Menu Reveal: Daphnes Taverna Welcomes Hayden Phiskie As Head Chef – Here’s What To Expect

Over the last few years, chef Hayden Phiskie has proved he knows more than most about how to plate great pasta – first after co-founding Karangahape Road’s Cotto in 2017, then doing the same at Ada in 2021. Both are Italian-influenced and particularly known for their handmade pasta dishes.

In his new role as head chef at Daphnes Taverna, though, Phiskie is leaving pasta behind and letting his many other skills come to the fore.

Owned by Clare and Joost van den Berg (founders of Odettes Eatery and Hugo’s Bistro, which they sold in 2019), Daphnes opened its extensive, textural space on Ponsonby Road in 2021 with a modern Greek menu – you might have ordered saganaki and souvlaki, melitzanosalata (Greek eggplant dip) or spanakopita. The former head chef is heading over to Australia and, with Phiskie now at the helm, the new menu launches this evening.

The only dish that’s staying is the lamb shoulder – with updated tweaks. Otherwise, he and the kitchen team (including sous chefs Ray O’Connor and Morgan Alan Johns, and junior chef Jess Paige Hay who have also come with Phiskie from Ada) have moved away from the Greek theme to a more wide-ranging selection of sharing plates.

They take inspiration from southern Europe and countries that border the Mediterranean Sea, such as Israel and Lebanon, as well as New Zealand’s seasonal produce.

The idea is that the menu will be ever-changing, fluid and flexible rather than an entree, main and dessert affair. Dining at Daphnes himself a couple of weeks ago, Phiskie noticed the busy rotation of people in for a drink and a snack and decided that he wanted to create a menu of easily shareable dishes for people to enjoy alongside their wine or cocktail.

His passion has always been cooking “really nice, humble food at a good price point that everyone can enjoy – but in a cool way that you normally wouldn’t bother doing at home”.

Phiskie is keen for most to kick off their meal with the dinner roll. “It sounds really naff but there’s only one way to say it – that’s what it is.” The house-made roll will be stuffed with meats provided by Cazador and sliced on-site. There will also be a daily vegetarian special.

The rest of the menu may look simple thanks to the pared-back descriptions that just list the ingredients of each dish, but preparation and techniques are clever and interesting without being overly fussy.

Beef crudo is designed as a mix-it-yourself: served with anchovy tonnato sauce and crumbs made with sourdough, garlic and more anchovy, it comes deconstructed to your table and through the mixing process the beef is cooked just the right amount by the acid in the accompaniments.

While burrata is often served with bread, Daphnes’ new burrata is served with a crispy, almost cracker-like chickpea pancake, as well as a roasted beetroot puree and toasted hazelnuts.

There are several bubbly, charred sourdough flatbreads, which are intended to be like a simplified doner kebab. “The goal for these is to make them so simple that the protein, the vegetable or the fish is the main [part of the] dish,” says Phiskie.

Each one will have around three main, distinct flavours: fans of Ada’s beef short rib with ‘nduja will be happy to find a new interpretation of this combination on a flatbread with lemon crema and mint; a pork belly flatbread is finished with cucumber and salsa rosa; there’s a mussel, chilli, garlic and lemon version; and the vegetarian option is confit of Jerusalem artichoke and olive oil finished on the chargrill.

There will also be a weekly special flatbread, and Phiskie wants to incorporate a wider range of meat cuts such as ox tongue. “They’ll be great for lunch. And, eventually, I’d love it if we could wrap them as well for takeaway.”

A collection of vegetable dishes precedes the flatbreads, each demonstrating the more complex techniques the team is enjoying thanks to Daphnes’ ample kitchen space.

Agria potatoes are peeled and cut before being triple-cooked – light and fluffy on the inside, crispy on the outside. They’re served with beurre blanc and sage. “It's just something that you could eat that’s like, instead of putting fries on the menu, it's just the best fries you've ever had in your life.”

Cavolo nero is charred to order and served alongside a richly green cavolo nero sauce that’s been pureed with garlic, anchovy and chilli. “If you order that, it’s going to work really well with other items.”

As mentioned, the lamb shoulder is staying but now it’s cooked in a duck fat confit and served with Puy lentils. “They’re quite al dente – not mushy – and quite vinegary as well, high on the acid end, to cut through the fat,” says Phiskie. “That’s self-saucing to the lamb as well, so it works perfectly.” There’s also a market fish that will change regularly depending on what’s available.

For dessert, order brown butter panna cotta with whisky dates, a chocolate cremeux with vanilla crema mille-feuille – or the dessert special, another avenue for the kitchen team to play and experiment. “It keeps it interesting – we can put on an ice-cream or some doughnuts, something you might not want to do every single day.”

The key strength already established at Daphnes is the front-of-house service, says Phiskie. General manager Tania Pucher has been with the restaurant since it opened and is staying on in this new iteration. “And, at night-time here it’s beautiful. What we want is for the food to match that.”

Daphnes Taverna
71 Ponsonby Road, Ponsonby, Auckland

Hours
Wed 5pm-11pm
Thu to Sun midday-11pm

daphnes.co.nz
@daphnes_taverna