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Columbia Hillen
It’s hard to miss Alpino restaurant successful the bosom of Cambridge, New Zealand, housed arsenic it is successful an imposing rose-brick building, erstwhile the town’s main station office.
Columbia Hillen
One of respective restaurants owned by Noel Cimadom, from northeastern Italy and his Kiwi wife, Kim, it serves accepted Italian dishes successful a ample eating country with an unfastened wood and metallic barroom successful the mediate and vintage furnishings specified arsenic clerk partition lamps from its days arsenic a station bureau dating from 1908. In a broadside room, a mattress with a chandelier hanging connected the ceiling are elements of Noel’s puerility successful Italy, we were told.
Columbia Hillen
Dining present tin beryllium either alfresco on a pavement fronting the building, oregon successful a lively, informal ambiance inside, astatine polished woody tables. We chose the second and were seated beside a vino cellar created wrong a cupboard and the invited table of affable work manager, Kaitlyn Heaslip.
(l to r) Gerard Mooney, Kaitlyn Heaslip and Branislav Petkovic. Photo by Columbia Hillen
While the prime of the nutrient and drinks were the large factors successful our enjoyment, truthful was a speech with our genial server, Gerard Mooney, a erstwhile edifice wide manager successful Auckland and proprietor of Jacket Beverage Co. which distributes section and imported beverages. Well informed astir the section area, helium described the ambiance successful Alpino’s arsenic “relaxed dining” portion my companion said it blended “the conviviality of a trattoria with the high-quality nutrient of a ristorante.”
Columbia Hillen
Two stiff cocktails kicked disconnected our evening, limoncello margarita and a martini corretto (grappa, truthful rano limoncelo and coffee).
Glancing astatine the menu, it is evident Chef Branislav Petkovic from Serbia, who has spent each of his 7 years successful New Zealand astatine Alpino, has created a divers enactment of dishes from oysters, prawns and calamari to lamb, tenderloin and cured meats, arsenic good arsenic pastas and pizzas of each kinds.
Columbia Hillen
Being lovers of ail bread, we ordered the pizza mentation with parmesan to start, which arrived arsenic a tiny heap of slim cuts connected a sheet feathered with food and parsley. Under the heading ‘cicchetti’ meaning ‘small snack’ we besides ordered talatta anchovies with charred ciabatta, the saccharine and tender food arriving glistening with olive lipid successful a tiny tin.
Columbia Hillen
Next up was deep-fried calamari covered by a bladed crust with a romesco sauce of crushed almonds, breadcrumbs and garlic. Our octopus crockery was a woven soma signifier of purple, reddish and shades of green, its metallic buttons decorated with capers and chili, truthful tasty my companion and I soaked up the flavored olive lipid with slices of focaccia successful the long-standing Italian contented of ‘a scarpetta.’
Columbia Hillen
Preferring pasta implicit pizza, my companion opted for the homemade spaghetti, cooked al dente and dripping with juices of slow-roasted duck, garlic, herbs and ricotta cheese. My seafood ravioli was a generous portion, the almond food dressing sprinkled with toasted caramel, walnuts and spinach with chilli slices adding a interaction of spiciness and color.
Columbia Hillen
Our vino accompaniment was a adust rosé from Tuscany.
Cambridge is an astute determination prime by Noel and Kim. A relaxed, charming municipality successful North Island, it is memorable for its leafy streets, practice buildings and antique shops. It's besides the location of thoroughbred equine studs and has an absorbing depository and a convenient stopover connected the mode to the Lord of the Rings Hobbiton movie set, a 30-minute thrust away.
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