99 Victoria Road,
Devonport
Auckland,


(09) 445 8133

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1 out of 5

Our first impressions of Buona Sera were good: the staff had remembered our booking, the room was clean and spacious, and the wine list was 100% Italian.

We liked our waitress for her thick Bulgarian accent and chattiness; we liked the music for its cheesy Italian crooning.

Unfortunately for Buona Sera, we had come for the food, and it’s here that this restaurant really lets itself down.

We ordered two Italian staples—one pizza, one pasta—and the only wine available by the glass (the unnamed, though decent, $5 house red).

Our four cheeses pizza with chilli ($18.50) delivered exactly that: a round of dough topped with a drippy soup of melted cheese and a sprinkle of dried chilli from a shaker.

Yes, we understand that Italian pizzas are traditionally simple, but we were alarmed any chef could be proud of this featureless creation.

The pasta, an entrée serving of beef calzone ($14.50), was not much better.

Although the tomato sauce was flavoursome, the vegetables were small soggy cubes of carrot; the mince, terribly bland; and the whole dish tasted, according to my dining companion, “like flat food.”

Our nice waitress did come back to check up on us, and brought a pepper grinder with her, but alas, our meals could not be saved.

In order to fill ourselves, we soon figured out the pizza could be smeared with pasta sauce, thus rendering it edible, But, making the meals edible was really not our job.

Bravo to the Bulgarian waitress, but we won’t be returning.