A few Saturday nights back, I got the sudden urge for Italian. Back in the old days, this would have been remedied with a trip to Gina’s , but given how far that establishment has fallen in recent years, I was on the search for a replacement. It needed to be good value, but salt-of-the-earth Italian. I’m not talking red and white checked tablecloths here, but I wanted comfort food tradizionale.

Covo on Richmond Rd was the pick, as its prices looked reasonable and I was curious to see how my old haunt Salsa (best pizzas ever) was looking these days. We walked in off the street and only had a short wait until we were taken out the back to the covered courtyard to our table.

The menus are written in a strange mix of humour and confusion. Pizzas have two names each, neither of which really explain what’s in it (White, Gardener, Submarine anyone?). On discussions with my friend, we ordered garlic bread and bruschetta to start. These took quite a while to come out, and were a disappointment when they did. The garlic bread had no taste of garlic and was tiny, and the bruschetta was quite sad, devoid of basil with tomatoes that looked pink. Not a good start.

About half an hour after our entrees were cleared, the mains finally arrived. I ordered the Benny… or Bullet… or Lamb Meatballs. This looked impressive, with long thick decorative pasta strands but was utterly bland, the meatballs screaming out for seasoning. I barely got through a third of it. My friend went for the Amy… AKA the Plus… AKA Lemon and Parsley Prawns with chilli garlic and olive oil. This didn’t look great, the prawns looking pale and the spaghetti swimming in a huge pool of olive oil at the base. Again, it tasted of nothing.

On the positive side, the staff were good. All were Italian (or at least rocked the accent) and service was pretty consistent. A little brush-up on product knowledge would be good – I asked if the Peroni was the real stuff imported from Italy and was reassured that yes it was, only to find once the bottle arrived that it was brewed in Australia.

Covo has the right location and the right staff. Unfortunately It is just really let down by a muddled menu, and food that says it’s Italian, looks Italian but tastes… well… like nothing. My hunt for good Italian in Auckland continues…

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