esplanade restaurant

i've always been very pleased dining here - i've been here many times. the atmosphere is fantastic. pleasant, warm decor. their service is spot on, very friendly, timely and attentive. their food is great too - authentic italian. lasagna is my personal favourite. their dessert (particularly the tiramisu) is a must have. coffee is generally pretty good. drink selection and pricing is great. the only criticisms i'd have is that the table spacing is rather close, so if you're trying to have a private conversation - you might get a little uncomfortable. they seem to be sticking to a somewhat authentic italian style - so pizza may not be everyone's cup of tea. other than that, overall very pleased.

we arrived for our booking for 14 at 8pm, only to find that the private room that was booked in use, so as we gathered in the bar we were crammed up like sardines .after about half an hour they brought us some complementary olives and bread sticks as an apology for the wait, which was nice of the host.

while the hour wait passed we were taken through to the restaurant to find a group of tables pressed together forming a strange "u" shape,rather then the private room,not ideal for the large booking.

looking through the menu seemed promising, a few great combinations that i was eager to try, ordering the lasagna (which from a previous visit was delicious) my partner and other guests decided on pizza,a rather regrettable decision, we waited for the order to arrive.

a short while later the plates began to arrive and disappointment was mentioned across the table, sparsely dusted pizzas all around, with at most, 2 pieces of topping per slice. this is not gourmet, its cost saving.

starting on the pasta dish, it was bland and unappealing, after two bites i set the plate aside in disgust and started on the fries & wine, the only items worth consuming in this eatery.

in conclusion, if you want a tasty pasta meal, make it yourself or if you're craving pizza, dominoes does a better job. large reservations? forget about it.

we had an amazing meal wonderful flavours very authentic customer service was excellent and attention to detail second to none. proud to think we have a restaurant of this calibre in dunedin all i can say to bad feedback is you don't understand good food . highly recommended

the esplanade is a great place but the service really needs some work. the staff (waitresses in particular) were more concerned about gossiping and playing on their phones than serving customers. there were only a few people in the restaurant and the staff were not busy so it would have been nice to be greeted when we entered :)

the esplanade has a prime location and there was great excitement when it reopened in 2014 with a new owner, design and menu. unfortunately the concept is a bit misplaced. the service is generally quite good - friendly and professional and the restaurant is kept clean and tidy. the food is a challenge to assess in some ways. the pizzas are very nice "but" at well over $20 they are overpriced and not really value for money. it is true that the only other place where you can get an equivalent style of authentic italian pizza is mama mias (which is very good for takeaways) but one has to wonder why they can produce an equally good pizza for about $10 in most of europe (and north america) and it is over double in dunedin. the pastas servings are small and many of the choices are not what most people would expect - that could be a good thing but generally it isn't. it seems as if the esplanade is trying to sell a unique high level form of italian food that most people just don't want - it would be too much to call it pretentious but it just doesn't seem the right fit. beyond this the beer selection is quite limited and overpriced. their featured tap beer is peroni at $11 a pint - outrageous! the only other tap choices are speights or a cider. if you want an emersons be prepared to pay $13 - again outrageous! with such a narrow choice on the menu and overpriced drinks (and no byo) it will be interesting to see how the restaurant goes during the winter months when one off tourists are gone and they are dependent on local business. they have such a great location but with the recent announcement of new establishments being developed at the beach they may find themselves struggling.

my partner and i tried this place for lunch on saturday 15/03/14. the coffee was nice, and the fries we ordered (which came first) were really good too so we were expecting good things from the pizza and breakfast item we had ordered. when the pizza came it was straight away disappointing as there was only one piece of basil on the margherita, which is a pizza i've eaten in many italian restaurants, and make at home as we are both regular basil eaters, we have a constant supply going with plants we have in our kitchen. i know for a fact that the traditional and official recipe for the margherita is to have a small bunch of basil on each pizza, not in fact one leaf which is what the waitress told me was traditional on italian margherita, all the chefs were italian and that is the only was they would cook it, and it must not be to my taste as i obviously did not understand traditional italian food.... i cook a lot and my main repertoire is italian... the pizza i make, from scratch base and all, is like a gazillion times better than their soggy, tasteless excuse for traditional italian. i literally had to cut the one piece of basil, admittedly it was a good sized leaf, about 3cm, and distribute it around the pizza. the whole thing was greasy and it was gross actually soggy and just pathetic. i was laughing about how bad it was. my partner had some baked egg type dish that had potatoes and chorizo and mushrooms in it. this was also a joke for $18.50. the chorizo was salami for a start, and the whole thing was overcooked and just tasted of burnt potato and mushroom. it was actually gross and, while we ate it, we did say to the waitress when we paid but she just questioned our palettes and then charged us the $64 dollars it cost for the meal. i didn't like the way she dealt with it at all. i work in retail management so i definitely know how to go about dealing with customer dissatisfaction and i felt that she was patronizing and unfriendly. i was being totally reasonable and just offering honest feedback, i didn't expect any discount but i do feel as though the coffee could've been complimentary or something to that effect as we did express that the food wasn't great. we would never go back, except maybe for a quick takeaway coffee.

i can see what these guys are trying to do here - authentic food that speaks for itself. ummed and ahhed about reviewing but this has sat with me for a long time. being a keen diner frequenting dunedin's eateries never have i eaten a three course meal that left me feeling hungry and slightly ripped off. the food is obviously made fresh and cooked well with simple flavours but the meals we had were small in portions and more flavourless than small bursts of flavours to tickle the taste buds.
the service was great-attentive but not in your face- knowledgeable staff clearly trained well.

probably wouldn't return which is sad because there ain't many places you can get authentic italian style pizza rather than the american all goes on often seen in dunedin.

i'm sure this will offend some, but i feel the need to put some of these other polarised reviews into context.

so the key thing here is that the esplanade is now serving authentic neapolitan style pizza, the likes of which dunedin has never seen. because of this you'll find all the reviews here are either:
a) 4 or 5 star reviews - by dunedinites who have probably travelled beyond the city limits and have experienced authentic pizza elsewhere and are delighted to finally have the good stuff available locally.
b) 1 or 2 star reviews - where the reviewer considers the pizza to be "burnt" and "had hardly any toppings" and will feel ripped off because "they didn't put enough stuff on my pizza" and they'll be basically fuming about it. oh and of course they will claim its overpriced.

so, i'm in camp a) and i'll quickly give this place 4 stars. i have eaten better neapolitan pizza, but not in dunedin. in dunedin this is the only place to get good authentic artisanal pizza, made with quality local and imported ingredients. i know my flours (weird i know, but i am a pizza snob) and they are using one of the finest 5 stagioni - it is apparent in the flavour and texture of the final crust. i know they employ an experienced napolian pizzaiolo who takes care with each and every pizza, not a student on minimum wage who doesn't give a damn, also very apparent in the result.

my recommendation depends on what camp you fall into:
a) you know what neapolitan pizza is and you'd like to eat some in dunedin - well this is the only place that serves it. it really is the only good pizza i've had in dunedin, and i've tried them all. i'll be going again for sure.

b) if however you reckon gourmet pizza = good pizza, then you'll be sorely disappointed with the burnt, stingy, overpriced pizza on offer here. avoid this place at all costs and perhaps hit filadelfios for a "kiwi gourmet" pizza instead.

i will be very interested to see whether this place can sustain itself in dunedin, it takes a lot of guts to do something authentic down here when the majority won't understand or appreciate it. good luck esplanade!

oh, and no comment on the pasta... didn't order it. i'm all about the pizza baby.

pants. what a awful dinner. i don't care if your dough is rolled on the thighs of a italian virgin or your toppings are hand picked by the light of a new moon in italy.. you are in dunedin, nz and there is no excuse for half cooked sparse toppings with a burnt crust. so disappointing.

i went to the newly revamped esplanade restaurant at st clair on 3rd jan 2013 with my brother and his partner to celebrate my sister in law's birthday. i have been away from dunedin for a few years and upon return, i found out the esplanade has changed management and therefore a new menu. we used to love the chicken livers pasta and the salads and pizza. when we arrived, we were met with excellent service. we ordered a pizza bread with rosemary and garlic, a margherita pizza and a pasta with calamari and asparagus. while waiting for our food to arrive, the manager came and had a chat with us while filling up our water. i was very impressed with the hospitality and when i mentioned the change in menu the manager proudly told us that its now an authentic italian restaurant hence he guarantee a good dining experience once we tasted the food.
so we waited in anticipation. when the food came, it did look amazing and very inviting. but the taste was disappointing. the portions were small. the pasta was dry and hard. there were hardly any calamari and a few pieces of shaved asparagus. the margherita pizza did look cheesy enough but there was one and a half piece of basil on it. the crust was slightly hard and dry. the pizza bread was even more disappointing. slightly burned on the underside. i have been to several italian restaurants all over new zealand and i am aware of what to expect of italian cuisine and this despite being authentic as claimed by the manager, it was very disappointing.
we did order desserts and we had a chocolate tort and tiramisu. they were slightly more comforting than the mains. but overall, it was not a good dining experience after all the big talk-up from the manager despite having great service.
doubt my brother and his partner who lives in dunedin will be returning to the restaurant anytime soon. and while i reside in wellington, i possibly wont make any special mention to anyone i know who might be visiting dunedin.

have eaten here a few times and love their food. simple, fresh and delicious. the waiting staff are attentive and polite and you just can't go past the view. the deep fried sardines with onions and sultanas were a step out of my comfort zone but were amazing. also love their homemade rhubarb and strawberry soda. have had both pizza and pasta both of which were superb, although the ravioli with sage butter is my stand out.

the only downside with the esplanade is that they are slightly overpriced - if they had kept their pizza and pasta in the $20 - $23 range instead of $24 - $26 i would probably eat there more frequently. also have to agree with another review that the garlic and rosemary pizza bread was not up to par, dry, bland and lacking garlic in our case.

this place serves what may well be the best pizzas outside italy! not loaded with 100 toppings like nz pizzas, but rather simple, with modest toppings but bursting with flavour.

divine, simply divine.

and if you are in a group - ask for the back room with the long table and wonderful ceiling lights, which closes off from the remainder of the room.

went there last night for nibbles and drinks.
service i must say was amazing. food however was a let down... we just ordered a bowl of fries and they were a nice change, seasoned with garlic lemon and herbs. the garlic and rosemary pizza = horrible. there was no garlic at all on ours and it was burnt. i don't know how the waiter could even serve it 2 us ... jug of speights was great price $15 bucks. i ordered 2 double vodka and cokes, was charged 8.50 each ($17) then charged $4.50 for coke. taking the cost of each drink to $10.75, which is appalling. i've never paid that much before, needles to say i will not be returning. the service was amazing but not the quality and price of the food..

i wasn't expecting much after reading a few of the reviews and after some bad experiences when it was last open. but i had a very nice simple pizza that was full of flavour and i very much enjoyed it.
for me i have a rule about pizza, less is more. i have never enjoyed a pizza that has been loaded with a three course meal on top but it sounds like this is what some people expect from a pizza, so i suppose each to their own.
plus you can't ask for a better location.

someone said here that if you want dominos rather than true, simple italian pizza then go elsewhere. well a couple of the pizzas that some friends had looked ok & were enjoyed. two looked soggy & unappetising. the margherita had a single basil leaf in the centre. not sure if this is true italian or not but it looked sad.

my pappardelle with free range pork, mushroom and porcini was not at all nice. there was one single slice of mushroom in the entire dish. the pasta may well be intended to be the star of the dish but i was not at all happy with the ratio of pasta to pork / mushroom. it also tasted really odd.

this is the first time i have felt strongly enough about a restaurant to sign up to menu mania so i could write a review. had it been cheaper i might have let it go but i feel it is badly over priced. once home, i compared the menus & prices from two other italian restaurants in dunedin. both established dunedin restaurants serving pizza & pasta.

they may not be picture perfect italian food, i'm not sure. i've never been to italy. but my opinion is that the pizza & pasta dishes at the other three places i mention are superior in taste to the meals that i tasted & saw my friends eat at the new esplanade and at more reasonable prices.

i certainly don't intend going back to the esplanade to try anything else.