WHY CHOOSE THIS RESTAURANT?
While some fairly hideous apartment blocks are grafting themselves onto the historic heart of Island Bay, architects Novak & Middleton promise to avert a uniformly grim future for this, Wellington’s most picturesque suburb. The graceful Art Deco curves of their latest apartment building, The Parade, echo those of the 1924 Empire Cinema opposite. A rounded street corner window creates a literal goldfish bowl effect for Parla, the chic new 38-seater on the ground floor. Unsurprisingly, designers Wonder Group have gone coastal: oyster shell chandeliers, stone mosaic table tops and beachy checked upholstery. Sinuous blue squiggles over a big abstract oil (by Allen Maddox, no less) evoke Cook’s wild strait.

ABOUT THE MENU
Like Kisa, Parla’s menu is broadly Middle Eastern in theme, yet despite challenging diners to make sense of their bewildering array of Turkish and Arabic menu terminology, nowhere do these sister restaurants claim to be authentic. Indeed, the excitement of both menus lies precisely in this creative rearrangement of the Middle Eastern store cupboard by Mosaic Group executive chef Jonny Taggart: braised beef cheek with dates, tahini and a touch of chilli, for example; or pomegranate molasses slathered over whole courgettes which are steamed with orange and then left to suck in the sweet-sour flavour as they cool, before being grilled to order. Another crowd-pleaser is the Circassian Chicken, here converted from mezze into salad with shredded Chinese wombok and pita crisps. Master strokes are slugs both of smoked, spicy hoot oil and of so-called masabacha, the chunky version of hummus (so-called because here walnuts replace chickpeas, the basic ingredient!), its richness balanced with a grilled half-lemon.

ABOUT THE CHEF
Jonny Taggart delegates the cooking to Chilean-born senior sous chef Sebastián Corte at LTD’s kitchen in central Wellington. The dishes are then assembled to order in Parla’s microscopic kitchen by sous chefs Jacob Spackman and Lulu Temmuyin.

ABOUT THE TEAM
A team of five duty managers is overseen by Alex Insley, the personable restaurant manager. It reflects well on Mosaic Group owner Dean White as an employer that both Alex and Sebastián

OF NOTE
With great flat whites and a brunch menu to outdo anything else in the Bay, Parla is already fulfilling its promise as a chattering community hub.

216 The Parade, Island Bay, Wellington
Check website for opening hours
Mains $24-$38
04 595 1349, mosaicvenues.com/venues/parla