BIANCA
Cuisine: Pasta
Address: Unit 4, 2 Robert St, Ellerslie
Bookings: Accepted
Drinks: Fully licensed
From the menu: Pork hock $26, beef tartare $26, prawn cappelletti $35, ricotta and beef cheek rotolo $36, panna cotta $18, tiramisu $18
Rating: 18/20
Score: 0-7 Steer clear. 8-12 Disappointing, give it a miss.
I mean I’m excited about The Grove’s 20th birthday dinner this month but despite it being the hottest ticket in town there’s actually a table that’s even harder to book: 6pm on a Tuesday at Bianca.
I have never been denied this many times trying to eat somewhere. Tonight is fully booked, tomorrow is fully booked, and the day after that, and so it goes, sometimes for weeks into the future. One night, in frustration, I drove all the way to the restaurant without a reservation hoping I could peer pressure them into feeding me.
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Advertise with NZME.“I can wait,” I said confidently. “It’s just me. I will sit anywhere.”
The nice lady behind the counter said “Sorry. We literally don’t have any more chairs.”
Could I wait outside in the cold until somebody leaves?
“No. There’s a whole other group of bookings arriving after this one. Then we close the kitchen and go home.”
Yes, while almost every other restaurant wonders how it will get through this long winter of short arms and deep pockets, a 32-seater in Ellerslie is doing a lunch service then three full sittings in the evening. I drove home, booked in for an early dinner slot two weeks hence, and looked forward to finding out what all the fuss was about.
Undoubtedly part of Bianca’s success is due to its location, and the dearth of good restaurants within five kilometres. But the neighbours seem to be turning up as much out of pride as desperation.
“I’ve lived in Mount Albert forever,” the restaurant’s owner Hayden Phiskie told me. ”I’ve never seen someone walk into a shop and say ‘I’m from Mount Albert!’. But here everyone wants to tell me they’re a local.”
Chances are you’ve already eaten Hayden’s food if you’ve been to Cotto, or Ada, or Daphnes. I hadn’t met him before and had pictured the archetypal hot-tempered chef, burning bridges with one restaurant after another while trying unsuccessfully to find somewhere his talent was properly recognised. In fact, Hayden is one of the gentlest, kindest restaurant people I’ve come across. He is clearly delighted to be the owner of a restaurant he loves, bemused but not obsessed with its success and happy to be free not only to work the floor but to leave early sometimes so he can pick up his son from basketball practice.
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Advertise with NZME.Bianca’s wine is good, with a Cambridge Road Pet Nat on offer in place of the usual bubbles and plenty of options from New Zealand and Italy by the glass. The list has a few classic cocktails I didn’t try (I wonder if they might consider Advieh’s approach of miniature cocktails for a quick spikey drink before the wine and food arrive) plus beers and spritzers if you’re keen. The waiters are very happy to pour samples so order a plate of focaccia (sliced thin vertically and drizzled with fresh olive oil) and have a little tasting session — while there is almost certainly someone due to take over your table later, it never feels as if you’re being hurried along.
The beef tartare might be my favourite version of this dish in the city. It is beautiful to look at and beautiful to taste, especially after you’ve taken a fork and stirred up the plateful of fresh, colourful ingredients. There is chopped raw beef, of course, but also pistachio and currants: a sort of Sicilian twist on the French classic. On top is an anchovy mayo that adds a salty lushness to the lean meat as you mix it in. Don’t miss this dish.
The agria potatoes with whipped feta looked like a simple, delicious starter but we had our eye on two separate pastas (plus desserts) so it felt like a carb too much. Instead, we ordered the pork hock, which is a big mouthful of various roasted piggy textures, served with a tasty tomato/capsicum sauce: great if you’re into it.
You probably won’t recognise all the pasta names but the wait staff are again here to help. “Cappelletti” is a filled pasta — filled with a perfect, plump prawn actually — and gets its name from the way it sits up like a sailor’s cap on the plate, as compared with the flat ravioli. There are four of these cappelletti in the dish, each a bright and brilliant yellow thanks to the use of egg yolk in the dough, with that golden colour mirrored in the saffron mascarpone that covers the plate. Finally, an anchovy crumb standing in for Parmigiano is sprinkled over the top.
We finished with an outstanding tiramisu — soaked beyond saturation so the boozy liquor pools at the bottom of the bowl — and the panna cotta is a showstopper: silky and wobbly with a sweet, brown-butter caramel sauce, seasoned with salt.
It may feel strange booking a month out for a simple pasta meal in Ellerslie, but you should do it now, tuck it away in your calendar and look forward to the love and gratitude of your future self when the big night eventually arrives.
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