The Tasting Shed - Kumeu

Stopped here after a visit to the beach. Very unpretentious but the food is wonderful. It is a tapas type restaurant where the table shares. We had the duck, lamb, carrots, and smoked cheese, and bread among four of us. It was one of the best meals we've had in out three week stay. The waitstaff was friendly and helpful, and our waitress Sammie made good recommendations and was great fun. The Tasting Shed shares a driveway with the Cooper Creak winery but Is not affiliated affiliated, so turn right after entering the driveway for their lot. Guaranteed to enjoy.

Great tasting summer brunch/lunch place. Beautifully decorated with soft lighting and wooden furniture. Option to eat indoors or outdoors. Kitchen closed at 1500 to 1700 for dinner prep although small plates are served during that time. European cuisine with heavy Asian influence, think daikon, kimchi, even asam laksa (the Asian snob in me couldn't bring myself to order this . We had the market ceviche (good but we prefer this with a bit more punch , kimchi Mac cheese (odd pairing which I enjoyed and the Lamb Shoulder (fantastic!

This is a very lovely restaurant that we were lucky to stumble across by accident. Since it is not in central Auckland and little out of town , many people might not be familiar with it. The atmosphere has a rustic, country feel to it which is very fitting with the surroundings. The menu is not very large which I 'm all about if what is on the menu is done right. There are several choices each: seafood, meat and vegetables. It was four of us and we all ordered different items, all of which were delicious. It is suppose to be tapas or sharing, and we waitresses recommended we order between 7-8 items, but each of us got a main and 2 vegetables for the table and were more than enough. I think the menu is seasonal so I 'm not going to list what we had since it might not be there for your visit. It is not a cheap place necessarily, but it would be a great place for a nice occasion or a relaxing good meal.

Arriving at the Tasting Shed is like arriving at some exclusive retreat and really cute at sunset. A small Wedding Reception was set up in the Conservatory when we arrived, what a perfect location for it. The huge blackboards of the rustic Tasting Shed dining room display the menu, with lots of rustic fare. We ordered a bit of everything for our group of 10 to share, such as Beef cheek and the Pork belly with the tasty puree and celery slaw were our favourites. The veges were also good, thai curry pumpkin and the plate of green beans shows no restraint with chunks of nuts and a peanut satay dressing. Sweet ricotta doughnuts served with quince caramel and poached pear segments and a goat's milk curd had some swooning. The lemon meringue cone was quaint. I found the Chocolate Valrhona disappointing in presentation and substance and I've tasted way better salted caramel ice cream bought from Nosh. I would say the only fault I really had was the lack of service, the plates not being cleared in a timely manner, empty glasses several times through the evening and no offer of replenishment. We had to ask to order dessert. I wasn't told there was a Wedding when I made my group booking and I think that was more important than us. Paying also was difficult but also not mention of rules for a group under 12 when I booked.

Wheels crunching up the gravel, the Tasting Shed looked sophisticated in black. Dining tables that spilled out into the outdoor area are wrapped by the wind rain proof outdoor gazebo. Everything about it oozed warm comfort and rustic charm. You wouldn 't hear the quiet clinking of cutlery on plates and humble conversation here. It was a strict no tablecloths restaurant. And these beautiful wooden tables probably take 5 times more work to maintain. My after work brain probably took more time than necessary to figure out what the bobbles meant on the Savory to Sweet scale on the menu. With 25 items on the menu (including dessert), it was difficult to nail down what to order. We were advised to order 4 to 5 dishes because they were all entree sizes. Watermelon smoked olive, goats cheese, baby ganoush This was one surprising combination. I 've always been one to systematically eat my way through my plate because I didn 't like mixing things together. Give me a fruit and cheese platter, I 'd eat each individually. But this is something you 'd want to pile a bit of each onto your fork. The watermelon and goats cheese blend beautifully into a creamy smoothie in your mouth. Rich and cooling at the same time it 's a weird sensation. Venison carpaccio, mushrooms, beets, juniper, walnuts This is a great well thought out dish with plenty to leave you taste testing, tilting your head and thinking. It was called the Venison dish, and with so much going on, the venison was the solid foundation to bring out the flavours of each ingredient. The sweet tang and slick texture of the mushrooms was paired with the crunch of the walnut and hokey pokey chunks. We had fun melting the walnut powder on our tongues and poking at the different elements on the dish. The hokey pokey was not your average golden syrup variety but was made with beetroot juice so even with this explosion of textures, everything blends together. After a mini degustation, one shared sweet dessert was enough! The rosewater was not an understatement the scent was clear, and sweet, followed by an even sweeter strawberry parfait. It had a subtle summer breeze to this dish and the strawberry parfait an excellent substitute for your average ice cream. The saffron leaves a distinct after taste and cures the dish from being too sweet. With the popularity of restaurants that let you put elbows on tables, tablecloths are stripped away to make way for our laid back Kiwi culture. If you 're looking for a sweet candle lit dinner, there 's other fine dining restaurants in Auckland CBD. But I 'm loving this fusion of casual and fine at The Tasting Shed. The service doesn 't make you feel like you 're a VIP but more like your host that invited you to their house for dinner. So if you 're looking for an excuse out of the city, make this your first stop!