Address: 259 Parnell Road
Phone: (09) 379 5358
Website: nonsolopizza.co.nz
Have you noticed that Auckland restaurants tend to fall into categories linked with their physical location? If you want off-beat and quirky, go to Kingsland. If you prefer casual, smart and edgy, try Ponsonby. If you want fine dining without too much palaver, head for Mt Eden. And for a little more glamour and ritz, try Parnell.
We'd been to Non Solo Pizza for a birthday lunch a few weeks before and enjoyed the pampering and stylish food of their private dining room.
This Friday night we started in the rapidly-filling bar with its bevy of cool girls and even cooler guys, then moved on to one of the restaurant's banquette-style booths.
By the time we'd finished our entrees the place was heating up. A group of extremely glamorous people slipped into the booth beside us - women with pouty lips and strapless frocks and older, attentive, men.
On the other side was the usual Friday night group of girls on the town, and noisy they were, too.
The food started brilliantly. We decided on a pizza pugliese and a double serving of calamari fritti to share. Both were excellent, the pizza thin-crusted and crunchy with a satisfying topping and a plate of calamari - the high point of my meal. Crisp-battered and tender, without being greasy, they were wolfed down in minutes.
By then, new neighbours were in place, the volume had notched up and, since we couldn't hear each other too well, we sipped our excellent Pegasus riesling, Mt Nelson chardonnay, chianti and syrah and observed. Our waiter was friendly but over-busy. Meanwhile, a rather off-hand maitre d' wandered around, inquiring if everything was all right.
Our main courses were less thrilling. Both young men had the ubiquitous snapper "of the day" and both stared fixedly when their $34.50 plates arrived bearing two goujons each. Hmmm.
My agnello (lamb) was more generous, well cooked but nothing to put on one's Facebook page. Barb's vegetarian cannelloni with pumpkin was disappointing. On the other hand, Brian's tagiatelle de mare was absolutely stunning, a blend of seafood and flavours, al dente pasta and plenty of it. Dishes like this are hard to get right. Too many herbs and spices and you can't taste the seafood. Too few and it's bland. This one, with its hit of pepper hotness, offered the perfect balance.
And so to dessert. We ordered the dolci degustasion to share, the semifreddo torro for me, the decadenza bicchi and the tiramisu for Brian, who thought he'd won Lotto when his enormous portion arrived. Sadly, it turned out to be light on the liqueur and cream. Still, short work was made of it.
I couldn't detect much nougat in the semifreddo, but Ollie certainly could, after he and Barb had demolished their tasting plate in world-beating time. For the record, their favourite dessert of all was a delicate steamed pudding.
So how was our evening? On balance it was great to be somewhere glamorous and mildly exciting, the food was good to excellent, as was the wine, the service was okay but a little non-personal.
I had to ask three times for the bill and even then we waited for at least five minutes at the counter before the maitre d' finally arrived to take our money.
Maybe we should have acted like highway robbers and done a runner, because the bill when we finally paid it, was $380.50. Steep, even by Parnell standards.
Rating out of 10
Food: 7
Service: 6
Value: 6
Ambience: 7
Our meal: $380.50 for two entrees, one pizza, five main courses and desserts, one coffee and seven glasses of wine.
Wine list: Long on Italian imports with plenty of home-grown favourites.
Verdict: A favourite of bright young things (and old has-beens) at play, NSP offers excellent to ordinary food in glamorous, if noisy, surroundings.
