A seat at the table: Jano Bistro

Thistles and Kiwis,

On Thursday evening, we headed out in the rain to Jano Bistro on Willis Street, to celebrate my birthday in great style. The restaurant can be found in a little 2-storey cottage, with the main dining area upstairs (the featured image is the entrance way – there are a couple of tables downstairs too). The restaurant is called after chef Pierre-Alain Fenoux’s grandfather, and is a real little gem as we discovered.

We had opted for the experience menu and also opted for the beverage match as it was, after all, a birthday celebration. The menu doesn’t really convey what we ate, so let’s dive into it.

I had a glass of blanc de blanc and Karl a pastis for an aperitif and to enjoy along with the snacks. These were a dish based around cauliflower puree topped with – from memory – egg, smoked eel and….oh why didn’t I make notes? Anyway, it was very good. The other snack was a little rosti topped with beef tartare, which Karl particularly enjoyed.

The first course was a disc of soft celeriac, topped with crispy celeriac and an amazing sauce, and the sort of thing that you just know you could never pull off at home, and showed off the fact that our chef trained at top restaurants.

The next dish had us slightly apprehensive as two people who don’t like beetroot, but we tucked in and were both truely amazed at how good the flavour combination was, with the softest piece of wild boar, a little tartlet filled with beetroot and other goodness, drops of hibiscus gelee, and a perfect little cavolo nero leaf. This was the biggest surprise of the evening – both of us enjoying beetroot!

The fish course was next, which if I remember correctly was locally caught blue nose. This was served with a sliver of kohlrabi and a sauce topped with hazlenuts and dill. This was also delicious, and so beautifully served too, with the broth sauce poured around the piece of fish at the table. The dish was created to go with the wine, and not the other way around, for a surprising change.

The next course was possibly my favourite, a perfectly cooked piece of lamb with butternut squash filled with I believe black olives and herbs, a roll of onion filled with more lamb and a butternut squash puree. This was served with sourdough bread and the seasonal butter had cumin and honey added to it. Absolutely fabulous.

The cheese course was brown cheese (think Gjetost if you know it) and I really am not sure what else, but the little drop of quince jelly was a perfect accompaniment. This was served with a beer from the chef’s region in France, which was a perfect foil to the sweetness of the cheese.

The dessert was also an amazing construction, with feijoas, coconut and local honey (from bees owned by the sous chef’s sister in fact). It was so beautiful to look and – and beautiful to eat.

With our coffee, we had these little macarons, as a little treat to end the meal.

Verdict? Well….this was fantastic food, beautifully served. The wine (and beer) pairings were spot on, and complemented each dish so well. Service was perfect, the food excellent and the setting fun. All in all, highly recommended when you want to splash out a bit and enjoy local produce cooked to such a high standard.

And…you can listen to this podcast with chef Pierre Alain Fenoux about his life and food.

Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer, good food and pretends to garden.

You can find Thistles and Kiwis on Facebook, and also on Instagram @thistlesandkiwis

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Published by Thistles and Kiwis

Loves summer, sunshine and cats. Beginner gardener, likes eating, cooking and reading about food

38 Comments

  1. Happy Birthday and your dinner sounds quite exquisitely really. We hope to be in New Zealand next year so will take note of this restaurant in Wellington

    Thanks for sharing. Pauline (Happy Retirees Kitchen)

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  2. This is a wonderful way to round off your birthday celebration. I hope you enjoyed a particularly happy day and wish you many days of joy in the future!

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  6. We are going to a restaurant with a restaurant with a similar type of menu for my birthday later in the month, Six by Nico. We haven’t been before but have been to an offshoot run by another chef he trained and we made the mistake of having the wine pairings. We were nearly under the table by the end! This time I think we’ll stick to a bottle of our own choice.

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  11. What a wonderful way to celebrate your birthday, Barbara! The whole experience at Jano Bistro sounds exquisite—from the creative use of local ingredients to the surprise of enjoying beetroot! I loved reading your vivid descriptions—each course sounded like a work of art. ❤

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