Now I need to torture my foodie friends. We had another visit last night to the 4th best restaurant in the world (if you're listing those things), and again it was an absolute pleasure to have every step of the way met with perfection as the response, from the initial greeting as you walk in off the street, to the Maitre D' opening the door for you as you leave, it was 3 hours of absolute delight.

First up, the cocktails. As previously mentioned, there were these cucumber martinis on the latest cocktail menu and I thought I'd give it a go...or three. Outstanding, and I told the bartender so, and the Maitre D' as well. Cocktails are served with ripened green olives, one of my joys. I ate them all, because Brian is not an olive man. He was having an excellent IPA from Otago.

We were taken to our seats, and Tony (waiter, but not ours) recognised us, and said (perfectly trained). "It's so nice to see you again." This is what waiters SHOULD say when they see a returning guest, this and nothing more until conversation is initiated. The reason is because if the guest was there before with say, another woman, you won't make the mistake of exposing them etc. however it DOES acknowledge that you are a repeat visitor and are noted. I used to tell waiters to say this, but only a few ever figured it out.

We were seated next to 3 ladies who were having their first visit. It was fun to watch them react to everything, and at the end of the meal when we were trying to figure out desserts/coffees etc. Brian leaned over and warned them about the Framboise Sauvage, "It's raspberry flavoured rocket-fuel." They weren't sure they believed him, until they spoke with the waiter, who, rather tentatively asked them in a very thick French accent, "I am not trying to change your mind in any way, but you DO know this is a very fortified (placing his fist against his heart) liqueur, oui?" When he left the table, I did my impression of him, 'This is a very fortified, (fist to heart) liqueur, oui? Don't say we didn't warn you." They were still a little shocked at the first sip.

But I've gone ahead of myself. First up on the table, an amuse bouche of homemade rye cracker, shaved cucumber, feta cream, and some other stuff I didn't get but which all worked in two bites. They sent out a 2nd amuse consisting of prawn meat in a tempura batter served with a seaweed mayonnaise and sea salt. About 30 of those and some chips would be the perfect fish and chips meal.

The usual offering of homemade bread roll with flavoured butters came out, but they added a new butter to the stable, seaweed butter. It was a bit subtle for me, and I stuck mostly to the smoked butter with smoked salt.

Our first courses were: Spring vegetables with herbs and leaves, preserved lemon and crispy whitebait. Brian said it was fantastic. I had Smoked Venison, coffee cream, blueberries, walnuts, kumara. The combination of smoked meat with coffee cream was amazing.

Second course for me was Roasted Quail medallions wrapped in bacon with mushrooms, chestnut, croissant, and black truffle. Brian had the Forest Mushrooms with truffle custard, sorrel, toasted rye and pine oil. This is the only mushroom dish I've ever seen him enjoy repeatedly.

For our main course, I went for the Rabbit and Brian had the Lamb. The Rabbit was served as bacon wrapped medallions, and the lamb was served as simple medallions. The lamb was perfectly med-rare, and served with parmesan gnocchi, sweetbreads, morels, peas, onion soubise. I can never make gnocchi again, because that was the best I've ever had. It was so light and tender, yet rich as the Sultan of Brunei. My rabbit was served with mustard, tarragon, young carrots, and crispy potatoes (like chips).

For the first time, ever, we both had room for dessert so we ordered the Textured Chocolate, and the Caramelised Pear, with a coffee to finish the evening. The chocolate dish was visually stunning, a variety of different but extremely rich and chocolately textures, and temps. served with freeze-dried mandarins and malt powder. The pear was poached in caramel, and served with baked custard, broken pastry, almonds, and sultanas. The custard was beyond lovely. My coffee was exquisite. They understand that a bad coffee, even at 11:30 at night, will ruin an otherwise perfect evening, so I got a perfect coffee from their amazing bartender, and we went home two very satisfied customers.