Just before Christmas, we wanted to have dinner out, on a Saturday. Give the cook a break kind of dinner, tasty, but not expensive. Roamed the 'Net, wondering what category of food might fit the bill. Chinese? nah.. French?.. too complicated, too expensive.. Vietnamese? nice, but just had that last week. Difficult decisions. Finally fell back on old favourite - Italian food. Good neighbourhood restaurant sort of Italian food?.. decided to try Sal Rose, which is "
Owner operated, Sal Rose is dedicated to bringing home-style
Central and Southern Italian cuisine to the Auckland area. Sal Rose comes with
a history of real Italian heritage and Grandma's recipes" Phoned them to make a reservation - just managed to squeeze ourselves in for 6.30pm table. (They are popular.)
Easy to get to, it's located in a residential neighbourhood, in a tiny strip mall next to a "4 Square" grocers store and a real estate agent. Plenty of free parking directly in front of the restaurant and in the adjacent car park.
By the time we arrived, plenty of tables were happily tucking into their food, mostly families.. mom, dad, grandparents, kids. Casual but not sloppy. Cosy diner style bench seats and tables to the right, halfwood panelling with white walls making it look less severe. Ceiling fans whirred lazily overhead, cooling the sultry evening air. On the left, and dividing the main dining area from an extension / covered patio, a well stocked bar running almost the entire length of the restaurant. The extension to which we were ushered by a very pleasant young man, had a more rustic feel - red brick wall on one side and quarry tiles underfoot. Might be a bit cold in winter, but I did note space heaters on one of the walls. Service was prompt, knowledgeable and friendly.
Once seated we looked eagerly over the menu (I confess we had already looked at it online before heading out) and decided on a pasta and a pizza. To assuage our growling stomachs, we ordered a portion of their home made bread which was fragrant, slightly dense and chewy... proper bread. Not the airy sliced stuff. Served with roasted garlic and olive oil, it went well with a bottle of Italian red - which I can't remember the name of, we enjoyed it so much we didn't stop to take photos or notes!
In spite of a rather full house, food came quickly enough, my Spaghetti con Polpette lived up to the reputation of being "our famous meatballs and spaghetti in Rose's tomato sauce". The meatballs were juicy, exquisitely delicious (did they have a mix of pork and beef?), the tomato sauce was as red and luscious as you wanted it to be without being overly rich. Often the big test (IMHO) of a good Italian restaurant is how well they "do" staples. If they had had a Pomodoro e Basilico - and if I had 2 stomachs - I would have ordered that too. The pasta which was made on site (according to the website) was slightly softer than "al dente", but to me, that was perfect, as I have dental braces and tender teeth! My mouth is watering just thinking of this pasta.
Dining partner had a pizza, also very well made - a somewhat exotic Gorgonzola and Pear. Decadent was the best word to describe it. Tangy, salty blue cheese, sliced pear and toasted pine nuts on a pesto base. So very delicious. We ate. We ate for New Zealand. But the bread at the beginning did us in and we had to "take away" half the pizza. Unable to even think of dessert, we enjoyed the last drops of our vino rosso and pushing our stomachs ahead of us, waddled back to car and home.
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| Spaghetti con Polpette |
By the time we arrived, plenty of tables were happily tucking into their food, mostly families.. mom, dad, grandparents, kids. Casual but not sloppy. Cosy diner style bench seats and tables to the right, halfwood panelling with white walls making it look less severe. Ceiling fans whirred lazily overhead, cooling the sultry evening air. On the left, and dividing the main dining area from an extension / covered patio, a well stocked bar running almost the entire length of the restaurant. The extension to which we were ushered by a very pleasant young man, had a more rustic feel - red brick wall on one side and quarry tiles underfoot. Might be a bit cold in winter, but I did note space heaters on one of the walls. Service was prompt, knowledgeable and friendly.
Once seated we looked eagerly over the menu (I confess we had already looked at it online before heading out) and decided on a pasta and a pizza. To assuage our growling stomachs, we ordered a portion of their home made bread which was fragrant, slightly dense and chewy... proper bread. Not the airy sliced stuff. Served with roasted garlic and olive oil, it went well with a bottle of Italian red - which I can't remember the name of, we enjoyed it so much we didn't stop to take photos or notes!
 |
| Gorgonzola and Pear Pizza |
Dining partner had a pizza, also very well made - a somewhat exotic Gorgonzola and Pear. Decadent was the best word to describe it. Tangy, salty blue cheese, sliced pear and toasted pine nuts on a pesto base. So very delicious. We ate. We ate for New Zealand. But the bread at the beginning did us in and we had to "take away" half the pizza. Unable to even think of dessert, we enjoyed the last drops of our vino rosso and pushing our stomachs ahead of us, waddled back to car and home.
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