esplanade restaurant

i went to try this place with my wife. as we were really loved old esplanade.
i would really like to say that just buy a $4.99pizzait will taste 100 times better then this place. we ordered pizza, garlic, rosemary bread (they used to have bread & dips simply awesome). it was just bad. after that gotpizzawhich was worse. felt like got a round piece of indian roti and chuck some olives and other stuff on top. really not worth it.

looks good inside, the change over. beer was good. but in mire smaller glass.

if you want go for enjoyment and not really care for food then this is the place for you.

amazing coffee! best i've had in months. second time i've visited dunedin and stopped here for lunch and the coffee has been incredibly good (had a short macchiato this time).pizzawas also delicious, setting beautiful overlooking a stormy ocean crashing against the esplanade, and service exceptional.

i came here with a group of 4 during peak time. i was informed they don't take bookings, so we ended up waiting about 15 minutes for our table.

once we were ready to sit the majority of my table decided to orderpizzaand share it. we were happy with the service during the ordering, our waiter made suggestions and explained the menu well.

thepizzai ordered had a perfect amount of cheese and the base was nice and crispy. the rest of my table throughly enjoyed their pizzas too.

esplanade has a prime location on the st claire esplanade so i'm glad they are using the space well and are putting efforts into the presentation of the restaurant.

i will come back with another group in the future.

lovly spot on the corner, good service but the food just did not wow me. looked forward to a mediterranean type feed but it feel short. i ordered seafood antipasto plate. but to much picked veg and no dips to enjoy the bread with. seafood was ok. my son did not enjoy his sausagepizzaas it did not have tomato base. this place could be great in this location but i think they might be spoiled by not having to work hard getting people in as it’s a great location.

good solid food all day long. always had good service. at its best for a casualpizzaand beer. great views. just beware that the pizzas are those traditional italian types, so don't go expecting a heavy meatlovers with extra bbq sauce :)

came in to esplanade after a long drive and hungry. a light and airy space with a good view out to sea.

the staff were helpful and attentive. unfortunately the food was not as good as the place itself. we ordered starters of mussels which were the best dish served and arancini which had a bland tomato sauce. it was missing something to make it a tasty dish. for mains we ordered a prosciuttopizzamade in their traditional wood fired oven and lasagna. the lasagna was again flavoured too simply with the tomato sauce being a bit wet. thepizzawas overloaded with rocket that quickly withered from the heat of thepizzaand although there was a decent enough portion of prosciutto it wasn't particularly flavourful.
after missing breakfast that morning i would have expected to be able to appreciate the food more but it just wasn't appetising at all. one of the staff did ask if it was all ok when we swapped dishes to which i replied "it's ok". i then tried the lasagna and realised it wasn't a one off with the starter. the staff member saw we left the plates half empty and after we told her it wasn't good she told the manager, who was standing a table away from us, that we didn't enjoy the dishes but most disappointingly the manager didn't ask if anything was wrong or how the meal was when we paid bill with him moments later.

we stayed one night in dunedin and ventured to the esplanade restaurant. we ordered the piccantipizza(tomato, mozzarella, spicy salami) and salsiccia (havoc pork and fennel sausage, mushroom, truffle oil, mozzarella). we were wowed by the friendly customer service, we were seated within 5 minutes of arriving despite there being a long queue. as for the food, the pizzas were one of the best ones i've had. i look back to my dunedin trip with fond memories of the pizza! :)

we are visiting dunedin and was drawn to this restaurant due to the lovely location. my husband orderedpizzawhich he enjoyed. i ordered the mushroom risotto which was nice but slightly to salty for me but i am sick and i tend to under season food so i am sure most people would really enjoy this meal. we also ordered a bowl of fires which were good and a massive serving, we didn't actually need these as our meals were large enough on their own. we had the caramel pot (i think it was called) after our main meals which was amazing, would rate that a 5! the service was really good, everyone was friendly and helpful. we would come back here again if in dunedin.

went here because of the view only. ordered the ravioli and the presentation is really bad, there was just too much oil, i even left half of it. my friend ordered gnocchi and it looks and tastes much better. ordered the capricciosapizzaand that was good enough. the service was okay but they didn't even greet us when my friend and i entered. i don't think i would recommend this restaurant or even going back here unless i want to eat while having a nice view.

prime location, great service and vibe, no complaints on the food, we had entree main and desert and there was not a crumb left! thepizzabases were thin and cooked perfectly, the desserts were delish, couldn't have asked for more.

we have been here twice for pizza, both times felt rushed andpizzadisappointing, lacking topping and the choice to choose your own toppings!

ok, i'm sorry to the rest of the reviewers who gave it such a poor rating. you may have "tried" other italian restaurants in nz or oz or..... wherever but it's never the same as trying it from italy, sicily or malta. these are likely the only 3 places that make them properly. how do i know? that is where i am from and i know mypizzaand pasta. p.s. i have travelled and lived in various places in the world. you can be as nifty as you like in the kitchen making your own dough, i don't care it doesn't mean you are of italian culture and trained by a top class pizzaiolo. also pasta should be eaten "al dente" if that is not to your palate then fine, but for heaven sake, don't behave uncultured by calling the pasta "hard".
to someone's comment on chorizo a word that is used flippantly in nz..... it's a spicy sausage either way.

to those of you who appreciate genuine italian cuisine. you need to go. i was in heaven eating the pizza. it made me feel like i was back in the mediterranean!

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 - sopizzamay not be everyone's cup of tea. other than that, overall very pleased.

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 italianpizzais mama mias (which is very good for takeaways) but one has to wonder why they can produce an equally goodpizzafor 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 thepizzaand breakfast item we had ordered. when thepizzacame it was straight away disappointing as there was only one piece of basil on the margherita, which is apizzai'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... thepizzai 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.