I have been excited about the opening of Ponsonby Central which was promised for October but after much delays, it finally open its doors to the public end of November. There will be more to come as only some of the tenants have begin operations but it was abuzz with locals on sunny Saturday lunchtime. I have read rave reviews from fans of Sizzling and their humble beginning of operating next to a church in Waiheke until someone complained about the smoke and they have to shut down. Their move to central Auckland must have been a great loss to the locals of Waiheke.
The place was packed with eager meat-eaters. I just had a discussion with a friend about giving up meat for environmental reasons the night before. I can see that the result of that conversation wasn't working well for me. We ordered a short rib 300-400gm for $17, chorizo $10 and a mixed platter of chicken, sirloin and pork belly for $30 as suggested by the waitress. Each dish comes with a small green salad and chimmichurri sauce served on a wooden chopboard. The wait for our food took a while as there were lots of patrons arriving at the same time. We sat next to bar and you can smell the woodfire. I'd imagine that this would be such a good idea in winter. The meats were succulent and are all of good quality. I really liked my sirloin as it has a very nice smoky flavour. We didn't like the chicken too much because it was bland. Hubby and friend liked the chorizo and would come back just for that any time. It was juicy and succulent.
We were overwhelmed by the amount of meat we had and start getting meat sweat from our protein rich lunch. This is certainly a place to check out if you love eating meat. It's reasonably priced, good quality meat, staff are friendly, casual and very social eating. We were chatting to our neighbours to discuss about our food and the atmosphere is great. I wouldn't be back too often because I am not a big meat fan. I like eating meat but not too much of it but I will certainly come in when I have a craving for a good chorizo.
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