Fine Dining - what is it?

Ok, this is just a quick one.

I'm involved in a discussion via email with some friends over "fine dining". My friend wants to spend a great deal of money on a dinner with his girlfriend at one of several restaurants listed on cuisine.co.nz as "fine dining restaurants", just to get the "fine dining" experience.

Now, I've been to my fair share of supposedly "fine dining" restaurants, and my take is that New Zealand wouldn't know fine dining if it picked up the salad fork and water glass and bashed itself over the head with them.

So my question to anyone that cares is, what makes fine dining? Is it the amount of cutlery at each place setting? Is it the price? Is it the quality of the food? Is it the food size to plate size ratio? And has anyone experienced true silver service in any restaurant in New Zealand?

I might not have experienced true silver service fine dining yet, but I can tell you what does not make fine dining, and that is having Lindauer anywhere on the wine list, and making Moët the most expensive champagne available.

posted by miss_seph @ some point in time