny Bay wines. In addition Michael is prepared to listen to criticism and is striving to be the best.

Its not cheap and expectations are corespondingly high. We had a great experience and will certainly be going back. Try it.

My partner and I have dined in many of the best restaurants in Auckland, and after an exquisite experience at The French Cafe last month we decided to try The Grove next. The restaurant comes with lofty credentials, having received the Supreme Award in the Metro Top 50 guide for the past two years running. Sadly for us, though, our night barely deserved to be in the Top 100!

We had booked one month in advance, so when we arrived at the door and were told we would have to wait for our table it set us back from the get-go. We dallied at the bar for fifteen minutes as the table was being reset, and then our lovely maitre d’ led us to our seats. We let the moment pass. The menu on the evening was fantastic, so it didn’t take too long to decide what we wanted. However there was another long wait to place our orders. We must have been in the restaurant at least 30 minutes by the time we finally placed our orders. We suspected the restaurant was understaffed that evening, as our waiter was doing a sterling job of entertaining more tables than I would have expected in such a fine establishment. He was run off his feet, poor chap! However he never stopped smiling and was undoubtedly the highlight of our night.

My partner and I both ordered the tuna starter, which was delicious. I would suggest, however, that a simple clean white plate would have been more appealing than the abstract glass plates we ate from. They looked like something from the 1970s. We didn’t have to wait long for our mains; the lady choosing John Dory with white asparagus, while I chose the Pork Three Ways. Unfortunately neither of these dishes were satisfactory. The John Dory was a replacement for the advertised Hapuka, and that was explained beforehand, but the fish tasted dry and very dull, not fresh and melt in the mouth, despite our waiter assuring us it was caught at 430pm that day! I tasted it too and agreed with my partner that it was poor. My own pork dish was equally disappointing. I often have pork belly when I dine out, and this pork belly just tasted odd, as did the other two cuts of pork. I can’t describe it, but it just tasted like the pork was off. We had ordered a side of french fries, and this was the saving grace of the meal. It’s so disappointing when you have to say the fries were the best thing on the menu at a fine dining restaurant. We finished on a shared raspberry souffle, which is the lady’s favourite dessert, but she found it underwhelming, and it contained too much oil at the bottom of the dish. This made the last third of the souffle almost inedible. It didn’t taste good the deeper the spoon went.

During the meal we commented a number of times on how sloppy some aspects of the dining experience were, from the lazy display of cutlery on the table, to the simple things like not asking if we might need a taxi. These little touches were what makes fine dining so special.

We were prepared to accept that perhaps The Grove was just having an “off” night, but at these prices we won’t be back to chance it again.

Now I would like to make a note that I don’t often get caught up in public the hype over something, and I must say everything I have heard of the grove is that it is the best restaurant in the country and Chef Ben and owner Michael are two of the best in the NZ scene. So I went to the grove the other night and all I can really say is that the grove for me lives up to its hype!! it truly is the best restaurant in this country!! The maître d’ I believe was the owner Michael because he was so professional I felt that I was back in New York or London dining at one of my favourite fine dining restaurants! Thank you to the staff at the grove I feel as though I am back home! You will be seeing a lot more of me there! And I hope that the readers of this website will be trying it out for themselves and I am sure you will have an amazing dining experience!!

Dining at the Grove Restaurant was such a treat.
We were greeted politely and shown to our table after our coats had been taken and their impressive wine list was given to us for our perusal.
The staff were very attentive but also gave us space to ponder the menu and answer any questions we had – it was obvious they were passionate about the food and offering a great dining experience.
Crayfish is an absolute favourite of mine and the dish presented was beyond delicious, the flavours couldn’t have been put together better.
My main was again to die for, beef fillet with the most amazing accompaniments including a wagyu ox cheek lasagne, celeriac and pear purée.
Another treat to be noted was the shoestring fries with black truffle oil what a divine flavour, such a simple side dish but with a truly unique twist.
I held myself back from ordering the entire dessert menu but as I saw a few of the dishes being presented to a table near us, the satisfaction from them as they took their first bite was enough for me to change my mind!
Overall a thoroughly enjoyable evening, dining at the Grove is an experience I highly recommend.

The two of us had booked a table at The Grove for our anniversary on a Friday night about a month ago. We had heard so many good things about this restaurant and the fact that it was chosen as the Supreme Winner of the Restaurant of the Year awards in Metro magazine for 2011 raised our expectations accordingly.

We were seated at our table immediately when we arrived and the evening started off rather well. The atmosphere was lovely with pleasant furniture, dimmed lights and a bearable buzz of conversation among the diners around us. We chose to have the Tasting Menu with matching wines so we could sample the best of the chef’s much recommended cuisine. The best of the entrees was probably the tortellini of saffron and goat’s ricotta dish, which had beautiful melt-in-the-mouth textures and smooth, subtle flavours, although the terrine of quail and pheasant was quite tasty also.

As we were eating our food we noticed that the table to the left of ours was being served the Tasting Menu as well and were just slightly ahead of us by one dish, although we managed to catch them up by the time the last main of beef fillet came around. We were just settling back to chat while we waited for our beef dish to be served when two enormous plates were planted in front of us with quite sizeable portions of the beef fillet and its accompaniments on them. As normal, the waiter politely explained the elements of the dish and its matching wine, then left us to it. We were quite surprised by the size of the portions, as all of our previous portions were much smaller than regular mains and entrees, as would’ve been expected in a Tasting Menu.

However, just as we had picked up our knives and forks to get started into the food, the two plates were whipped out from under our noses and placed onto the table next to us that we had noticed was also having the Tasting Menu. We were very surprised this had happened, as we had near enough been sticking our noses in it to savour the flavoursome aromas and almost started cutting into the beef! If the waitress who took the plates away from us had delayed it any longer, we would definitely have been chewing! The only explanation we got was a bland, “Sorry, they’re not yours – yours are just coming now.” We understand that sometimes mistakes can happen and dishes can be placed on the wrong table from time to time but when two tables are having exactly the same menu, should not the portions for each individual eating be exactly the same? We would also have appreciated the waitress being a bit more savvy and empathetic of the faux pas committed. We were not, after all, dining at McDonald’s for $10 a meal.

Unfortunately, despite the high quality of the food, we could not help but continue discussing this incident throughout the rest of the meal. Perhaps it coloured the rest of our experience at The Grove that night, because we also did not particularly appreciate feeling rushed by the wait staff towards the dessert end of the meal, especially as it was only around 10 pm and hardly any other guests were still eating. New wine was poured into new glasses while we were still in the middle of drinking our previous wine, but then when we had finished it the used wine glasses remained on the table until after the dessert had been served, which ended up being strange behaviour from the wait staff – should a place of The Grove’s lofty status not have wait staff who keep track of their guests’ eating and drinking speed? We did find that the first dessert of Pedro Ximenez ice cream with Granny Smith apple was absolutely lovely, especially paired with some very nice Pedro Ximenez for us to sip on. We resolved to have a nice chat with the maitre d’ of the restaurant at the end of the night, trusting that he would set our spirits at ease.

The end of the night came soon after and we came over to the bar to settle the bill and speak with the maitre d’ who informed us that he was also the owner of the restaurant. What luck! we thought. Who better to speak with about an unsatisfactory service experience than the owner of the place himself? To cut a long story short, we explained to him our thoughts and feelings about the service, expecting to be reassured and comforted. To his credit, the owner did seem to listen to our feedback with all seriousness and sincerety, but his response was more than unsatisfactory. After apologising briefly, he advised that mistakes can sometimes happen in a busy restaurant, which bemused us somewhat because the restaurant was not exactly bustling with customers at the time our incidents occurred. We decided to also bring up the wine glass issue, which the owner near enough laughed off as mere nitpicking, and all in all seemed in a rush to put through the payment transaction, as he fiddled with the EFTPOS machine, and get rid of us without taking anything too seriously. When we tried to broach the issue of our concerns once more he broke off the conversation to advise that our taxi was waiting outside and waved us to the exit.

It is such a shame that a restaurant rated at such a high calibre did not match our expectations in service as well as food. In all honesty, we thought the food wasn’t bad but did not find it all that spectacular, nor the matching wines, a couple of which were downright strange. We had had a beautiful, highly enjoyable experience with food, service, atmosphere and everything overall at The French Cafe just a few weeks before we went to The Grove, and were wondering what had made the latter rated just a bit higher in Metro magazine this year. Sadly, we are still left wondering, because all in all we would definitely rate The French Cafe higher in every aspect and would definitely be much happier to spend our money there than return to The Grove any time in the near future. Consequently, The Grove is not a place we would recommend for anyone looking for an all-encompassing top notch experience.

One of my top 2 favorite fine dining restaurants in Auckland. Sophisticated and classy room. Faultless service. Sublime devastation with matched wines.

There have been a couple of chef changes over the years which usually means the food standard has a wobble, but I’m happy to say that this is not the case here.

I took my mum here who was on holiday from the uk who has a notoriously fussy palate and even she was won over by the quality, styling, taste and texture of the food.

Go!! You won’t be dissapointed

Had such a great experience
keep up the Great work

This place is the BEST….
I would give it six stars if I could find one more.

In reply to Chris who asked me to expand on my comment:

Good point. It started when I made the reservation. I checked out the reviews and someone mentioned to ask for table by a window. Staff took note of my request.The wait staff were supurb, the food amazing and total atmosphere was simply ideal. The only problem was from the noisy table next door, but that is no fault of the restaurant of course. Brilliant wine matching advice, amazing mix of flavours, perfectly cooked green beans too. I’m not big on star-giving, but for me, this was a simply perfect evening. Great company too of course

Had the degustation menu here as a first time diner and was impressed. The first three courses matched up pretty well with the Tetsuya’s experience in Sydney (at 2x$), though there was a little less flair than Tets as would suit the fairly conservative Grove crowd. Tailed off a little toward the end (the souffle was OK but ordinary) but on the whole Bayly’s menu was up there with French Cafe for the best Auckland gastronomic experience in the mediterranean/pan-asian/”modern antipodean” style. Service was friendly and competent apart from one member of the waitstaff who struggled to muster any enthusiasm, but generally well looked after. Ambience is patchy, some parts of the restaurant are noisy due to a brick wall, seats by the window very pleasant. Excellent cocktails. Recommended.

can’t fault it. I was taken here for my Birthday. We had 3 real foodies at the table and not a negative comment from any one. The decor is lovely, the waiting staff knowledgable but not intrusive. The menu was amazing. Fabulous fish dishes and adventurous combinations. Definitely recommended

Firstly I think the reviewer that gave The Grove one star was a bit mean spirited. This is not a bad restaurant in the true sense of the word. I just feel after dining there a few times however, that it could easily tweak its product to be quite much better if it tried.

My entree of scallops was served luke warm, and this is just not acceptable at a restaurant of this calibre when you are paying $26 for an entree. I agree the portion sizes are simply too small, and quite honestly I believe the dishes are complicated for the sake of it, with nothing that imaginative.

Having said that, I expected alot considering it was Metro Restaurant of the year 2010, so I am perhaps being a little harsh.

However, the reality is that I simply didnt enjoy the experience here compared to other top restaurants that also charge similar top prices.

There was a an ever so slight arrogance about the service, demonstrated by delivering my main ten minutes after I had specifically requested it in thirty minutes, and even acknowledging that the kitchen had paid absolutely no attention to this as and were ‘hasty at times’.

The decor and ambience is excellent and the staff seem knowledgeable, attentive and enthusiastic.

Based on my experiences at other top restaurants which are simply better on many levels, I really can’t recommend it other than to conclude that it is certainly not a 1 star restaurant!

The stand-out dish of a truly fantastic dining experience, was the seared scallops entree, which came with a ‘risotto of pink fir potato’ (!). The flavours were really amazing. Best scallops of my life. Wish I could eat those scallops every day.

As a group of 8, we were seated around the corner, quite secluded – deep at the back of the restaurant – which was great for conversation across the big round table. And lucky for other diners, as we were pretty loud with laughter!

The service was very professional – attentive and unintrusive at the same time.

I would eat out there every month if I could. If only money grew on trees – this is one place I would be spending my harvest.

Firstly, the service in the bar was shockingly slow. We had wanted a pre dinner cocktail and had to wait over 20mins for it. We chose the degustation dining option, which we should have quit several times for several reasons. I have eaten degustation style at restaurants all over the world but this one sticks firmly in my mind for all the wrong reasons. The first course salmon and crayfish terrine was over chilled bland, pumped with potato and served the size of a piece of toast. Another course was Gorgonzola ice cream, truly foul, just too clever for their own good. These are supposed to be small delectable morsels, NOT a taste challenge. 6 persons and $1300 later I will certain not be going back in a hurry. If you want a special night out and a great degustation go to the French Cafe or Meredith’s.

A gem , great food and service my only slight complaint was that it was very loud so conversation was difficult so perhaps I meanly knocked a star.
my scallops were delicious and the buttered crayfish excellent all four of us were delighted and I look forward to going again perhaps 4.75 stars

The Grove is my favourite restaurant for fine dining in Auckland City alongside Merediths & The French Café). I’ve eaten there on 3 occasions and never been disappointed. This is fine dining at it’s best ($25 entrées/$40 a main), the service is attentive, wine list extensive and food always incredible.
If you like big plates of food for cheap then I’d head elsewhere, if you’re after a special night out then The Grove is perfect.

I have always had exceptional meals at the Grove. The service at times can be a little abrupt, but their knowlege of the menu and their wine list is A1+. I have had friends comment that they feel a little looked down at (if they are younger which is really sad). But!, really a great experience for your tastebuds, not the largest of meals, but you shouldn’t expect this I guess.