📍 250 Forbury Road, Saint Clair, Dunedin
📍 Address: 250 Forbury Road, Saint Clair, Dunedin 9012, New Zealand
📞 Phone: +64 3 456 2544
🌐 Website: esplanade.co
Esplanade Restaurant favours a simple, bistro-style line-up with clear, tidy flavours. Views add a quiet lift to the visit. Team members keep things friendly and on task. Wait times are contained even when busy. Portions are generous yet well judged.
Walk in but not able to be seated straight away. However, they took name and phone with expected wait time of 30 minutes. Called on time which was enough time for some additional grad photos. Great service. Recommended.
Have always seen this place busy when walking by and heard good things, though knew it was pricy so put it off. Anyway, finally went in to try. Prompt service, food came out so fast, and the location and interior is amazing but I think it was very average. Not bad, but thought the items we ordered were a bit bland, especially the calamari (in fact I did not like it - no flavour, also came with fish bits? I’m easily pleased with calamari but this should just be taken off the menu lol) - not quite anything special especially for the cost. We also got the ravioli and pappardelle pasta which was good. The location is perfect and an ideal spot for a group I’m sure, but It doesn’t make my list of top Dunedin food places I’m afraid.
Beautiful spot along the St Clair beachfront. We tried the salsiccia pizza - fantastic dough case + the bucatini pasta which was divine. It was a great meal and 100% recommend!
Food was okay compared to other restaurants in Dunedin, but still bad in general. It was my second visit (wanted go to the cafe next door but the kitchen was closed so..) and both times the food took forever to come out and were bad quality (especially the pizza was always burnt). Also, there was a very unfriendly staff member (the older lady) who literally just dropped the cups down on the table at both times. The other younger waitresses were kind though. I've tried 2 pizzas, 2 pastas, both house made sodas, and fries with aioli (extra charge) and all of them were pretty mid and expensive. The pizza was burnt, there was a piece of hair in the risotto, aioli sauce was worse than a heinz aioli. There were small plastic pieces in the soda and the cup had red sauce on the side, which I ended up getting a new cup. Definitely not worth the hype. They really need to improve their food quality.
Really nice Italian restaurant just on the waterfront with view on the ocean. Pizzas Really tasty with good ingredients, nicely cooked and really good base with crunchy crust. Perfect spot for pizzas lover. Easy to find parking spot on streets around.
On entry, the place has strong smells of garlic. The wine was ok. We had to get out table set upon request, rather than being offered it. Communication need to be improved. Food was a beetroot salad and Fries were too thin, all adding up to 25nzd. Array of wine choices, but nothing special.
Fantastic service and wonderful food. The menu is Italian with a clear focus on quality. Combined with the views over the ocean and indoor / outdoor seating, I’ll definitely be back.
Amazing restaurant with authentic Italian cuisine! I really enjoyed my visit and food and wine were excellent! Service was great and it was cool to have a little chat with the Italian owner. I felt like being in Bella Italia!
We stopped by at Dunedin on our South Island road trip. We hadn't planned to come to Esplanade Restaurant but I am so, so glad we did go in the end. It was my top 2 restaurants of 2022. With the waves crashing outside, spitting up spray in September, it was still cold enough that the heaters were on inside Esplanade. We came in at 6ish and had a table in 5 minutes. Filled up pretty quickly. The waitresses were attentive and warm, making us feel welcome, despite there being many customers. The food didn't take too long to come out. When it did and we dug in, it was stunning. The food was next level delicious. It tasted like Nonnas out the back were personally making the pasta, crushing the tomatoes for the bolognaise and balancing to perfection. I couldn't believe how good it was. Every bite, I was raving to my wife who just told me to shut up and eat otherwise she'd eat it all. Kids were wolfing down the pizza and pasta too. I wish this review could do it justice but it really doesn't. If you're visiting Dunedin, you must try Esplanade.
Esplanade Restaurant is located at 250 Forbury Road, Saint Clair, Dunedin 9012, New Zealand
You can contact Esplanade Restaurant at +64 3 456 2544
You can find directions to Esplanade Restaurant by following this map link
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