First Look: Eat Duck Gnocchi and Woodfired Pizza at Herne Bay’s Vibrant New Restaurant, Squisito Trattoria

Roasted duck gnocchi is one of the signatures at Squisito Trattoria, Herne Bay’s new neighbourhood restaurant, opening on Jervois Road tonight.

It’s served with black olives, mushrooms and pecorino, and is best paired with a bottle of wine that you swipe yourself from the huge shelf lining a whole wall of the cheery, multicoloured space.

Owner Tony Matches says he and business partner Buki Prekazi (both long-time Auckland restaurateurs) are delighted with how the whole thing’s come together. They took over the site earlier this year, and Matches personally worked on the renovation, which involved some hefty structural changes.

The resulting fit-out is, as Matches predicted when speaking to Broadsheet in October, “not your safe creams and whites”.

The Mediterranean menu is echoed in vibrant walls painted cornflower blue, turquoise green and burnt orange. The 46-seat corner site catches the best of the afternoon and evening sun with large windows and well-placed outdoor tables.

The wine-bottle wall is there in place of a wine list – “You just help yourself to the bottle you want, drag it to the table and open it,” Matches told Broadsheet. “That’s a different aspect, but it gives a real nice casualness and friendliness – and you’re not being charged such ridiculous prices for wine.”

Food-wise, the dishes encompass Italian, French, North African, Spanish and Portuguese influences. Lemon and prawn risotto with avocado and shaved parmesan is another signature, says Matches, and you can also order pappardelle with woodfired venison that’s been cooked overnight; market fish with salted lemon risotto; chicken scallopini with prosciutto and vegetables; and a selection of antipasti and small snacks.

There are several pizzas, which are cooked in the Italian-imported oven; you can also order them over the phone and pick them up via a takeaway window on Ardmore Road. Flavours centre on classics done well – a margherita; a salsiccia with pork-and-fennel sausage and wild broccoli; a gamberi with garlic prawns; and a diavola with fior di latte, woodfire-roasted peppers and hot salami.

“And if you’re early to get your pizza, you can sit down and have a vino,” says Matches. “Or a nice, cold Peroni.”

Squisito Trattoria
170A Jervois Road, Herne Bay

@squisito_trattoria