Dinner

Press, 8 December 1982, Page 38

Dinner

Chambers Restaurant Old Library Chambers Building 109 Cambridge Terrace Phone 795-634 8.Y.0.

(By

A. K. GRANT)

This new restaurant has an interesting philosophy. It serves main courses at lunchtimes and, in the evenings, does not open till 9 oclock. and then serves soups, entrees and desserts,

but not main courses. It thus caters for the lateevening diner who does not want a solid three-course meal including a main course but. instead, wants something agreeable to eat after he or she has been to the theatre, cinema or public house.

And the hungry diner is catered for in that he or (again) she, is encouraged to order as many entree courses as seem attractive. Thus, a late-evening meal can be both lighter and more varied than would be the case at a restaurant ordered along more conventional lines.

And it is good to know that there is a restaurant in Christchurch at which one can turn up at 10.30 p.m. or later for a civilised meal without feeling that one is inconsiderately keeping hardworking chefs and waitresses from their beds.

Not that your reviewer and his wife make a practice of turning up at restaurants at 10.30 p.m. demanding to be served with quality food, but it is nice to think that if we do decide to go in for this practice in order to prove that I am as young as ever we were, there is a restau-

rant available to cater for it. And many an excursion to the theatre or cinema will be lightened by the thought that whatever the play or film turns out to be like, there is the prospect of something agreeable to eat in a leisurely fashion after it. The new restaurant, as its name and situation implv, is in the old Public Library building, now handsomely restored. I went there haunted by the ghosts of thousands of overdue library books I have returned to those premises in my time. (I have done more, by way of overdue fines, to help establish the new Public Library than some of the outlying local bodies.) But those ghosts were laid by the pleasant atmosphere of. the restaurant. It is spacious, quiet and comfortable, and I warmed to it instantly, being spacious, quiet and comfortable myself. We commenced with soup, certainly something you couldn't do when paying overdue fines in the old Public Library. I had a mulligatawny which was suitably spiced with the curries of "the East, and my wife had a bouilla-

baisse which she said would not have disgraced Marseilles. I pointed out to her that there was not very much which could disgrace Marseilles - Marseilles being the sort of place that it was, and she thanked me politely for the correction. 1 Then we shared three pates, duck, chicken liver and venison. These were pleasant, without being the sort of pates that you would fly across from Australia for. But. as with all the dishes, they were most attractively presented. Eating out is an aesthetic experience as well as a gustatory one, and care and imagination in the presentation of a dish can have as much to do as the actual cooking of it in leaving the diner who consumes it with a pleasant memory of it. Chambers score highly in this regard. Then my wife had a chicken and asparagus vol-

au-vent. The management offer a choice of fillings for vol-au-vents. or vols-au-vent, or is it, vol-aux-vent? Anyway, she said it was lovely. I had a highly satisfactory avocado and prawn salad." Avocados and prawns complement each other perfectly, even though you might get into an argument with a raw prawn about this. Then followed the high point of the evening, a dessert for two, entitled Strawberries Romanoff. This dessert is prepared in an elaborate fashion. Strawberries are marinaded in Grand Marnier and placed in tall glasses. These are brought to your table, along with a glass bowl full of ice. inside which sits a smaller glass bowl full of whipped cream. Into the latter are mixed a dash of ice cream, some port and a further "special ingredient." the nature of which was not disclosed.

The cream is then added to the strawberries. The result is delicious, and a way of beating the blitz, since a traffic officer, however suspicious, would have no grounds for asking you to blow into the bag on the basis of an admission that you had had Strawberries Romanoff. (Don't write to me if I prove to be wrong about this.) The soups were $3; the three pates were $7.50 the lot: the vol-au-vent was $4.25 and the avocado and prawn salad was $6.50. The Strawberries Romanoff for two was $11.50. With one liqueur and one plain coffee the total bill for two was $39.75. Given the lightish nature of the meal this is perhaps a bit on the dear side. But, as will have been gathered, one is paying for good food, and. as is not the case when paying overdue library fines, one gets something for one's money.