Malando offers first class food, wine and music

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33866, 11 June 1975, Page 19

Malando offers first class food, wine and music

The Malando was the first licensed restaurant in Christchurch but is still one of the best. The present owner, Mr Andrew Sim. has had the Malando for 19 months and has been working hard to build up its reputation as a restaurant which serves fine food and wines.

His success has led him to try something he has long wanted to do — open a licensed restaurant serving authentic Chinese food. Mr Sim, a Malaysian who came here as a student a few years ago, ran the Hong Kong cafe in High Street for two years before taking over the Malando. His new restaurant, the Shangri-la, will open next month. However, although Mr Sim delights in Chinese food he has maintained the Continental tradition at the Malando. Mr Nick Pronk, the chef, is a Dutchman who has had a great deal of experience cooking on the Continent and insists that all the food he serves must be of the highest standards.

The Malando is rather expensive. Dinner for two, including a medium-priced wine, costs about 830, with a $1 cover charge per person. But the quality of the food and style of service make an evening at the Malando worth while, even if few people could afford to dine there every week. The cocktail bar sets the tone of the restaurant. The upstairs bar is furnished with cane chairs and sofas and polished wood tables; the walls are covered with flax matting; and the lighting is subdued. Most of the cocktails are imaginative and cost more than SI, but beer and spirits are available.

The restaurant itself is divided into two rooms, joined in the middle by a small dance floor. The decor is rich and tasteful with the accent on restfulness. But one wall has a mural of a moonscape, painted on canvas, which provides an interesting focal point. In

keeping with the Spanish name, copper basreliefs of bulls hang on another wall. The restaurant is open every night except Sunday, from 6 p.m. until 11.30 p.m., and the Malando Trio — piano, bass, drums — plays every night from 8 p.m. until midnight, joined three or four nights a week by a lobster, shrimp, oyster, seafood and grapesinger.

The menu offers four fruit juices (60c), fruit cocktails (up to 81.65), and four soups (80c). The fruit juices seem particularly expensive, but a full glass of unwatered juice is provided for the money. The chef offers eight entrees, including Scallops Provencale (81.90) and Beef Stroganoff (81.60), both of which are also offered as main courses (85.20 and 84.50). The 28 main courses offered range from Venison St Hubert ($6) to Russian egg salad (83.80), but the average price is about 85. The dishes are grouped under specialities of of the house, grills, fish, shellfish, chicken, duck and salads. The Sole Dieppoise ($4.50) and carpetbag steak ($5.20) are two particularly delicious and superbly prepared dishes. Desserts, such as Peach Melba and chocolate sundae are 81-30, and again seem rather expensive. But the helpings are generous and the dishes are sei-ved very attractively. The flambees, lemon pancakes or crepe suzette (both 84.50 for two servings) would satisfy most palates.

The wine list is very extensive and most wines are comparatively reasonably priced. Few restaurants in New Zealand could offer a better selection of local and imported wines. But the quality of the Malando cannot be conveyed in a list of dishes or prices. Mr Sim sets out to offer diners unobtrusive but attentive service in a pleasant, intimate atmosphere with very good live music thrown in. Reservations are essential.