Ahi means fire in the Māori language and this restaurant is aptly named as it was on fire filled with customers! The grill was fueled by wood and the workers fueled by a desire to provide local ingredients of the highest quality. We reserved a dinner at this restaurant months ago, on the day it came open. Of course we reserved the seats at the bar overlooking the kitchen. It is always interesting to see your plate coming together. It is even more fun to watch all the different menu items getting cooked and plated. Ahi is fine dining and each of the workers had an industrial sized tweezer to grab the small bits that each plate was decorated with. The entire kitchen worked as a team and it was so enjoyable to watch the dance. They have won many awards, these are well deserved and it is rated #2 in Auckland in TripAdvisor. We got seated and ordered up some drinks, a Navy Strength Gin for Leslie and a Hawks Bay Zinfandel for me. James was working the station directly in front of us so we talked his ear off, hopefully the doctors can reattach it in the morning. We were able to watch him plate out our snacks. The wallaby tartar was spooned onto a puffed beef tendon and dollops of fermented hot sauce were added. Topping it all off were beautiful and tasty flowers. He explained a four step process of preparing the tendon and it is amazing the amount of prep work that goes into all the dishes. Wallaby was new to me so I updated my carnivore list to include it. The wallaby was tender and smooth and the fermented hot sauce had just the right amount of kick. Next it was time for the starters. A hot smoked quail with nettle chimichurri, white asparagus and baby daikon radish. The grill master would hang the quail breast in the smoke from the grill as soon as the order was called in by Phillipe who was orchestrating the dance. Then after it smoked for a while he took it down, deboned it and it joined the quail leg on the grill. Then they both got to the plate and to the customer. We also ordered a Courgette flower filled with sheep's ricotta cheese, lightly coated and fried. This is a type of zucchini flower and on the plate was basil, cucumbers, yellow squash and elderflowers. It sat on top of one of the Curious Croppers tomatoes that we had been eyeballing from the counter. They cut a center piece of each tomato and then the scraps were cooked down, filtered through cheese cloth and made into clear cubes of pure tomato essence, WOW! The mains were a fish dish for me and the lamb dish for Leslie. The Lamb was milk-fed and a very generous portion. My fish was a combo of flaky white fish and fried green lipped muscles. Yum. We were given two frozen lollies for a pallet cleanser. It was their take on traditional British Pims flavor. Then we ordered dessert. Leslie's dessert was a boysenberry ice cream cone served on a water buffalo horn. It was very impressive and there were layers of different ice cream inside the cone. The Sous Chef told us a story about the original description in their menu. They called "not a trumpet" because the trumpet was a popular type of cone. They got sued for using the word trumpet...oh well. I ordered a chocolate chocolate dish that had goat cheese cheesecake, sooo good!
The second floor of this building houses Ahi, our place of dining
What does this sign mean?
Peeking in through the back windows
Lots of beef getting ready to be cooked
The calm before the storm
Our seat to watch the dance
Grill master Robert
The puffed beef tendon
Wallaby tartar
Out tartar has arrived
The meat on the grill is a 400 gram sirloin steak to "share". They were calling it the "big boy" as the orders were called in
The big boy sliced and served with a bone marro jus gras
The Curious Cropper's tomatoes were within reach. I encouraged Leslie to grab one and hide it in her outfit but it would not fit.
The Curious Cropper's tomatoes getting ready to be plated with the zucchini flower
Hot smoked quail with a nettle chimichurri, asparagus and shaved baby daikon radish
A zucchini flower with cucumbers, zucchini, elderflowers, basil and cubes of pure tomato essence
I loved my quail and I thought I had eaten it all but Leslie found a bit to nibble on the claw
One seriously busy grill area
As we watched we saw him grill lamb, pork, two different cuts of beef, quail, sauces, broccoli and assorted greens. Robert was a busy man!
Slicing the lamb
He did a fine job on this cut of milk fed lamb from the Taupo region
The tasty whitefish from Chatham Island on this dish also had green lipped muscles house cured lardo, perla hasselback potato and roasted macadamia nut butter
Our pallet cleanser.
The plates are works of art
The horn of plenty!
Very creative
So flavorful
Chocolate, chocolate and goat cheese cheese cake
What a great dinner!
