Mahi Eats: Spiga - an Authentic Italian Experience
BY MAHI KUMAR
Another day another Mahi Eats - this time at Remuera’s coveted Italian spot.
18 April 2023
Spiga may only be a 7/10 on the PQQ scale but gets a whole extra point for the immaculate vibes!
I’m a girl who is all about pasta. I love pasta so much that I’m going all the way to the Amalfi Coast to attend a pasta making class this year. I’m not going JUST for this but what I want to get across is that my love for pasta is immense.
Spiga is a restaurant nestled in the Remuera shops and has both a restaurant and pavilion seating. The dining room feels intimate with a direct view to the kitchen. The neutral colour palette of the restaurant is perfectly complemented by the dark green seats. From the dining area, you can view the kitchen and see all the pasta dough being rolled fresh.
The restaurant was full of families enjoying a wholesome dining experience and that’s exactly what I found my experience of Spiga to be. Wholesome and authentic. From the very moment I walked in, I felt comfortable and surrounded by very friendly, jovial and warm waiters.
To start, we ordered the Focaccia del giorno ($7), a house made Focaccia which was baked fresh, served with Waiheke Island Olive Oil. The bread was so warm and soft, and felt like it was home made. To go with this, we ordered the Buratta ($28) which was served with tomatoes four ways. As a burrata connoisseur (if you’ve read Mahi Eats, you know I’d go to extreme lengths for buratta) I can claim that the burrata was great, but wasn’t out the gate. I’ll stick to my guns that I would sell my soul for Bar Celeste’s burrata.
Next, we ordered the Mortadella ($13) which was a fried Italian sausage stuffed with truffle and taleggio cheese. It was crunchy, cheesy and warm. We paired this with a dish called “Millefogile di pomodori e accighe con lardo e salsa di straciatella” ($30) which if you have NO idea what that means, translates to ‘a tomato and anchovies dish with stracciatella.’ This hit the spot. It was zesty from the tomatoes, salty from the anchovies but creamy from the stracciatella.
As for our mains, we ordered the Spaghettoni alle vongole ($38) which is a spaghetti with garlic oil, chilli and cloudy bay clams. I am a sucker for a seafood vongole. This was delicious on the initial bite but unfortunately only got saltier as we went, which made it quite hard to finish.
Next up was the Funghi pizza ($37). If you don’t know much about me, you should sure as hell know I’m a lover of mushrooms. This pizza had a Taleggio cheese base with oyster mushrooms, fermented shiitake mushrooms and lion’s mane mushrooms. It was bursting with flavour and juice from the different types of mushrooms, but was so creamy from the taleggio.
I went during my birthday week, and the waiter overheard us talking about my birthday. He was a lovely man from Milan, who told me that his grandma forbade him from ever saying Happy Birthday to somebody before the day.
What he did decide to do, however, was give me a free Tiramisu. This was such a delicious tiramisu. The portion was generous, and it had the perfect combination of flavours. It was lightly sweet, very airy from the mascarpone, but slightly bitter from being coffee soaked.
For the PQQ
For Price, Spiga gets a 6.5. When did paying $38 for pasta become the norm. It probably is in this economy, and I guess more justifiable given the big production line hand rolling the pasta dough…. But on principle I struggle with this price point.
For Quantity, I give it a 7.5. The portions weren’t super small, and the pasta and pizza was well sized. The richness of the flavours also makes you feel full, and any more would be overwhelming.
For quality, I give it a 7. The food on the whole was good, and although I would have preferred less richness in the pasta, and possibly more richness in the burrata, I was very satisfied with the quality.
Although this comes to a 7 on the PQQ scale… I’m going to have to add a whole point for the vibes of Spiga.
My dining experience was an 8/10 overall because of how warm the whole experience made me feel. The waiters felt like your friends, and the anecdotes they shared about growing up in Italy transported you there. It felt like a fun, productive dining experience which is why I’m already racing to head back!
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