Breezes on Northbourne

REVIWED BY DEGROOTS MEDIA
Driving along Northbourne Avenue on a cold winters’ evening, you might find your eye irresistibly drawn to a small, well-lit restaurant shedding radiance from the ground floor of a modish hotel. This is Breeze on Northbourne, a recent addition to the four and a half star Clifton Suites and just a short drive from the centre of town. It’s clear from a glance that Breeze is the perfect function venue, and indeed seems to have been constructed with that idea at least partially in mind. Chocolate and cream walls are minimalist without being plain and a few well-chosen paintings add spatters of lime and crimson in abstract oils.

While the restaurant’s capacity for a la carte is around 80, they can run cocktail-style functions up to 120 people, for everything from corporate dining to hens’ nights. On nights the restaurant isn’t booked for a function, most of their clientele are hotel guests, but any walk-ins are welcomed with open arms. Service is friendly, accommodating and professional with a skilled group of mostly-young staff running the floor. The menu is mod Oz with a few international surprises (think venison and spatchcock) thrown in. Open seven days a week for breakfast, lunch and dinner, what are you waiting for? Breeze in.

Stephanie Wang, July 2007