Floriditas Revisited! -Dinner Day One (still!), Wellington

Cannot believe I've only posted up to dinner on Day ONE!... “Piece by piece, step by step” is Fraeulein SoulFood's motto I guess.

Lets jump straight into Dinner at Floriditas! As Floriditas does not take bookings (even for special occasions...), Mama SoulFood had decided we would head there on Friday so as not to leave a very important birthday dinner open to disappointment, incase we would not have got a table.

Upon arrival this proved another wise decision on Mama's behalf as it was packed! However, we were swiftly swept to the bar, to order drinks until a table became available. Nice idea, unfortunately in reality “The Bar” is essentially a length of counter, flanked by channels of waitresses rushing past, combined with wobbly barstools and our view directly into the open kitchen, it was a rather unnerving welcome, rather than a cosy one. Furthermore, while waiting for our apperitivs, mine being my second choice of cocktail, as the first one had sold out, (how does one sell out if cocktails?!) one of the rushing waitresses managed to spill water on Mama as she was dumping a load of glasses onto “The Bar”. Uhoh. This was so not how I remembered this quaint & quirky little cafe where we had such a unexpectedly tasty lunch, on our last trip. After no more than 15 minutes however, a table cleared and we quickly headed towards it as we were worried the Maitre d' may have forgotten about us, as well as our drinks which never arrived at the bar. But we had a seat now, and even better, one that wasn't threatening to collapse. Our drinks were brought, and apologies made, the International Art Festival was to blame for the chaos.

After having been handed the Menu however, things were looking back up. For Floriditas, as well as our tastebuds.

Goat cheese stuffed courgette flowers (menu has changed since then so not sure of the price.)

Delicious, as one expects of this classic combination. However let down by the less than simple presentation. As you can see...

Peach Schnapps cured salmon, with radish, quinoa, dill & parsley (18.00)

This was very tasty, despite the fact that my (self-proclaimed) well-developed palate, couldn't identify a whole lot of peach. Although this may have been due to the fact that that at this stage I was already onto my second glass of “Blackcurrant & Bubbles apperitiv...

125gm ball “Clevedon” Buffalo mozzarella, with fig and flatbread (for 2) $27.5

I am no longer 100% sure whether it said “fig” or “figs”but in any case it came with a fig. Now as I am a bit of a fig freak (more about this coming soon.), and this was the element of the dish that really excited me, as I had not had any figs yet this season, naturally I was a bit disappointed when one lonely fig arrived with the lump of mozzarella. Majority of this dish actually consisted of the flatbread, and from working in the industry I realise this is the cheapest way to make a dish look more generous, so selling it for two people at 27.50 seems a bit ridiculous when I easily could've devoured the mozzarella and another KILO of figs all by myself.

Mains:

“Cloudy Bay Clams”, white wine, parsley & chive Linguine (25.00)

The kitchen had obviously also run out of Linguine as we were served Spaghetti, which I thought was a bit cheeky, not that it changed the flavour, however with their extra surface area the Linguine may have soaked up more of the sauce which actually would have worked in the kitchens favour as the clams had been a little overindulged in the white wine.

Shaved radish, pea tendrils, Feta, French Tarragon and Parmesan Spaghetti (24.00)

Again, Pasta, you can't mess it up too much. Although personally not my favourite flavour combination. The radish overpowered the dish for me and just made it all a bit bitter.

Crispy skinned snapper, fennel, celery heart, chives, flat leaf parsley & lemon zest rizone salad (29.50)

Flavourwise, this was spot on. The freshness of the herbs and zing of the lemon is always a winning combo with fish. But again, the presentation really let it down. Literally it was the fish filet (a small one at that) with two heaped table spoons of the rizone salad dumped on top. Also it could have coped with a little more moisture, or do I dare say it, a sauce. Perhaps the clams and the fish should have hung out a bit together before being served in their own dishes.

Dessert: Nada, Nil, Nothing.

Although some of the sweet treats awoke something resembling interest, after an evening of food that is near standard in the SoulFood household (yes, we even regularly have Buffalo Mozzarella!), and too many carbs already none of us felt like adding a whole lot of sugar to a ticking bomb of bloatedness.

Unfortunatley I think this was a case of over-excitedness on Fraulein SoulFoods behalf, as the last time (the first time!) we stumbled across Floriditas without any expectations and it had just been so great! Although this night wasn't perfect by far, I would still be happy to give Floriditas a third try, although only morning and noon.

Yours truly,

Fräulein SoulFood