I have never been quite so underwhelmed by a restaurant as I was at Auckland’s ironically named Dine last night. After a 50 minute wait between ordering and receiving our mains, the amount of food on my plate (duck, allegedly) was so microscopically parsimonious I had to check my watch to make sure it wasn't still the 80s. The menu said the dish included Brussells Sprouts. By this it meant there would be some Brussells Sprout leaves on the plate. Probably enough to constitute one tiny little sprout.

I do realise that the whole fusion thing is meant to be about flavour, but you do have to feed the person. Besides which, they went for a fairly minimalist approach in that department, too.

My wife's meal, which she said tasted quite good, was room temperature. She would have sent it back, but by then it was 10 O'Clock, and we were not prepared to wait any longer to eat. The restaurant's only saving grace was our lovely (if somewhat embarrassed) waitress.

How this place is a finalist in the current Cuisine awards while the always brilliant Engine Room is not, is entirely beyond me.

That is fairly typical of that sort of high-end restaurant around the world, I'm afraid.

Thanks for the warning.

No problem. If you ever venture to Auckland be sure to try The Engine Room and O'Connell St Bistro.

I've been to Auckland many times, I enjoyed Monsoon most recently.

I'm not sure when I will next return..perhaps after the swine flu vaccine is out!

If you want a disappointing dining experience go to The Old Church in Napier. My duck was incredibly tough as was DH's lamb. It was our anniversary and we had a better meal when we got back to Rotorua and made it ourselves.

I will say it had a great wine list!

That's actually no mean feat making duck tough with that fat content. If only they used their powers for good instead of evil.