Best Italian and Pizza in Auckland
Auckland's best Italian runs from a perfect cacio e pepe at Pici to woodfired pizza at Ooh-Fa and Dante's, with handmade pasta at Pasta e Cuore and Prego. The city does both the simple classics and the woodfired pies well.
Where is the best Italian food in Auckland?
Spread across the CBD and city-fringe, with a strong run of both pasta and pizza specialists. Auckland's Italian scene leans into doing a few things properly rather than long menus, so you find dedicated pasta rooms and woodfired pizzerias rather than do-everything trattorias. The central city and the fringe suburbs hold most of the best of it.
Pasta done properly
Start with the pasta specialists. Pici in the CBD does a benchmark cacio e pepe, the simple Roman pasta that lives or dies on technique. Pasta e Cuore brings a proper tagliatelle al ragù, and Prego on the city-fringe a duck risotto with real richness. For something different, Otto's spinach and goat cheese dumplings and Bianca's lamb rotolo push into smarter, modern Italian territory.
Woodfired pizza
Auckland takes its pizza seriously. Ooh-Fa's woodfired anchovy pizza is a central-suburbs favourite, and Dante's Pizzeria on the city-fringe does a classic prosciutto pie. Epolito's Bronx pizza and Umu and Francesca's round out a strong field, mostly woodfired and mostly leaning Neapolitan. This is a city that argues about its pizza, which is the surest sign it is worth seeking out.
What to expect on price
Italian here sits at the mid-to-higher end of casual dining. A plate of handmade pasta or a woodfired pizza at the better spots is a proper restaurant spend rather than a cheap eat, reflecting the from-scratch cooking. A few, like the simpler pizzas and Apero's lighter plates, come in more gently. It is somewhere to sit down and settle in rather than grab and go.
Find the pasta or the pie
Kai AKL maps Auckland's best Italian dishes to the restaurants that make them, pasta rooms and pizzerias alike. Works offline.
Explore Kai AKLRelated: What to eat in Auckland.