I have rarely needed to close my eyes to fully appreciate the delicate complexity of flavours as I did repeatedly during a degustation meal at The Sugar Club. The lift to the 53rd floor of Auckland’s Sky Tower in the CBD was a little daunting but as we stepped from the lift we felt safe and were distracted from the dizzying elevation by the expansive views of the lights of the city of Auckland.
Menu books were provided, one each for cocktails, other drinks and food. My husband sipped a delicious raspberry cocktail pre-dinner but I was happy with the complementary sparkling water after a day of sightseeing.
The style of dining is in the French style with several small portions in separate courses, each with a distinctive flavour.
Being first-timers we chose the degustation menu which consists of seven of the restaurant’s most popular dishes with or without accompanying wines matched to each dish. The matching wines were mostly from New Zealand, providing a de facto wine tasting in context with local foods. The wines served were all complementary to the dishes, moving from light whites to a full-bodied red by the time we reached the final main course of beef fillet.
A basket of three types of bread provided at the beginning was useful to mop up the delicious sauces throughout the meal.
Memorable amongst the dishes were the raw lobster and the final beef fillet. The first course was an unusual sesame aubergine served cold with sliced dates, feta, tahini yoghurt, crispy buckwheat and a mango dressing teamed with a 2014 Bernard Fouqet Domaine des Aubuisieres ‘Cuvee de Silex’ Vouvray.
Then came a small raw Spiny Crayfish with fine linguine, roasted pine nuts and well-aged parmigiano reggiano teamed with a 2011 Foxes Island Dry Riesling.
Not being a lover of octopus, I asked to swap the octopus dish for something else and was given a slow-cooked pork in a mild spiced sauce, transitioning from seafood to meat a course earlier than he did.
My husband chose to follow the octopus recommendation and shared a morsel with me. The flavour was very delicate even though the thought and sight of octopus suckers was too off-putting for my liking. The dish was a small whole octopus tentacle with fine slices of beetroot chrain, shiitake and dill mayonnaise and fresh wakame.
We both shared in the two red meat courses: first the delicate seared venison with chilli lime dressing, tiny pieces of pineapple, dobs of pureed avocado and decorated with tamari sunflower seeds. This was teamed with a lovely 2014 Stanley Lagrein.
Despite being replete by this stage, we pressed on with the final two courses knowing they would both be small but tasty.
The final main was a succulent beef fillet finely sliced and accompanied by a spiced beef cheek croquette, smoked mashed potato and a little lightly blanched baby spinach. The peppery overtones of the 2013 Goldenits Heideboden Zweigelt made this a wonderful pairing with the food.
A cleansing sorbet of tapioca and apple was then provided as a break before the desert course of Gran Olar – a pear sorbet with pieces of chestnut, persimmon, grains and seeds. The desert wine was a sweet white 2015 De La Terre Late Harvest Viognier.
We finished with a coffee and lingered to look at the city lights for a little longer, before returning to earth via the lift and wending our way back to our lodging in the city. Visited July 2016.