Pescado Tapas Bar (Auckland CBD, New Zealand)

I was looking for a place to eat near the Viaduct or Wharf area, there are a lot of options but the one that interested me most, Pescado Tapas Bar.

Several months ago I was looking for a place to eat near the Viaduct or Wharf  area in Auckland, there are a lot of options but the one that interested me most is this Tapa’s Bar called Pescado. It was my first choice because we barely dine in a tapas bar and my last time was ages ago in CAC in Mt Eden. Before locking my mind in choosing Pescado I looked at their website and see what they are offering, I saw sangria, tapas and some good mains, they seem have a fairly decent menu so I continued searching for reviews on different sites. After opening some websites I was surprised that there are some unhappy customers mostly complaining about the customer service they got, some also complained food was too long to arrive. There are also some good reviews and mostly geared towards good food and that’s the one that influenced me most, good food is more important than service to me but a combination of the two would be awesome. So I decided to do the booking, I called them and got it all sorted.

The day came and we arrived, we were placed near the guy who plays an awesome acoustic guitar, so we were literally serenaded as we dined. We were greeted by our waiter and surprisingly it was in Tagalog, our waiter was a Filipina and she did a really good job. We first ordered our tapas and sangria jug to share, the tapas we ordered was the mixed platter called Pescado Plato Iberico ($29.50) it contains 6 pcs gambas, 3 pcs calamari, 3 servings of smoked salmon, 3 pcs chorizo, 2 pcs of I think it was ricotta risotto wrapped in vine leaves, marinated olives, feta, toasted hazelnuts, Cornichon, warm bread, hummus dip, beetroot dip, olive oil vinaigrette dip and another creamy dip.

It arrived really quick and the prawns and squid were perfectly cooked, everything on the platter was excellent, well-seasoned and was a good match with the sangria we ordered. I guess my only complaint is that the sangria is not cold enough hence I ordered extra ice, this was supposed to be a summer drink.

After our tapas we now ordered out mains, my daughter ordered the Roast Rack of Lamb on creamy mash potato, double cooked vegetables and fresh mint jus (NZ$33.00), I ordered Crispy Roast Duck on sun-dried tomato & mushroom risotto, with grilled courgette and plum sauce (29.50) and my wife ordered Prawn Salad (NZ$21.00) which are Pan-fried prawn cutlets on green salad, with sesame seeds, avocado salsa, and grilled bread. While waiting we listened to the great live music we had beside our table, every piece he finishes people applaud in return, this guy knows how to make his guitar sing. We were so entertained we forgot that our order haven’t arrived yet and were starting to get hungry so we asked our waiter where is our order and she went to the kitchen to ask, she said 10 more minutes with an apology as she said it was a busy night. I guess we waited for 30-45 minutes. Another 15 minutes of waiting time I will be upset, anyways it all arrived all at the same time and they all look good.

I first tried my roast duck and I can say this is the best duck dish I tried so far, the outer crust is crispy even if it’s not the skin and the meat inside just falls apart while the fork is pierced through. Very well-seasoned, the sweet and savoury combination is fantastic and it matched perfectly with the mild and earthy mushroom risotto.

Next was the Shrimp Salad, my wife enjoyed it and it was served with heaps of shrimps, I tried a forkful of the salad and the dressing was simply stunning, everything was crispy from the beets to the greens.  My wife was just a bit disappointed as the avocado salsa was just a hint of flavour.

Finally my daughter shared some Roast Rack of Lamb, she enjoyed it as well. The lamb was so tender and the mashed potato was indeed really creamy which was good, my wife even checked if the mashed potatoes can be ordered separately which you can but we did not ordered an extra one.

Overall the food at Pesacdos is amazing the only downside is that we waited a bit longer than expected, thanks to the amazing live music otherwise we had noticed that long wait. So if you’re in for a good food this is worth a try, just order everything in one shot to avoid waiting like we did (we ordered tapas and mains separately) also book ahead of time so you are sure that you have a table when you arrive, if you do so ask to be located near the guy who plays the guitar for a much better experience.

Pescado Tapas Bar 
North Wharf, Jellicoe Street
Auckland Central, Auckland, 1010
Tel: +64 (9) 379 7576
http://www.pescado.co.nz/