AquaMattA, Auckland City

Reviewed by JENNIFER YEE for canvas

With a line-up of names like Camillo Bisaccioni, Sergio Cherici, Simone Piva, Sergio Guzzardi and Filippo Scapecchi you will never doubt the Italian nature of this inner-city restaurant/bar/deli located on the upper level overlooking Chancery Lane.

AquaMattA opened a mere two months ago and has a look and feel not dissimilar to the sexy Il Bacro restaurant in Melbourne. The kitchen crew have known each other since high school and worked together most recently in San Francisco. Many of the ingredients they use are produced by friends of the family in Arezza, northeastern Tuscany.

I discovered a new aromatic ingredient called fennel pollen, used over fish, pork or veal (you can buy a jar from the deli to take home). But the one dominant visual fixture at AquaMattA is the temperature-controlled cheese cabinet — this stunning piece of cheese architecture is the focal point.

Alan and I are seated by a small library of covetable books on funghi, formaggi, wine, Italian style and architecture. I could grow fond of this corner of the dining room. We start with a complimentary Prosecco with pear nectar demi tasse, then a mouthful of prosciutto, parmigiano and purple potato arrives.

From the August menu we chose:

Tonno scotto con bagna di yoghrth — which translates to diced fresh tuna sauted with thyme, white wine and served with yoghurt, black olive and Pantelleria caper tapenade. The tuna, seared briefly in a hot pan, was deliciously moist and rare, just as it should be.

The tapenade was more like a creamy aioli but this went well with the tuna. I would have thrown in a few more capers to give more sharpness and a better variety of salty olive.

Freshly made Tortelli di bietola e Ricotta con zucchini e bufula was chard and ricotta tortelo pasta with cherry tomato sauce, sauted zucchini and buffalo mozzarella. Our three plump purses of pasta were light, and well balanced in flavour and we enjoyed the combination of granular ricotta with the slightly tooth-resistant milky mozzarella. Perfect.

Saltimbocca di vitello con suffle di zucchini — veal saltimbocca Roma style with fresh sage, parma prosciutto, a sheer blanket of filante cheese and zucchini souffle — were deliciously scented and tender veal bundles. The souffle was not one of those light-as-air sorts but denser, creamy and decorated with wafer-thin slices of baby zucchini.

Polenta al Parmigiano e ragu di cervo alle erbe — a rustic venison ragu with tarragon, fennel pollen, juniper berries and wild mint — was comforting fork food, prepared with a well-flavoured stock and lean, tender meat and served over the lightest pillow of creamy polenta.

We drank Tuscan Ross'oro I. G. T. Chianti 2001 with our main courses — soft, velvety, ripe berries and spice.

The honeysuckle-like Marzocchi Vin Santo seduced us into a tasting of three-month, nine-month and one-year-old pecorino cheese from Pienza (with dried fruits, walnuts, persimmon mustard fruit, fresh pear and runny honey to drizzle). We enjoyed comparing the pecorino, but the platter was bitsy. Great cheese is best kept uncluttered.

The white chocolate and yoghurt tortino (a wee muffin/cakey thing), with a molten centre of white choc, came encased in a fine cage of bittersweet burnt toffee, swirled with fresh strawberry coulis and yoghurt, and the whole dusted with icing sugar.

The tortino was gobbled by the boy. I thought the cake part could have been less heavy.

Service is friendly, articulate and obliging. An outdoor courtyard of tables for suits who wish to hold their boardroom nibbling, drinking, smoking out of the office is slap bang between real estate offices and menswear. This venue is going to pump come summer.

OUR MEAL: $175 for 2; entree $9.50-$22.50; paste/secondi piatti $18.50-$31; formaggi & desserts $10.50-$28

OUR WINES BY THE GLASS: by the glass $4-$20; by the bottle $41-$995; Bubbles $42-$290 by the bottle.

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