The Victoria Tavern, Petone
Reviews · · · ·Rating: 3
We ate dinner here in October 2021.
Sourdough with truffle butter
Battered calamari
Beef skewers with satay sauce
Roast half chicken with duck fat potatoes, broccolini and crispy capers
Pan fried gurnard with saffron risotto and crispy capers
Friday night and The Vic was pumping. It’s another up-market pub, but had a killer cocktail selection (shout out to the Ginger Kiss) and an interesting menu. The meals were a mixed, but mostly positive, bag. Top of the pile was the sourdough with truffle butter. The butter was salty and delicious and there was tonnes of it. They had also presented it thickly smeared across half the plate, allowing the option to dip or spread. Genius. The loaf was thickly sliced and piping hot. Worst of the batch was the beef skewers. Some pieces were rare, some well done, and the satay sauce was disappointingly bland. The calamari had a tasty batter and sauce, and wasn’t chewy, but wasn’t silky smooth perfect either.
The chicken was large. They were serious about it being half a chicken. Unfortunately this meant the meal ended up having a disproportionate amount of meat relative to potato and broccolini. The potatoes weren’t as good as they should have been considering they were duck fat, we expect crispy perfection and these just weren’t there. The chicken was pretty good, the breast was a little dry but the parts on the bone were spot on. The gurnard was a very nice piece of fish, and the crispy capers on both mains were pops of perfection. The risotto was forgettable and while not fully claggy it was on its way to clag-ville.