Elegance with friendliness at Noah’s

Press, 15 September 1976, Page 22

Elegance with friendliness at Noah’s

Noah’s Hotel has dining facilities which are both impressive and extensive. They go with an establishment which is a topline hostelry providing public rooms to suit international tastes and needs. Yet there is nothing daunting about Noah’s. It is a place designed to attract customers. The mood of the rooms for eating varies with the time of day they serve—fresh for morning meals through to soothing for evening dining. The hotel has three dining rooms as such; in addition, both public bars have bistros, where $1 will provide a choice of two dishes. The public rooms tend to have New Zealand regional names. Thus, the Southland Grill, on the first floor, overlooking Worcester Street, is one of the facilities dealing with both lunch and dinner. Here, 85 white stalk chairs with blue seats rest on a red carpet. There is a sit-up bar in this room, although normally the drinkers are potential eaters. The grills run about $4, and all are served with baked potato. A salad will add 50c. The first view of the distinctive Noah's eating, though, is at ground level, in the Willow Room. Tills is a glittering room of blue and white; it is where a cheerful start to the day is made with breakfast. Service here runs from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., except on Sunday evenings. In the summer the Willow Room is open to 10 p.m. Breakfast has a fixed price of $2.25 continental, or $4 full. Other meals—and this is the case throughout Noah’s—are a la carte. The main courses for the rest of the

day in the Willow Room run from $1.25 for toasted sandwich to $3.80 for a grilled ribeye steak. The wine list is, of course, impeccable. The Willow Room is also known as the coffee room; it is, indeed a place to drop into any time. On the first floor again, the same as the Southland Grill, is the Waitangi Room overlooking Oxford Terrace and the river. Seating is for 100 on two levels. The colours are green, gold and white, and there are flowers on the table. The whole effect is subdued and luxurious. Very swanky. In the Waitangi Room, which has a cocktail bar for a preliminary visit, lunch and dinner are served. A four-piece band plays from Wednesday to Saturday nights from 8 p.m. The menu is a tabloid-size brochure of exhilarating foods, and all French is translated. Hors d’oeuvres about $2.50 include smoked Ashley River silver eel fillets, and avocado pear filled with prawns in a rose sauce. Typical entrees are scallops, whitebait, and oysters. One of these dishes is snails baked in a herb and garlic butter for $3.80. Fish dishes of great interest run to $5 or $6, and grills rather less than $6. Poultry is a term not used much these days. Noah’s uses it, and the Waitangi Room has chicken and duckling in a number of combinations for about $7. Steaks include marinated venison with trimmings for $7. And so to a wide choice- of sweets, flavoured often with a liqueur. Chocolate mousse flavoured with cherry brandy is $1.95; and a banana crepe flamed in pernod, $5.