Where I Ate Last with Tony Astle: First Mates, Last Laugh and Slow Cooked Ribeye

For the final time this year, Tony Astle joined Kerre Woodham to give his thoughts on where he ate last. 

This week, he ate at ‘First Mates, Last Laugh’, an eatery situated on the waterfront in Westhaven, Auckland. He sampled a couple of varieties of Taquitos – the tuna sashimi and the prawn and avocado, and the Lake Ohau Wagyu Picanha, among other dishes.  

LISTEN ABOVE 

Recipe of the Week: Slow Cooked Ribeye    

Method: 

Sear the meat in very hot non-stick oiled pan.  

Remove and place in a roasting dish.  

Smear with Dijon mustard mixed with ground black pepper and tarragon.  

Place in oven preheated to 75C.  

Cook for 7 hours.  

Cover meat with foil.  

Turn oven off and rest meat inside the oven for 30 minutes. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Finding the Hidden Gems at the Hospitality scene where I
ate last with Tony Astell on kerry Woodham Mornings. Tony,
I thought you might have to do the intro because
my mouth was full of sausage.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Role taking a while to go down, and you waited
long enough.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Oh, there was so much I could say, and I'm
just not going to because I'm a mature woman. I
don't have to have the sense of humor of a
seven year old.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Sometimes it helps, well.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
I'm thinking it, and I'm sure other people are as well.
So there we go, First Mates, last Love. I haven't
been there yet. It's Judith Tabron's places well, because.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
I've known Judith forever and ever and ever. You know,
we've done unit standards and all sorts of things for
kids and things. But you know she's been out of
the business for a wee while. Now that I haven't
been around to west Haven for so so long, it's
been there a year, isn't And I didn't realize it
had been a year. So anyway, a couple of friends said, well,
let's go there, and I thought, well, this would be
perfect for our last Yeah. Yeah, And I must admit

(01:04):
I was going there because I've heard all sorts of
you know, people love to tell you whether they hate
it or love it or whatever. So I went there thinking, oh,
maybe it's not as good as I think it should be,
but they'll tell you what. That has disappeared from my mind.
It was one of the better restaurants I have been
to this year, and the service was amazing. That they were,
I mean they just a little young Jack. I've been

(01:25):
not say little Jack. Young Jack was running, isn't it anyway?
They just looked after us perfectly. And it is quite
fish oriented. You know, it's got quite a not a
lot of meat, but there's a lot of shared plates,
which is another thing I'm not normally. That key worked
absolutely perfectly.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
You could have had some of the crumbs off my chest.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
We better keep this. We could turn the microphones off now.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Right the places on chest go oh okay, So I
see what you mean.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
So there's lots of there's lots of things on it.
But it was like the taquitos were great enough because
I'm not a great salmon or raw salmon or cooked
salmon eita. So they did. We got we've got two
and one was tuna and the other one was prawn
and avocado, and they were both you'll look at the pictures,
the absolutely gorgeous light and they were lighting. The fish

(02:27):
was just absolutely fresh. I mean they just had to
both get a damn good four yeah good. And then
of course the beef to Takey, which everyone knows I
love nearly raw meat, and that was that was with
pickled and lashy pear and truffle pondzu nice and that
was absolutely magnificent. The prices aren't too bad either. I
mean when you look at the Takeito's they were fifteen dollars,

(02:47):
well that is good, yeap, and when you get into
beef and stuff is twenty nine fifty. But it was
it was worth it. And then I had the Then
we of course I had the I had the I
had the wagu and that was fantastic.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
That a Scotch filet, to me is just a thing
of beauty with a marbled.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
And the flavor was But sometimes people just don't cook
it properly. You know how you get because you know wagu.
When you start getting flanks and different cuts of meat,
they can be a bit tough. So if you can't,
if you're not a great cook, you can go and
buy these things and they're too tough. This was cooked
to perfection nice and you could look at it. It was
quite green and you think all that could be tough,

(03:31):
but it was absolutely magnificent. And the duck breast was
another thing which a lot of can go dry and
a lot of people don't like it because it's too rare.
But the chef actually did a damn good job because
what he has done, he's rested the meat after he's
cooked it, which is the most important thing you should
do straight out of the pan. It's tough and you
want all the juices to go back into it. So

(03:53):
the duck breast was absolutely melting the mouth.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
And I like what they've put with that parsnip, pury,
big chutney orange.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
See, and that was actually fantastic. And then of course
the overgene I love think to tell you what, the
enhancement of that rhubarb with the overgene was absolutely magnificent.
So it was actually a very very good meal and
you just and it wasn't too much, but it also

(04:21):
wasn't skimpy. You know sometimes you know when you have
shared plates four people and you get three, it's not
but it works. Perfectly anyway, They did a damn good job,
and I just think everyone should be going. And the
place was absolutely packed.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Well there's a there's a reason for that because friends
were trying to organize an advanced birthday party for me,
your birthday dinner for me, and trying to find a
place open on a Sunday, which was the day that
we're all free, is really difficult and of course.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
So magnificent, but I think it's worth I don't know where.
I think you can, Well, you can make bookings, because
we made one. But I actually didn't realize how big
it was. And what I loved about it was was
early evening, so you the sun was just coming down
and you look back at the at the over at
the viaduct. It's just a different perspective. Yeah, it was,
which is.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
Do you get to see the Harbor Bridge.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Because you've got your back You can if you're outside,
because you know that's quite because there's two entrances. You
come in one end or out the other. So but
I don't think you should be driving. Actually, funnily enough,
when we left, I had a a boose bush that
was there because I thought, I hope the uber man
hasn't been drinking. I don't suggest you go in there

(05:32):
driving anyway.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
Shouldn't be No, shouldn't be at Christmas anyway. Oh, it's
nice to finish on a high. And a recipe from
ournuwsed talk said b dot co dot NZID website, Slow
cooked Rabbi.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
Now that you've got, you get it's a big hunk
of meat, but it's seven hours. You cook it for
seven hours at seventy five degrees. But the trick to
it is actually just see it in a very hot
band to start, so you get a bit of a crunch,
and then throw it in the oven for seven hours.
And I know that someone's a long time. But when
then turn the oven off, cover it was in for
once again, rest it and that meat is absolutely perfectly.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
It looks beautiful. And I mean this isn't a great photo,
it's just a photocopy, but you can tell that meat
is tender.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
Just leaking. You can do the same thing with the
legal lamb. Yeah, exactly the same seven hours, you know,
and everything breaks down. It's just melting your mouth.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
It sounds gorgeous. Well, you have a wonderful, wonderful Christmas
and a happy, happy, Happy New Year and you too,
I've been lovely talking to you throughout the year.