Etrusco at the Savoy — Restaurant in South Island

It was already dark by the time I reached the city of Dunedin. After the checking-in process, I quickly refer to my itinerary to check on the places to eat. Moray Place near the Octagon (centre of Dunedin) sounded like a good proposition as I want to check out the statue of Robert Burns. I have not been back for more than 19 years now and I certainly want to see what are the changes that have taken in this city which I spent about 2 years to obtain my degree.

Lucky for me, I managed to find a parking nearby the restaurant as it was drizzling quite a bit. It's located on the first floor. My first impression was how cosy the place was - it was a family-owned business and the service was as warm & friendly as I'd read in the reviews. We were shown to our table and quickly ordered the dinner.

◾Antipasto Toscano - a selection of authentic Italian cured meats, garlic infused feta, marinated olives, artichokes and served with homemade dips and crostini. Everything looks like have been jumbled up but in a beautiful way. Our first plate and it was cleaned up fast by the hungry pack. ◾Neo Zelandese pizza - a twist of Hawaiian style pizza using cheese, ham, mushroom, pineapple and parsley with tomato base. The crispy thin crust pizza looked so inviting when it was served, but not for long. ◾Nonno - diced pancetta flamed in vodka with cream, chilly, tomato, parmesan and fresh parsley tossed through penne. ◾Brookfield's Sun Dried Malbec - a New Zealand's first kind of Malbec and it's described as Malbec on steroid. Welcoming drink after the long drive.

All dishes tasted like homemade out of love and we absolutely loved them.. or maybe we were famished at that point of time? After the lovely meal, we couldn't stay out too long because it was raining and the chilly wind was blowing. We just headed back to our accommodation to enjoy the wine we bought from Misha's Vineyard Tasting Room...

I haven't been here for far too long, however, I'm happy to let you all know that everything is as it has always been... Excellent!

We visited for a work dinner, 8 of us. We had the banquet set menu, which is a 5 course banquet of delicious Anti Pasto, breads, a selection of pastas, pizzas, salad, and desserts. Genuinely good value for money, and easy too.

The food was great. Everyone was well fed and there was even a little left over to take home.

The food is just one defining characteristic of Etrusco, the décor, atmosphere, and service are the others. The service is always consistently friendly, efficient, professional. From the moment you are greeted by the Maître d (Rion on our visit), to the moment you leave, every interaction is pleasant and professional. All the servers did a great job.

There's a beauty and charm to the dining room, there's also a buzz, but everyone's able to chat and laugh and have fun without having to shout, and it doesn't get too boisterous, even though at can be very busy.

After our delightful evening, our group were chatting, some of the comments were... "That was really good value" "I would come back here again" "That was really good, glad we came here"

Honestly, I don't know why we don't visit here more often as it's great for couples, families, and work group.

Book it! Do it!

Thanks again Etrusco, you're...

I am astonished to see the good reviews this place has received - perhaps either from the travellers since they do not care about food or from the regular visitors who do not understand food, or the third one, who visit the place only to drink alcohol.

We decided to try this place with family and were shocked to see the quality of the dishes we had. Our concern is not with the restaurant, but the people in the kitchen who take guests for granted.

First Dish: a vegetarian pizza: it was instantaneously delivered to us in less than 4.5 minutes. When we checked the bread was uncooked inside with a layer of moistness underneath it (honestly it felt like they bought a pack of the readymade base from a nearby supermarket and reheated it in a microwave). We didn't eat that and when the staff noticed, we showed to them what was wrong with it. They humbly apologised and replaced it with another one, which was no different either.

Second Dish: a vegetarian spaghetti that was again undercooked and we could feel the rawness. We didn't finish that either. The only food that was strictly ok was the garlic bread.

For our redemption, we went to a Chinese takeaway near Uni afterwards and had $2.90 shoestring-fries that was way more...