ALPINO Cuisine: Italian
Address: 16 Pacific Ave, Mount Maunganui
Phone: 07-827 5595
Drinks: Licensed
Reservations: recommended weekend evenings
I must confess right up that I've only ever previously eaten at one Italian restaurant at The Mount. And it was this one, a couple of years back when it was still called the Clarence Test Kitchen, a "warm-up" operation while Clarence Bistro and Bar Centrale, now inhabiting the old post office building in Willow Street, were still under construction.
It is still owned by Noel Cimadom, the man behind Clarence, who also has the original Alpino in Cambridge. There are obvious crossovers with the menu here and at Centrale though the food here is a little more straightforward.
Since I'm a big fan of both Clarence and Centrale and happened to be over at the Mount I popped in for a quick bite. Amazingly, despite the generally rainy times, we struck the one sunny day in June and found the place packed and humming. We even got to sit outside (hence the washed-out looking pics. Apologies for yet another failure by me in the photographic department!).
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| Not my pic! It was packed when we were there! |
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| (also not my pic - great reflection - very clever!) |
The menu is quite concise (see the bottom of the page) - half a dozen snacks, half a dozen entrees and half a dozen "secondi", plus pizzas. The mains give an idea of the general direction - eggplant parmigiana, pappardelle with a beef ragu, spaghettini with clams, porchetta - though there are also some modern twists. There is an impressive list of Italian wines, but I chose:
- The Landing Vino Rosso, Bay of Island $13 (150ml)
It's the house blend of the Northland winery and was excellent, firm-bodied, well-rounded and smooth without being too fruity. Very good. I note with interest that they offer two glass sizes both here and at the Mount's newest wine bar Solera. Except at Solera the two pours are 100ml and 150ml while here they are 150ml and 250ml. I can't help thinking that at a full third of a bottle a 250ml pour is a serious-sized glass of wine!
We got taking to Chef Scott who was kind enough to offer us a couple of "specials" that he was preparing for evening service, and we had a couple of starters from the menu. Since I was being treated by my generous son I didn't note the prices (or the names) of the new dishes - the others are from the menu.
- Snapper Crudo - Pickled Kohlrabi, Oyster Mayo, Green Apple, Bush Fennel $22
- Carpaccio Di Manzo - Seared Beef Carpaccio, Rocket, Swiss Brown Mushroom, Shaved Pecorino $21
- Deep-Fried Gnocchi, Aioli
- Mozarella & Herb-Stuffed Tortellini, Pumpkin Puree, Crisp Sage Leaves
And the difference from Centrale was immediately obvious, with a more rustic approach to presentation and simpler flavours. But they were still spot on. Case in point: the crudo was less sophisticated than the current offering at Centrale but the sweetness of the apple chimed beautifully and the tiny dusting of fennel (invisible in my crap pics of course!) lifted the whole thing without overwhelming the fish - it was a small touch but just brilliant.
The carpaccio was reliably good, very thin, a proper carpaccio rather than just some sliced seared beef which is often the way. And the tortellini was terrific - always good to enjoy well made fresh pasta - the pumpkin puree silky as all get-up.
But the real eye-opener was that gnocchi. Talk about great beer-drinking snacks! Or wine-drinking snacks since these seemed a bit flash for beer. Just great. Apparently they're coated in some rice flour before being deep-fired but I don't know why everyone doesn't do this to gnocchi. I can see a whole trend arising with differently-flavoured gnocchi and different dipping sauces. This could be the new Italian food wave!
OK. So obviously I didn't try very much of the menu. But I'd be happy to have a crack at everything there. The service was efficient and friendly, and the small wooden room has a great intimate vibe and the food and wine are effortlessly everyday Italian. I like it.
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