Bivacco restaurant, newly opened at Auckland Viaduct, features a large dining room and bar, verandah seating and more seating outside. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
Bivacco restaurant, newly opened at Auckland Viaduct, features a large dining room and bar, verandah seating and more seating outside. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
In their own words: Bivacco, Bar & Griglia is “a bold restaurant serving simple unfussy Italian food built from locally sourced ingredients”.
First impressions: Why does the city’s best new long lunch restaurant sound like somewhere you could buy a polar fleece? Bivacco is Italian for “make camp”. I bloodyhate camping. Fortunately, this translation is more caviar on your cheese than sand in your sleeping bag. We all know people who don’t mind not showering for three days. The rest of us are having lunch at Bivacco.
On the floor: Waitstaff in big restaurants have to tread a fine line. Too efficient and it feels impersonal; too friendly and everyone at the next table is wondering when they’re going to get served. These guys got it exactly right.
The neighbourhood: The rain was falling in chunks and Customs St West is, apparently, the latest downtown transit route superfluous to requirement. I thanked the uber driver, opened my umbrella and tried not to trip on a road cone. Bivacco is in the old Headquarters building and, on a sunny day, a lovely stroll along the Viaduct or across the drawbridge from Wynyard Quarter.
The menu: Can we talk about the Return of the Big Menu? Internationally, the reported post-Covid restaurant trend is short, sharp food lists - less wastage and faster table turnover. Hurrah for Tāmaki Makaurau and its new openings where diners must debate fried calamari versus wood-fired octopus, pizza versus pasta and do you think we can eat a whole john dory between us if we also want the barbecued wagyu tongue with oyster mushrooms? Yes, we are going to have the white AND the green asparagus.
Best bite #1: Lesser restaurants would have launched solely on the strength of the antipasti offering. Thirteen choices before you even count cured meats or complimentary bread. Mozzarella sticks with caviar sounds gimmicky but even if those tiny salty bursts are squid ink tobiko and not the real sturgeon deal (I aspire to a salary that will allow me to learn the difference) this is a menu must. Molten dairy meets popping fish; surf and turf for ladies who lunch.
Best bite #2: The braised lamb agnolotti with sheep’s milk, zucchini and mint was a stuffed pasta flavour bomb - the lighest of wrappers with a hefty, shredded meat filling that might have come straight from Grandma’s Sunday roast.
Mozzarella sticks with caviar and braised lamb agnolotti from the menu at Bivacco restaurant, Auckland Viaduct. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
Honourable mention: I was curious about the nasturtium pesto (grassy-peppery) and the rumpetto (fatty-crispy) but mostly I ordered the wood-fired asparagus because in asparagus season, I eat asparagus. Nature is fickle and humans are only human but sometimes, when the growing, picking, prepping and cooking planets align, you order asparagus and are served an epiphany. Thank you, Bivacco wood-fired-grill god!
On the side: You could build a beautiful meal from the antipasti selection - or just order a literally beautiful antipasto. Shaved raw white asparagus was arranged mandala-style and served with aged balsamic, parmesan and thyme. I was struck by the perfect intensity of the herb and the way all the textures intersected. An exercise in mindful eating?
Inside Bivacco restaurant, in the old Headquarters space, on the Auckland waterfront. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
The jury’s still out: “Do you think the zabaglione on the tiramisu is a fraction eggy?” asked Erica. I agreed, desperate to think of something, anything, to criticise about the best weekday lunch I’ve had in a really long time. And then we ate all the pudding anyway.
Dessert: See above, but also consider the dessert cocktails, especially if your recent inability to find Movenpick mint chocolate icecream has sparked insatiable cravings. I ordered a Grasshopper and licked the glass.
Perfect for: Is it even lunchtime in December if you’re not in the bathroom answering an email and pretending to be at work while you wait for another round of antipasti and/or wine?
How much: $207 for two.
Address: Bivacco Bar & Griglia, 115 Customs St West, Auckland. Ph (09) 801 6505
Right from the get-go you’re told exactly why this list is so lengthy. “Bivacco celebrates the artisan wine growers from the north to the south of Italy and everywhere in between”, which includes “Italian classics, rarities and the esoteric”. So that’s a LOT of wine. Seven pages long, it’s no lightweight list, but it’s a heck of a lot of fun. So you may wish to scurry along to your booking slightly earlier, just to give yourselves time to peruse before checking out the food. It’s encouraging to see no fewer than 28 wines available by the glass, with prices ranging from $14-$35 and I like how they’ve highlighted a handful of their favourites and expanded tasting notes for them to give thirsty folk a little extra info to assist their pour decisions. The reds and whites are separated into “Northern”, “Central”, “Southern” and “Islands”, so Bivacco’s list is an excellent education on what styles are produced where. Love crisp white wines? Try a vermentino or a pinot blanc. Prefer richer white wines? Then an arneis or fiano could satisfy. Pinot noir fan? Try dolcetto or Chianti. Bold, muscular reds more your thing? Try barolo or teroldego. Bottle prices run from $70 to $2500 for a bottle of 2018 Tenute dell’Ornellaia Masseto IGT. I noticed the La Gioiosa Prosecco costs $20 in the shops and yet Bivacco is charging $80 a bottle for it. I fully understand why large mark-ups are put on bottles of wine in restaurants, but 400 per cent?
