La Toscana Pizzeria — Restaurant in Fiordland Community

I know that after so many great reviews, it's hard to believe such a poor one, but I can't understand all the good reviews. Our experience was very different. We ordered the gluten-free base, but that wasn't the issue. TBH, that was the best bit of the pizza. The toppings were different colours, but that's where the difference ended. The pineapple tasted like the peppers, which tasted like the mushrooms, which even tasted like the olives. And the cheese was stringy but also tasteless. The wine was cheap. Only $8. I don't know why I was surprised that it was dreadful. What on earth did I expect? The decor was dated, but at least we got a seat (which was comfy) and the meal (2x GF pizzas, 2x wine, 1x salad) cost $66. What a shame it wasn't slightly more expensive - I'd have happily paid more for a better meal. Sadly, a fresh batch of tourists roll into town daily and they want to eat pizza. They see La Toscana has good reviews. But, if you arevone of these tourists and only have one night in Te Anau, do yourself a favour and try a different restaurant. I wish I had. The guy who said he'd had better pizzas from Tesco was...

This was such a pleasant surprise.

Service was attentive, warm and friendly. But the star was the food.

We ordered a marinara pasta and a medium seafood pizza. When it was served, we felt that the portions were huge and were convinced we could not finish it.

The pasta was generously portioned with lots of minced beef in the sauce. It was suitably sweet and sourish which really helped to open the palate for a meal. Would go great with red wine. Pasta was al dente and perfect.

The seafood pizza was another gem of a meal. Generous portions of seafood can be found in the toppings. Prawns, mussels, salmon and lots of cheese on a tomato based sauce. The crust was slightly curved and perfect and everything tasted just right.

Suffice to say, we finished everything in this meal. Which is saying a lot, it was just done so well we have to finish it.

Do note it only operates on Tuesday to Saturday with rest days on Sunday and Monday.

Fantastic...

Staff were lovely but had no idea what to do as they had no guidance or decent management.

Had to ask for water after waiting for quite sometime. We wanted to test a couple of wines but had to ask twice for wine testers. The wine testers came out in a water glass but only one came out as apparently, we couldn't try the other unless we were to buy a bottle yet, it is an option to buy said wine by the glass.

While we waited a table of 2 left as they weren't served at all and many other tables were just sitting and waiting.

The food itself was acceptable. Pretty sure the actual pizza base is a frozen job or a bulk buy style as it definitely didn't taste fresh. The toppings were ok but pretty bland.

Overall, below average but the place could be great if someone managed it right. I just feel sorry for the girls dealing with the...