CORNELIA
Cuisine: Italian
Address: 289 Parnell Rd, Parnell
Phone: (09) 218 9080
Reservations: Accepted
Drinks: Fully licensed
From the menu: Aglio olio sourdough $8; anchovy bruschetta $19; prawn ceviche $30; beef and pork meatballs $36; mushroom casarecce $40; rocket salad $14; tiramisu $17
Rating: 17/20
Score: 0-7 Steer clear. 8-12
This corner wine bar has a Parnell Rd address but is actually at the end of a dark side street: you could walk the whole strip while dying of thirst and never know it was here. As such, when you finally do step through the front door and into this bright and friendly space, it feels as though you’ve stumbled upon something special.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.“You’ve found Parnell’s best-kept secret!” said the gentleman next to me, who seemed to have been enjoying the winelist.
“I guess so!” I said happily. “How many times have you been here?”
He thought about it. “This is my first time.”
I’m sure he’ll be back. The manager told me some locals visit a couple of times a week.
“We have one lady – we looked her up in the system and worked out she’d been here over 150 times. We told her and she seemed … quite surprised.”
The set-up is pretty simple: a good list of drinks and a simple Italian-influenced menu, all prepared in a fairly compact space behind the main bar. “Chef comes in early and does all the food prep, then we open up at 5pm and when it’s gone, it’s gone,” she said, with finality.
We arrived fairly late on a Tuesday night but only kombucha and one of the desserts was sold out. This left us with plenty of dishes to choose from, and we happily got something from every part of the menu.
Bruschetta forms a big part of the food pyramid here – I guess because it’s easy, tasty and goes well with drinks. We ordered the aglio olio, a phrase more often used in relation to spaghetti but here the oil and garlic are used to season pieces of toast – hard to mess up and edible enough, though perhaps I was expecting something a bit more exciting given the deep love I have for that famous pasta dish.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.We ordered a really lovely plate of casarecce – distinctive twisted lengths of pasta with a groove down the middle. It came with a medley of mushrooms and a truffle oil so intense that we could smell the moment the guy in the kitchen took the lid off the bottle. That all sounds pretty lush but they resisted putting the mushrooms in a creamy sauce and though I’m sure there was some butter in the preparation, most of the dairy came from ricotta salata – a salty white cheese shaved all over the top of the dish.
Chef Fabio Buonomo is from Rome (via Poderi Crisci and a couple of other high-profile Auckland kitchens) and he’s great fun to engage in conversation about his love of good food. I told him about a simple but incredible snack I once had at a wine bar in his hometown – anchovies and butter on bread. “Yes!” he said “and this is my version,” pointing to a more intricate Cornelia dish where the anchovies sat on stretchy stracciatella cheese, with a zesty gremolata on top.
I loved this dish, also a bruschetta, though as I said to Fabio on the night I think there is room on Cornelia’s menu for even more of his Roman heritage – Italian food that isn’t adapted for local tastes.
“I tried a few years ago,” he sighed, “with a classic carbonara. But people wanted me to add chicken, mushrooms ...”
I think Aucklanders’ tastes have changed. I would love to see a single blackboard item at Cornelia each night that you couldn’t get outside of Rome. He has the talent and the passion – and if he wanted he could make just half a dozen portions and leave us wanting more. It doesn’t need to be pajata – the dish I ate next to the Tiber River featuring calf intestines baked until the mother’s milk inside turns cheesy – but even something like that anchovy/butter bread or, yes, a no-compromise carbonara could make this an even more exciting place to eat.
And he wouldn’t need to change the rest of the menu. His prawn ceviche is a stunner, and is influenced more by South American cuisine than Mediterranean – he cooks the prawns in a flavourful stock then chills them before serving with a delicately dressed salad of cucumber, tomato and red onion. No need to mess with this dish – it’s a refreshing change to the raw fish that dominates most other Auckland menus.
You can find tiramisu elsewhere but none better than this one – heaped into a decadent pyramid shape and freshly dusted with cocoa. Then, if you have time, an Italian digestivo – just the sort of “only at Cornelia” flourish that will make this Parnell secret famous across the city.
More restaurant reviews
According to dining out editor Jesse Mulligan.
Are The Rumours About Hugo’s Bistro’s Renaissance True? Jesse investigates.
Full Time Sports Bar Isn’t Your Average Pub Grub. The Kingsland sports bar takes its food seriously.
Hanoi Haven In Takapuna Serves A Knockout Duck Curry. The food gets better and better at this Hurstmere Rd Vietnamese restaurant.
Olle in Milford Is Korean Fusion At Its Finest. A rare meal where everything goes right.
Is Piha Restaurant Aryeh Worth The Drive? It’s definitely worth a look, says Jesse.
Ada’s New Chapter Is Just Brilliant. The Grey Lynn bistro heralds a bright new chapter with chef Alfie Ingham.
Britomart’s Seafood Bistro Kingi Has A New Chef. But the team needs work.
