Passione Italian Restaurant

The main street of Kaikoura, West End, is a thriving haven for tourists and others, offering a yakety-yak  of cafes, a rack of restaurants and a brace or more of bars. Such variety and choice for the luncher.

There are times a plenty when you can’t go past a good Italian; Passione welcomed us into its capacious, stylish space, the exuberant, hypnotic colours of local artist Ruth Stirnimann’s  works  bouncing gleefully off the walls with great splashes of modernity and strokes of artistic passion.

We bathed in glasses of Alpha Zeta Garganega and Ripasso, Veronese gems from the hands of New Zealander Matt Thomson, savouring each sip as we nibbled on Italian bread with Olive oil and herbs, ‘authentic’ pasta with basil pesto, shaved parmesan and ground pepper and a noteworthy, extremely biteworthy quatrostagioni  pizza, the slices of which seemed to effortlessly sashay  across the table to my plate. This is what lunch is all about! Enjoying a mini smorgasbord of flavoursome variety that teleports one to the nation of the food’s origin, the core of the experience.
Throw in a couple of glasses of Main Divide Riesling and the  grand total for this lively, cheerful lunch was less than $80.00 for two.
Pensa che lei possa battere ciò per il valore, il tesoro?