Absolutely amazing place, when you enter the restaurant you feel like being beamed into Italy. The staff gave us a warm welcome and we were offered to chose ourselves a free table. Immediately they served a bottle of still water and brought the menu. We choose pizza (Salmon and Italian, Italian is with meatballs) and ordered a bottle of New Zealand local wine. Everything was great, especially the meatballs. The bill was NZD 83. A fair price. Also free water top up was offered. I would wish to have this place at home, I would go very often. This place is a clear recommendation, go for it. read more

Da Vinci's Restaurant - Italian Near Me - Auckland, AUK

We were staying at the Cordis across the street, Da Vinci's is a stones throw from the ground floor/back entrance. To be honest we didn't have high expectations, however we were pleasantly surprised. Firstly the service was outstanding! Refilled drinks, cleared empty dishes, and checked on us to make sure everything was good. Now the food.... The garlic bread isn't the usual US variety because it was better. The pasta was fresh and excellently prepared, their red sauce was delicious The lasagna dish appeared to be quite good also, I didn't get to taste it as it vanished too quickly! read more

The restaurant was conveniently located behind our hotel at the Cordis. We had the calamari as a starter. The rings were sautéed not fried and were very tender. For the main course we ordered a penne pasta with salmon and gnocchi with chicken. It was a good size portion and very tasty. Service was good. I will definitely come back again. read more

Da Vinci's Restaurant - Gnocchi with chicken - Italian Near Me - Auckland, AUK

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Was looking for a nice meal on our last trip to New Zealand and found this gem. Great service,friendly staff and the food was so yummy. We are in Auckland again next week and will be stopping by for dinner once again. read more

I died and went to meatball heaven... Got there right after they opened for dinner (5:30pm) and was by myself so I was literally the only person there for about 30 minutes. Four more parties showed up right around 6:30 so I'd imagine it gets pretty busy. I ordered simple, a beer and the Spaghetti Meatball. These were the best meatballs I've ever had. I'm sure if such a simple dish can be this delicious they can work wonders with more involved plates. read more

What a charming little Italian restaurant just down the street from our hotel. Having just ended a 12 day cruise, we were able to choose some dishes and made variations on them. My husband had spaghetti with mixed seafood and requested olive oil and garlic sauce instead of red sauce. I opted for Penne with pesto sauce and mushrooms. Both dishes were quite satisfying. However, what kind of Italian restaurant does NOT even offer some bread or rolls for free? Since we were the first customers for dinner, we had great service from a Brazilian waiter. You'd probably need to make reservations for later dining. read more

Great experience! The waiting staff are friendly and helpful. The menu is huge so it was good to get some tips when ordering. Orders were taken quickly and the food was fantastic. There is a huge menu full of Italian classics but if I was to go back I would definitely choose the chicken livers and the frangelico crepes. Lovely atmosphere and I would rate one of the best Italian restaurants in Auckland. Gone are the days of Enzo, the volatile chef who added some theatrics to the evening. Despite his departure the food is still excellent and you can now return anything not to your liking without fearing the wrath of the chef. read more

I used to work across the road from Da Vinci's, and not liking to lunch alone, used to drag my fellow workmates over to Da Vinci's at least once a week. There were few complaints, as you could get a tasty salad, pizza, pasta or risotto for only $10-$12 with the comfortable ambience of a restaurant thrown in. Also you could sneak in a cheeky beer or wine if the boss wasn't around. I did walk past this place a few times before I noticed it, in fact I think it was recommended to me and I had to go hunting for the sign. That would be beacuse it sits in the basement of No 5 City Rd and you have to go down a staircase to the left of the big brother restaurant. Well worth the hunt for a tasy mid-week lunch. read more

A little hole in the wall straight from Italy. Loved it all from the bread to the pumpkin soup and the pizza were all great! The chicken Risotto was to die for! Loved the food and service. Highly recommend! read more

My wife and I weren't exactly starving, so we split the lasagna with a side of garlic bread. Wow! Lots of meat and great flavor. The service was very competent and the inside was a cute old school motif, with checkered table cloths. A very pleasant surprise. read more

Very average food. Pub food at best. The Caprese Salad was bland, and the Chicken Parmigiana was tough. At least the Moretti beer was authentic. Even the service was average. I hope this isn't the best Italian that Auckland has to offer!!! read more

Excellent food and great ambiance! Service was superb and I highly recommend the eye fillet allá franco and the gnocchi bolognese! As a New Jersey guy, it felt like I was home! read more

Very disappointed!! While staying in downtown Auckland my wife and I decided we wanted to try some Italian food. This restaurant was convenient to our hotel however it had some marginal reviews. We decided to give it a chance anyway. What a big mistake! After being seated and providing our server the order everything went downhill. There were several open tables when we arrived and many of them received their dinners before we even had our salad delivered to our table. Very important on this point, our order had been placed before the diners at the other tables had arrived at the restaurant!!! One can let an experience like this go however we were fed one excuse after another as to why it took over 60 minutes for anything to be delivered to our table. We heard several times that they were sorry however we never heard them accept responsibility! Our advice, go somewhere else for any kind of food you want. Especially Italian! The irony to this story is that as we walked out we noticed a sign in the door advertising for "experienced help"! We suggest the owners start with the individual that represented himself as the manager. Not even remotely capable of managing. Sorry but this restaurant needs some serious help! read more

This restaurant, tucked away on a corner in the basement level, is a must if you're in the area and want authentic Italian food! We ordered the pizza bread, chicken fettucine and sausage risotto and it was all delicious. The service was great, the prices were reasonable and the food fantastic. We ended our meal with a tiramisu which did not disappoint. Overall a great restaurant that's worth a try if you're in the mood for Italian food. read more

This seems to be quite the authentic little Italian eatery tucked away down City Road, which to be honest as a street I don't frequent all that much after a certain hour as the ladies of the night tend to like to congregate here, towards the Symonds Street end anyway, so try and avoid that quarter if you can. But we're here to talk about the food aren't we, and the food was great! The restaurant can actually be a little difficult to find as its located on the basement level of the building, but its worth seeking out if its pasta you crave. I'm a fan of the cannelloni, which I tend not to make at home so much anymore as its quite difficult with all those tubes of pasta going on, so I enjoy ordering it when I see it on a menu. The offering here is a perfect mix of bechemel and tomato sauce and soft pasta. The service seemed to go from one extreme to the other when I was there( which was a few months ago) from overly attentive, it was almost annoying to I had to go and track down the server who seemed to have engaged In a heated argument with the chef. Italians who knows! read more

We stayed right next door at Sofitel and needed something close and hopefully good. This fit the bill. It was in the basement and haphazard as far as decor and style. Really felt like a NY storefront place. Wait staff was good and efficient. Food was good. Nothing over the top and filled our bellies. Enough said. read more

Good food great atmosphere and lovely service. Really happy with the selection f dishes to choose from, good sizing of meals without being too large or too small read more

Lovely restaurant just a few blocks from our hotel. The atmosphere is warm and inviting and the staff are very friendly and helpful (albeit a bit slow). There is a kid's menu and the spaghetti was wonderful. We had the half shrimp half meatball pizza and it was also delicious!! Crisp, light crust and plenty of topping. The pizzas are fairly small, so had we been very hungry we would have needed something else (salad or starter), but as we were not famished, it was a perfect size. Our children were welcomed and we would go back! read more

The food was good, if not a bit too salty for my taste. However, they did modify the dishes according to our taste/vegetarian diet. The service was nice but not extremely attentive. We had to call them a couple or times to get the dessert menu and check. It wasn't the best Italian we've had but it was open on a national holiday and close to the hotel. Casual atmosphere. Overall, pretty good. read more

Food was decent, but the service was terrible. Seriously, two stars off terrible. The only redeeming factor was when I realised they had only charged for one beer instead of the two my husband had. Right from the moment we walked in, two of us, to an almost completely empty giant restaurant (there was one other table of two there), and the snooty response to us saying 'no' to having had a reservation.... I'm sorry, is it a problem that we want to eat in your empty restaurant? The rest of the time, the staff stood around behind the bar, talking in italian and doing everything they could to ignore attempts to get their attention - smiles, eye contact, nods, good lord, what did we have to do?? Walked past one waitress on my way to find the bathroom, and she actually stopped walking and stared at me because I had dared to leave my seat. Won't be back, in spite of the food, I don't like being made to feel like I am inconveniencing people by attempting to purchase their services. read more

Best Italian food in New Zealand! We enjoyed the gnocchi pesto, lasagna and spaghetti with meatballs. Great service too!

Great food and service. Quick to be seated. The only drawback was the loud group sitting next to us who seemed to not care how loud they were talking. read more

This used to be one of our favourite lunch places for work and pizza. We had been frequent diners but today at our company's staff Xmas lunch things went horribly wrong. Several of our meals were substandard or changed from what was described on the menu. The details are unimportant but when we complained (several times for several different dishes) the staff were completely unwilling to apologise, accept the problem or do anything about it. The cook even started to scream at us from the kitchen!!! Then when we said we were not prepared to pay for those dishes they called the owner who came from their other restaurant (2 locations). Our staff had left by this time and just two of us remained. We explained what was wrong with the meals but halfway through he said that he did not want to listen to us at all and got angry that we were "insulting his food" and that if we did not like it we should leave and never come back. At this point he demanded that we pay the full bill which we refused to do, but before any discussion on this could happen he ordered us out and physically pushed us to the door. Then instead of laying off he assulted the two of us remaining outside the restaurant with a level of violence that neither of us have ever experienced. Punches, kicks and throwing both of us in turn to the ground on several occasions. All we did back was to try to protect ourselves and each other from this unbelievable attack. The cops were called, we paid most of the bill and are considering laying assault charges. DO NOT GO TO DA VINCI'S either location. And if you do say nothing about anything that is not up to standard. The staff will abuse you and the owner will attack you. read more