Address: 20 Williamson Ave, Ponsonby, Auckland
Phone: (09) 360 0263
Website:
paneevino.co.nz
Cuisine: Italian Trattoria Pizzeria
Rating: 3½ stars
I'd been set up on a semi-blind date I think! A friend and I had arranged to meet for dinner at Ponsonby's newest Italian restaurant, Pane e Vino. At the last minute she informs me that I'd better change the booking to include a third person. I smell a rat.
And, drat, now I feel the need to put a little more effort into selecting my outfit!
Dressed to impress (ok, so I exchanged the long-johns for stockings) I arrive at the Williamson Ave address and am immediately struck by how full the place is. How is it that some eating establishments are an immediate success while others struggle to ever gather momentum? Pane e Vino has been open barely a month and already it's advisable to book.
Their secret? Well let's just say the atmosphere created by the veteran front-of-house co-owner Tito (previously of Gina's in Symonds St) is endearingly Italian and hard to resist being enchanted by.
From the first "ciao, Bella" that greets you to the "grazie, grazie, grazie!" as you leave, this place, you feel as though you have been welcomed and truly embraced by a big, warm, crazy Italian family.
The mystery third guest arrives and he's handsome, intelligent and adores food so all is forgiven for my friend and her well-intentioned trickery. Before we all get too engrossed in conversation, we make a pact to order first.
This is not easy as the menu features more than 100 dishes! Aside from risotto, this menu has every Italian dish you've ever heard of including a variety of antipasto, fresh and baked pasta, pizza and other (mostly meat) Italian mains. I privately harbour a concern for how so many dishes can be executed well without compromising on quality.
My concerns are realised with our starters. Many of the menu items, though they sound different, come out of the kitchen appearing very similar.
Our caprese salad and antipasto tipico essentially featured the same ingredients - mozzarella, tomato and wait for it ... spinach. Substituting baby spinach leaves for basil was a lazy gesture when good quality, locally grown basil is available all year round.
The advertised buffalo mozzarella was not up to scratch either and while I appreciate that fresh mozzarella is expensive and not always easy to access, I'd rather pay more for less if it guarantees quality on my plate.
The antipasto did feature Parma ham that was deliciously tasty, fragrant and salty. We also chose the croquette di patate (potato croquette) as a starter and it was magnificent - a crisp and golden crust with the creamiest centre of whipped potato, garlic and parsley you can imagine.
We turned our attention to the more substantial offerings on the menu and by this time we had also sussed that this place was BYO, so ducked next door to purchase a bottle of vino.
My scheming friend ordered the beef scaloppine and Mr Handsome took the advice of our waiter and ordered one of the four potato gnocchi on offer. I ordered linguine alla puttanesca, a personal favourite of mine, not least for the origin of its name.
It means "lady-of-the-night pasta"and the story goes that this dish was favoured by working girls in Italy because it uses basic and inexpensive ingredients found in most larders - garlic, anchovies, capers, chilli and olives - and could be thrown together quickly, thus minimising down-time between clients.
Having swapped mouthfuls of each dish, we all agreed that this was the winner of the night. The sauce was garlicky and tangy and the pasta cooked to its al dente best. A bit more chilli to give it the characteristic kick and it would have been perfect.
The gnocchi was heavenly - soft pillows of potato, ever so lightly boiled and served with spinach, bacon and zola cheese sauce. The beef scaloppine looked great but was a tad tough and needed salt to lift the flavours.
We ordered two desserts between the three of us. The tiramisu, which translates to "pick me up", did nothing of the sort as it was short on espresso and long on sugar.
The affogato, on the other hand, was splendid. High quality vanilla icecream drowned in a generous shot of espresso. Molto bene!
Pane e Vino is the sort of place that's worth returning to (I did, the very next night!) not only for the uplifting atmosphere but to work your way through the somewhat exhaustive menu until you find your own stand-out favourites.
From the menu: Croquette di patate, $10; Caprese: mozzarella, fresh tomatoes and basil, $11; Gnocchi with bacon and zola cheese, $15; Linguine puttanesca, $14; Involtini piemontesi beef scaloppini, $20; Tiramisu, $10; Affogato al caffe, $10.
Vegetarian: Plenty of choices.
Drinks: BYO
