WOP Review: the $25 lunch at Finc

For my first Welling­ton on a Plate meal deal, I decid­ed to go to Finc, with the delight­ful com­pa­ny of a friend I’d just seen killed twice on Sat­ur­day night. Peo­ple have dif­fer­ing opin­ions about Finc, but for myself, I’ve always found it great in the evenings and very aver­age at lunchtimes. For pork bel­ly, I would take the plunge.

Lunch Offer – $25 set menu
Choose any two cours­es plus a glass of Welling­ton region­al wine, and a cup of tea or cof­fee

Starter
Feta mar­i­nat­ed in lemon hon­ey and avo­ca­do oil served with grilled ficelle or
Pan fried pork and corian­der dumplings served with a sher­ry vinai­grette

Mains
Slow cooked sticky pork bel­ly served with sea­son­al veg­eta­bles sauteed in chilli and gar­lic oil or
Grilled halou­mi cheese and vine toma­toes served with a rock­et bruschet­ta and bal­sam­ic and avo­ca­do oil

Dessert
Vel­vet organ­ic choco­late tart served with organ­ic cream or
Ital­ian meringue served with cream and win­ter poached fruit

When we got to Finc, it was pret­ty busy, but not com­plete­ly crowd­ed. Although there were lots of sets of two peo­ple sit­ting at four tops and there were still some vacant, we were shown to a tiny cor­ner table that real­ly was real­ly only appro­pri­ate for one, and should only have been used as a last resort. We looked at the menu, but there was no sign of the Welly on a Plate offer, and since the wait­ress had dis­ap­peared, I told Brad about it. When she came back to take our order, he asked about it, and then she brought us a list. Not a very big pro­mo­tion­al push, which is unfor­tu­nate. We ordered our wine — the Mebus Pinot Noir for me, and the the Urlar Sav for him, and a sec­ond lat­er she came back to ask if we’d both want­ed the Pinot Noir. Our feta arrived pret­ty soon after that, five cubes in olive oil with some strips of lemon rind, and five slices of toast­ed ficelle. I asked where our wines were, and she said that they were just being poured. I think it is weird to get your food before your drink, espe­cial­ly if they’re sup­posed to be paired, but hey. The feta was nice, but not spec­tac­u­lar — it need­ed a note of some­thing else to make it stand, like some chili, per­haps. I think the ficelle might have been bet­ter if it had­n’t been toast­ed. Brad did­n’t eat all his feta, but I did­n’t ask why.

Out came the pork bel­ly short­ly after. It was a fair­ly small piece, and a huge pile of bok choy. Far too much bok choy. I was expect­ing a mix of veg­eta­bles, not just the one. Ah well. The pork was melt-in-the-mouthy, and rather intense­ly flavoured. The Mebus Pinot Noir, which I had cho­sen because the wine­mak­er had once described it as being “like angels for­ni­cat­ing in your mouth” was a good match, but I thought it was a shame that the wine glass­es they were using were those short tast­ing glass­es.

For $25, with small por­tions, it was­n’t out­stand­ing val­ue, nor do I think it real­ly show­cased how good the food at Finc can be. It did­n’t put me off return­ing, but I do think I’ll be stick­ing to night-time vis­its only.