Lilian - Grey Lynn

What a splendid meal at Lilian! Had seen great reviews of their menu and had to give it a try myself! We ordered fresh market oysters, wood fired bread and the smoothest chicken liver parfait I have ever had! They were out of tua tua that night, but instead we had juicy diamond clams with a spicy 'Nduja as well as a woodfired pizza with prosciutto, grapes, parmesan and thyme. Lilian doesn't take bookings unless it's for groups of 6 or more. So we went early at around 5:45 on a Friday and still had to wait 20 minutes for a table. However, it was worth the wait!

Oh yeah. Ok, so wow. Got to be the best pizza I have had in NZ. But let’s not just say it’s pizza. Amazing steak, fish, veggies, cheese and bread. Wood fire oven doing the heavy lifting here. Smoky and charred deliciousness, has to be one of the best restaurants in tamaki makaurau get amongst it.

Lamb ribs ?.. top 3 in Auckland, it’s a close call between Lilian, Cotto and Depot for the top lamb ribs. The duck was great, and the Brussels sprouts went well with the duck as a side. But the hero of the evening for me was the eggplant. The eggplant tasted so so so good. All in all it was a great dinner.

Descent italian Restaurant. We ordered by the reco from very kind FOH girl. Bread, roasted pepper and chicken liver partait, egplabt, cabbagre, lmb ribs, grape Pizza, octopus, market fish and every Dessert. All food taste was okay, but you will only taste char flavor and sweetness. Every dish has same flavor so i wouldnt order Many food to try. Please try bread, chicken liver partait and eggplant. Those three dishes will explain every dish there. :) It is shared concept but no folk and knife to to share. Weird.

Super delectable dishes. I am so impressed and tummy so happy. We had dinner here for my birthday and thank God we made the right choice to celebrate with my friends. Everything we had beginning to end was super delicioso. The woodfired bread with burrata was divine and I rarely eat steak but I really enjoyed their TBone steak. Nothing to fault from the dishes we ordered. For our first time experience at Lilian, I should say that truly delivered. Staff was so friendly and attentive so that was a real plus. We will be back for more. Only downside is we can't book in advance if less than 8 people. Thanks Lilian hopefully you would be around for a long time.

Overall, this is a long, honest review because we absolutely loved the food, yet the total Lilian experience feels like it doesn't quite know what it wants to be yet; stuck somewhere in the middle between casual and fine dining and because of that, it's hard to know if we'd go out of our way to come back. So, I'm honestly having a hard time finding a representative number rating based on how we feel because we talked about it a lot; I'd say overall 3.5 if I could. To start with the good, the woodfire pork sausage pizza was without a doubt one of the bestngourmet pizzas we've ever had and if we were to come back, it'd definitely be for that. The grilled octopus was also surprisingly great because unlike every other one I've ever had in various countries, this one wasn't tough and chewy so was pleasantly surprising. Cocktails were also very unique and very tasty too, so from all the food side, 5/5 for sure and I can see why there was heaps of people walking in trying to get a table. But the points of contention we had were mainly about the overall atmosphere and service experience in that when we compare the price to dining experiences at similar high-end / boutique restaurants, what they have is that extra touch. The tables could have a little more uniqueness to them. The outside seating could have something to make it more visually appealing than what feels like any other bar with seating basically on the sidewalk looking at the street (eg fairy lights wrapped around the poles alone could do wonders for the aesthetics, something like that to make the outside seating feel more inclusive and special). Then at similar calibre places, when you're given a variety of dishes, you usually get new plates bc like after eating grilled peaches with ricotta followed by octopus, I really don't then want to use that same plate for pizza too and have all these unique flavours mixed together. The last note is that whilst the servers were VERY nice, it still just felt very casual and disconnected between how everyone was dressed as if it was no different for a cafe, yet you'd never be spending $200 on a two person date night meal at a cafe. Then the toilets and inside seating have almost like a rustic appeal, but I wonder if this was more unintentional than intentional (bc like whilst the bathroom sink looks rusticly special, the toilets and doors do not).

What a great dining experience. Food was amazing, service was excellent. Even seated next to the toilets, not one person came back smelling. How magical. Best dishes for me were the Anchovies pizza and the Pana cotta. A close second were the octopus and clams. If I had to critique anything, the lamb had a bit too much char on them, slightly burnt bitter taste, and the Tiramisu was watery in the centre as though it had spent too much time in freezer. Overall a fantastic place for a meal. Definitely will go again.

Highly recommend booking in advance as restaurant itself is small ! Food is really really good, recommend the wood fire bread with burrata and the lamb ribs. The prosciutto pizza was very salty despite having the grapes to offset it. The Cosmo drink was very interesting, loved the hint of chilli, apple and basil. Overall, come here with a group of friends so you can try all the delicious dishes.