Gina’s Italian Kitchen (Auckland CBD, New Zealand)

I’ve tried a lot of pizza and pasta in Italy from the cheap ones to the gourmet ones and the difference on price doesn’t really dictate the flavour and texture, what I noticed is that the €5.00 pizza is not really that far from the €50.00 pizza. I think Italians just know how to make them hence everywhere you go the chance for it to be crappy is minimal, most of them were excellent.

Here in New Zealand it’s a different scenario, most of the time price dictates for the quality of pizza you are having where the fast food versions tasted like a cardboard topped with tomato sauce and cheese while the gourmet ones are very different, probably million miles away and then there is Gina’s, not expensive but not cheap either, its somewhere in between. One thing special about it though is that when we dine in here I feel like I am in Italy, how they prepare food here yields the exact same flavour and texture of what you can get in Italy.

From pizza to pasta, they are nearly similar, it might not be full of toppings like your American counterparts but they do pack a lot of flavour. We dined in here a couple of times before and I love it since then, their pizza is amazing and the first one I tried was their seafood, I was hooked. Today we are having a different one and to really compare it with its Italian counterpart we grabbed some Primavera Bianca, Mozzarella base topped with prosciutto crudo, rocket and parmesan ($24.00) as this is as similar to the common pizza you can get in Italy.

Again, their pizza is faultless, crust has the perfect texture and it packs a lot of flavour.

We also grabbed two of their special of the day first was this Polpetonne con Collo ($28.50) basically chicken thigh fillets with sausage and pine nuts wrapped in bacon pan fried with a delicious marsala wine reduction served with roast potatoes. This is a flavour bomb! really, it’s filled with everything nice you can think of, sausage and pine nuts were seasoned really well plus the wine reduction enhances the full experience.

It was served with roasted potatoes which is a perfect accompaniment to this dish, its crispy outside but soft and fluffy inside.

But what even better than that one was this Linguine with Australian Prawns prepared with olive oil, garlic, chilli and coriander ($25.50). It contains 4 large prawns, each one of them is nearly the size of a really fat index finger and thumb combined, it was so tasty and the pasta was cooked to perfection, it’s just plain flavour on a plate.

Again, this visit was perfect, every item served tasted amazing and it makes you feel you are in Italy.

Gina’s Italian Kitchen  
Address: 161 Symonds Street, Eden Terrace, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
Phone: +649 302 2061
Website: http://ginas.co.nz