Thyme Restaurant, Spencer On Byron

Well, I am back in Auckland for the week. This trip was unscheduled and requested at the last minute. I did not realise how close we are to the opening of Rugby World Cup 2011. Goodness! Upon reflection, we were lucky to even get rooms for our booking for this week.

I am staying at the Spencer on Byron in Takapuna. It turns out the French Rugby team are bunked here too. I was squeezed into a lift with a few of them a couple of nights ago. I sure felt short and small next to some of them.

Tonight our project team had a dinner to celebrate the end of the Design phase. So we decided to have dinner at the main restaurant in the Spencer. The restaurant is named Thyme. I had previously dined here a couple of  months ago and found the food to be very nice.

We all ended up ordering a three course meal. For this posting, I will focus on the dishes I ordered as it was too difficult to take photos of all the others' dishes. For entree I had seared scallops with sauteed rhubarb, rhubard reduction and rhubard crisps. I thought I would try it out even though I am typically not keen on rhubarb. The combination intrigued me and I was not disappointed. I did enjoy the dish.

Scallops with rhubarb

For my main, I had lamb cutlets, lamb shank cigar, pumpkin whip, creamed leeks and guava jus. It was very nicely cooked and the meat was of high quality and very tender indeed. I did enjoy it!

Lam cutlets with lamb shank cigar

My dessert was Pacific Rose Apple Tartan with vanilla ice cream and it was lovely to look at and lovely to eat.

Apple tartan with vanilla ice cream

By the way, the service at the restaurant is of high standard. I would recommend the restaurant to you if you are ever in Takapuna.

Thyme Restaurant
Spencer on Byron
9-17 Byron Avenue
Takapuna
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.spencerbyron.co.nz/

And so it begins

I have been tossing the idea of creating my own blog for a while now. For some reason I kept putting the idea off. I was then assigned to a project to be based in Auckland, New Zealand and thought to myself ' This is the best time to start a blog to keep my friends in the loop on my activities while I am staying in the country of the long white cloud'.

My first trip for the project started in mid November last year. I must say New Zealanders are such lovely people. Being in Auckland has given me the opportunity to explore the city and I have found some lovely farmers markets and craft markets.

As this is my first posting, Takapuna will be my first subject. It is located in the North Shore City. It reminds me a little of Neutral Bay in Sydney. What it does have that Neutral Bay does not have is a lovely strip of beach. The views from the apartment remind me how much water is around Auckland City.

This is a view from the apartment.