Should You Order Wine By The Glass Or The Bottle? And Why Are Tasting Menus So Expensive?
Viva’s resident dining-out editor shares advice on where and what to eat. This time, how to order wine to get the most for your money, and are there any good value tasting menus left out there?
It’s a numbers game
Hi Jesse.
I notice in your reviews you always order wine by the glass rather than the bottle. Is there any reason for that? It seems to me buying the bottle is much better value, but your maths is probably better than mine.
Grace.
Hello Grace.
You’re right, but I do it for a practical reason – I’m unlikely to find anything interesting to write about my second glass of the same wine. As to your point about value you’d be surprised how much it varies. Multiply the glass (150ml) price by five to get what the bottle (750ml) price “should” be – if the bottle price is under that you’re getting a bargain by buying the whole thing, but you’d be surprised how often you find the glass is equal or better value.
By the way, you’ll sometimes do even better to compare the price of five glasses to a bottle of a different wine in the same category. Recently my wife and I were in the mood for celebration but were umming and ahhing over whether to shell out $56 for two glasses of champagne. Then I noticed a top quality New Zealand methode (not offered by the glass) on the list for $90 a bottle. It was an easy choice.
It all adds up
Jesse, in your most recent review, you mentioned the price of tasting menus. In my view, it’s getting out of control. Some places you can’t even sit down without being asked to pay $150+ per person, before you’ve even got to drinks. I get it that chefs want you to experience their food a certain way but surely there must be some middle ground?
Lance.
Hi Lance.
I hear you. I can think of a handful of Auckland restaurants that no longer offer a la carte(choose what you want) dining but don’t offer a sensibly priced tasting menu either. I partially agree with you in that it feels a shame you can’t pop into, say, Tala for an entree and a drink the same way I was able to make my way around Auckland’s top restaurants comparatively cheaply when I was starting out in this business 15 years ago. But perhaps a serious city needs some options that are this expensive. Would you be shocked to hear that Sydney had a couple of restaurants with a minimum food spend of almost $200? If not, why shouldn’t Auckland have something at this level too?
As for the tasting menu concept, you can still find restaurants who do this while staying around or under the $100 mark (Tala, by the way, does an $85 lunch). Hello Beasty springs to mind, as does the Sherwood in Queenstown where you get to sample a really decent selection of their menu for $100. But you’d be hard pressed to beat Auckland’s Ada where, at $85, the tasting menu is so generous it really makes no logical sense; and that’s before you get to the four glass $65 wine match, which begins with champagne. While we’re about it, look up Forest, a plant-based delight where there are few choices for a diner to make but where everything they nudge you into is fresh, seasonal and perfect.
Do you have any restaurant-related questions or dining-out dilemmas? Jesse Mulligan is here to help.
Email Jesse at Viva@nzherald.co.nz and tell him what you need. Where and what do you like to eat? How much do you want to spend? If you’re visiting, where are you staying while you’re in town? Who are you eating with? Does anybody have access issues?
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