leonardo's pure italian

one of the best italian place in rotorua.
service and food is pretty good. even choices of wines are quite good too.

i fancied their dessert as well

it is well placed amongst the central rotorua area. i've visited the place twice and it has given good dining experience.

i stood by the sign in desk due to covid 19 restrictions; there was no clear signage displayed as to how to approach staff for a table. the host inside looked at us a few times and never approached us or gave us direction as to what to do. a good five minutes later, a larger group of people walked in without signing in as required by regulations (?) and the host greeted them straight away and showed them a table. couldn’t help but feel a little discriminated against because the group he greeted was white? nothing wrong if the group pre booked and all but at least acknowledge us and ask if we needed help.

update: well id made my return trip, back to rotorua in hopes to share my wonderful experience with my partner only to be utterly disappointed… has the ownership or management changed?? i can’t compare the experience.

my mum and i went for dinner here whilst away for work a couple of weeks ago and omg! absolutely amazed at the taste and quality of both our food and perfectly balanced mojitos! wonderful service, we will definitely be back again on our next road trip ⭐️⭐️

this was one of our first out of town after covid lockdown has been lifted in new zealand, quite a late post as this happened a couple of months ago when we had a short getaway to rotorua. usually during our family birthday month which happens during july we tend to go travel overseas and it became a tradition, but since overseas travel is quite restrictive, we must stick to something local, why rotorua? well its near, just a three hour drive to auckland plus it offers a lot of activity, from zorb , luge, sky diving, mud pools, hot springs, atvs, you name it they have it.

great italian can’t complain here portion are decent as well! how it should be feed people to be full. staff are all very attentive and friendly well recommended.

came here for dinner last thursday evening and the place was packed. waiter advised us would be a 45 minute wait for the food, i was feeling like a few drinks so i didn’t mind the wait. we waited at the bar for a table to open up and it wasn’t long. ordered fried calamari and chicken pizza to start, both were average not worth remembering. then our mains of spaghetti and crab risotto came out with garlic bread and it was so yum. risotto was so creamy and delicious and spaghetti was good. service was good, our waiter took care of us even though it was busy, definitely will visit again.

1st jan 2020late(ish) dinner, service was really good, staff were very accommodating, scallops and prawn entries were very very nice.  both the steak & lamb were cooked as ordered (rare & medium rare) with accompanying veges which were yum.one of the toilets was unable to be used, thus a large line - so we actually went to our hotel and back instead.

we came here for an early dinner on a tuesday night. the restaurant is located on ‘eat street’. there was plenty of seating, lovely and attentive service and staff were accommodating to my fussy dietary needs. highly recommend for casual dining.

went there for lunch yesterday. the staff were friendly and attentive but the food was terrible. my partner ordered the chicken parmigiana and i ordered the spaghetti bolognese. both dishes looked and tasted like frozen ready meals. mine was actually cold. definitely not authentic italian food.

had dinner here the other night, the food was really nice and quick.  had the meatlover's pizza which was really really delicious as well as the calamari salad, which the salad was good... but the calamari was really sad looking and didn't taste quite right.  finally we had a creamy pasta dish which was mushroom chicken based, however the portion of the dish was very lacking sadly, the chicken was a bit overcooked and was left wanting more pasta. overall i rated this place 3/5 cause the food was pretty average.

the food is so tasty and yum here - however some of the portions for mains are easily entrees and not mains, leading me to think the prices are too high for some mains due to the fact they are so small - my boyfriend had to get wendy’s afterwards because he was still hungry. service and deliciousness were 5 star however

wouldn’t say this place is authentic italian. ordered the arancini for entree which was tasty, however i had the slightest feeling packet risotto was used for the filling but unsure..
i had the crab risotto for main which isn’t what i was expecting - i found this to be way too creamy and struggled to taste and find the crab which was supposed to be the star of the dish. it went well with the crispy parmesan and prosciutto on top due to the risotto not having much flavour itself but i think much less cream/sauce and chunkier crab would have been a lot better.
my mum got the crayfish ravioli which she found had too much going on in the plate and struggled to taste the flavours well.
on a side note the broccolini was nice & crunchy!

not an italian in sight so not sure how it is pure italian.
the food was reasonable ... not amazing, but certainly enjoyable.
but the service was appalling. they were very understaffed. our childrens meals came out promptly - our own meals over an hour later!
all in all very unsatisfactory.

these drunk indians don’t know how to cook food. the waiters are rude and rolled their eyes when we said we didn’t like the food. our garlic bread tasted like rock hard toenails, whilst the pizza stayed at the chef counter for 10 mins before the waiter stopped daydreaming in the restaurant. the pizza was overflowed with cheese and had dough like leather. they couldn’t even be bothered to seperate the mushrooms and spinach since it was all in icy lumps. don’t even get me started on the pasta. tasteless and we were really trying to understand how it could taste that bad, maybe they are on a tight budget ? and can’t afford salt and a cookbook. rather eat mould and algae as it would at least have some flavour. we were charged around $70 for budget food. the waiters also really need to learn how to clean themselves as they smelt like cow, and treat others with respect.

do not recommend, worst italian restaurant ever! bad food.

bad service, cold food. bad attitude of people running the place. save your money.