Say hello to Jones & Co.

This corner of Kingston has grown right up.  It's goodbye to Me and Mrs Jones, which was big on brunch, casual lunches and dinners, and hello to Jones & Co which is a different beast altogether.

Jones & Co has plenty of NYC-inspired razzle and dazzle - a tall backlit bar, waiters in smart casual white and black, circular green leather booths down the middle of the dining room, a steak menu. The whole vibe is dressy in a fun way.  

It's a little bit of a harkening to the days when Kingston was a buzzy nightlife hub, when you'd go out for flirty cocktails, move on to dinner and slip out of a Green Square bar well and truly past 2am wondering if it was worth waiting for a kebab at the hole-in-the-wall.

No kebabs will be found at this establishment, which is glammed up and sexily lit at night. Drinks are a good bet here, with a pleasingly extensive wine list, some if not many by the glass, with plenty of varietals.

If you're up the bar end, try something from the raw bar, heaped with glittering ice, and filled with oysters though you can also get sashimi, an Asian inspired ceviche with coconut cream and nahm jim, and a steak tartare with the lot.

The oysters ($3.50-$4 each) are beautifully briny sweet and served with condiments that have been judiciously applied - from a crumble of bacon to a bloody mary gel, nothing overwhelms the oyster itself, and even though we accidentally ordered the entire oyster section we regret nothing.

There's plenty to pick from if you want little pieces. There's a section described as "in a bun" which includes your sliders, your standard cheeseburger, your baos. Small plates include the perennial zucchini flowers, buratta with tomatoes and crostini, but we go for the seared scallops with boudin noir ($20) which are fresh and juicy paired with the salty darkness of the boudin noir with a lavish sprinkling of charred corn kernels to accompany and a rather bland green pea puree.

One of the stars tonight is the venison gnocchi ($30) with beetroot and tangy curd. You could spend half the evening fossicking in this generously proportioned bowl among the softly cooked shreds of venison and meltingly lush creme fraiche. All that rich meat makes for a happy contrast with chunks of beetroot and there are pretty little touches, like the radish slices on top for crunch, that offer texture and interest, rather than just being decorative. A great piece of work. 

A lovely piece of trevally ($34)  is nicely rendered and comes encrusted in brioche crumbs, which is a little like eating a french-toasted fish, to me. There's a buttery spinach and fennel puree which adds a sense of depth if not texture, and a squeeze of lightly charred lemon adds a little lift though I could use a little more contrast in flavours.

Desserts here are pretty and lush - a Kaffir lime panna cotta ($16) with a mandarin granita comes layered in a glass and with pashmak piled fluffily on top of everything. This is a perfect summer finish – the cool panna cotta filled through with floral, refreshing lime and the granita spiked with crumbs of meringue. There's plenty of freshness though my friend can't quite dig past the cumulus of pashmak and ends up decanting the dessert from the glass to get at the custard underneath.

Banoffee pie ($16) is OTT –  banana slices dotted about the plate, a scoop of salted caramel ice-cream in a pie crust, cubes of marshmallow, a sprinkling of caramelised popcorn, the whole thing festooned with dollops of dulce de leche. It's extreme. Maybe too extreme. Definitely too much after that pretty venison.

Perhaps we should go round the corner and try to find a bar where we can burn it all off on the dancefloor.