Customer Feedback or Press Reviews

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Customer Feedback

Hi Mark

Just wanted to let you know that everything was perfect for our wedding reception at CAC, we couldn't have asked for a better day. Everyone raved about the food so thank the Chef for us please!

Hi Mark

Thank you so much for a great night for our group. I’m getting lots of praise today, everyone had such a good time and they raved about the food!

Cheers Yolande (December 2009, 43 pax)

Dear Mark

I would just like to thank you & your staff for a great lunch for our group today. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the large variety of dishes which kept arriving and the service was also excellent. The function was enjoyed by all.

Many thanks for the relaxing occasion.

Elizabeth (November 2009, 23 pax)

Hi Mark,

Just want to tell you our group had a great time last night, food was amazing, as well as the staff.

Thanks a lot.

Flo (September 2009, 12 pax)

Just wanted to say a big thanks for Saturday night. It was really fantastic. Everyone is still raving about how great the food is. Lots of first time tapas eaters who we have hopefully converted! Your staff were helpful and attentive - even at the end of the night when they were probably dying for us to leave!

Thanks again, we had a great time.

Greg and Linda (May 2009)

Press Reviews

Metro Magazine - CAC voted in the top 50 restaurants, May 2009
In the bluestone building once home to the Colonial Ammunition Company, staff serve delicious "small plate" dishes: larger than tapas, smaller than normal restaurant meals. The food is original and delectable: chorizo with braised onion, grapes and rosemary; grilled sardineswith oranges, dates and Belgian endive; watermelon salad with goats' cheese, orange, basil and grilled radish. You can snack while you drink: the wine and beer lists are good, the cocktails inspiring, and they have Lustau sherries too. Even better, go for a full meal. Relax upstairs on the comfortable couches, in an "island mezzanine" in the middle of the room, and soak it all up. They have funky music, some of it live, some by DJs who include Rip It Up founder Murray Cammick. 

Grapevine, Winestate Annual 2005
With the sustained success of outlets such as Craft and Pasha it would seem that Aucklanders are finally taking to the notion of 'grazing', which for a nation built on sheep could not come too quickly. The 'small plates/big flavours' notion of eating, as opposed to the entrée/main/dessert more formal dining that has supported this country for so long, is becoming an acceptable way of seeing through languid summer afternoons and evenings. The latest act to hit the 'small plates' stage is C.A.C, housed in the beautiful heritage-listed site which was formally the Colonial Ammunition Company. While loosely based on the tapas idea, the food at C.A.C is more substantial than that, and thankfully doesn't just restrict itself to European influences. North African, Italian as well as Spanish tastes all get a showing here on a menu that is constantly evolving. The veal & pork meatballs with laban, lemon and parmesan are a flavoursome delight; the Venetian chicken salad an intriguing and delicious dish, lifted above the usual by currants, parsley and orange. The fried baby squid with saffron aioli is a treat; and all of these are served on jus or sauces that just beg to be soaked up with the liberal slices of bread that come with everything. The winelist goes for textures and flavours that accompany the cuisine, and leans to the more unusual and exotic, while remaining very well priced. The staff are young, pretty, immaculately turned out and unfailingly knowledgeable about the menu and the venue, whose history lends the space an ambience that a purpose built site simply cannot match.

Med morsels
Big tastes from the Mediterranean make this address the next BEST thing to being there.

Most new restuarants tend to trumpet their arrival; C.A.C. decided to try to sneak in and perfect its opening efforts quietly. Its attempts were in vain. If the sound of builders just finishing did not draw attention, the noises of the enthused few who found the place before its official opening did.

It's the red chairs outside that first attract me. This is the former home of the Colonial Ammunition Company, hence this new establishment's name. The interior of the bluestone building has been stripped back and given a fresh emphasis with a slightly Moorish look. The wait staff wear striking red aprons and the meat slicer is the same shade. The bar is to the left, the restaurant to the right, and red lights lead to space upstairs. Very smart.

"Small plates, big flavours," says the blurb about this place. The Mediterranean Ms with me is much heartened by the fact that it doesn't call this stuff tapas - because tapas it ain't.

What it most emphatically is, is a selection of 17 great-sounding temptations; each from a latino clime. These are dishes designed to be shared as you pick over the day's events. Even the familiar has a sassy twist: the sauteed mushrooms have truffled chicken dumplings; the hummus comes with spiced lamb and pinenuts, and the chicken salad has currants, parsley and orange. There's also more than a cursory nod to vegetarians, and it is this territory that we wander with our choice of baked goat's-cheese with olives and rosemary. Alongside we get meatballs (veal and pork) with labna, lemon and parmesan.

Prices start at $8 and reach no more than $15. There is bread a-plenty - and bloody good it is too - to go with each dish.

The service manages to be efficient without envoking the clinical. Our dishes are with us in a time that is duly considerate of the Friday lunch hour we are observing. The flavours are indeed big (and fresh and gorgeous) and the servings warrant the price. The tables seem a bit small for groups hoping to pick off each other's plates, though.

There is a thunderously good wine list - longer than the menu itself. The food cries out for alcohol, but we restrict ourselves to water, on this occasion at least.

I don't know what this place will get like when it's full, but I like it quiet as it is today. I also like the chocolate and coffee opera cake we share over a very good coffee that comes in the sweetest cups I've seen.

We leave feeling lucky indeed to have discovered this place in its infancy. It suggests a decent and slightly exotic pedigree and a repeat visit, or maybe many more, beckons.

Written by Geraldine Johns
Sunday Star Times, November 7. About Town section.