I recently flew ‘over the ditch’ from Sydney to Dunedin, New Zealand, to visit a dear friend. It’s Friday night, a little cold outside and we are not looking to head too far. I’ve got a craving for pizza, so my friend, Colleen, mentions the great pizzas they do at Esplanade, St Clair. I learn they are the same team that has the restaurant No7 Balmac, Dunedin’s most famous Italian restaurant.

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While the building may not be pretty from the outside due to renovations, the interior is warm and inviting. Old British pub vibes, dark wood and stained glass windows. We don’t have a booking and the place is almost full, but the waiter, who is quite jovial, looks around and says “whats your name?” I reply “Matt” and he says “oh yes I do have a table for a Matt!”.

New Zealand always has great shellfish, so I go for the clams with garlic and white wine. The clams are quite plump, way larger than what we would get in Australia. This gives them a lovely texture and I went through them very quickly! The garlic and wine sauce was good, I think perhaps the wine could have been cooked off a little more and it was a little heavy on the salty side, but great. The bread was fresh and wonderful to soak up some of the juices left in the bowl. The perfect accompaniment was a glass of Black Barn Hawkes Bay, chardonnay, of which I had two over the course of the evening, It was a mellow wine and quite peachy.

Colleen has the Arancini with pea, saffron, and mozzarella. I try a bit and its delightful. the internal colour is that of saffron and this is an outstanding dish!

There are several pizza options that are broken into two categories, those with red bases and those with white, all of them cooked in a food fired oven. The one that stands out to us is something you don’t see often, the patata – a potato pizza on white base with caramelised onions, mozzarella and parmigiano. It’s piping hot when brought to the table, so we wait for it to cool a little. When I take my first bite, it’s very cheesy rich, but the caramelised onions mellow it down a notch.

I love cannoli, Colleen doesn’t but I manage to convince her to try this dessert. It’s lovely and I think I may have converted her for a minute… alas, not so. However, we both do love the tangy candied citrus.

We wander down the Esplanade of St Clair and Colleen tells me the story of ‘Mum’…

Mum was the matriarch of the mainland New Zealand Sea Lion population. Although born on the subantarctic Auckland Islands, she settled on Tairei Mouth just south of Dunedin. In Christmas 1993 she gave birth to the first New Zealand Sea Lion pub recorded for 150 years. Mothering another 11 pups during her time, she is remembered as a native treasure of New Zealand for restoring the population of sea lions in this area. Sadly, Mum went missing in 2010, believed dying at sea, yet her legacy lives on with this statue tribute.

What an awesome place to visit, Dunedin, New Zealand!

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