Puro, Epsom

You'd go a long way to find better spiced lamb than the one at Puro. Picture / Carolyn Robertson

Herald rating: * * * *

Bridget eased the Saab out of the cul-de-sac, got her motor running and headed out on the highway. Oh, all right, Manukau Rd.

"I'm not really all that fond of the Saab," she said. "I prefer my car but it's in the garage." For Bridget is, at heart, an Alfa female.

We'd headed for points slightly south because we were going to the movies and the Lido is a good place to find them. It is not the best place to find something light and bright to eat beforehand.

Puro was my suggestion for several reasons: it's across the road from the cinema; has a deservedly decent reputation; offers nibbles, pastas, mains, desserts; and I'd been there recently, catching up with relatives.

Another bonus: Puro has a spacious - and free - carpark. Bridget parked the Saab in one of 100 spaces.

"We need to be out of here by 7.30," I told the maitre d'. "No problem," your man said. "I'd order quickly, because that party of 12 has just arrived so you'd want to get your orders into the kitchen ahead of them."

It's the kind of advice you appreciate, and remember, from a professional like Ranhir Singh who, in November, won an advanced course at the Court of Master Sommeliers in California.

He's not the only award-winner here. Norm Hadrup, in the kitchen, took two gongs at the Restaurant Association competitions over the back fence at Alexandra Park a few months back.

Puro opened around the turn of'04, about the same time as the management took over Cin Cin, and Keith McPhee came down to sort the menu. He charted an Italian course, or maybe we should say Mediterranean - cartographers can have difficulty with the national boundaries, let alone chefs. Anyway, wood-fired pizzas. Pasta. Grills. Roasts.

The ambience is white tablecloth, dark wood, schist.

The wine list is impressive, as you'd expect with a sommelier who's just won ...

On that previous visit most of the rellies took options like lamb rump, artichoke and feta salad, Sicilian olive tapenade, rosemary balsamic syrup; snapper fillet baked in vine leaves, eggplant caponata, fried gnocchi, preserved lemon aioli, chicken, pine-nut foccacia stuffing, madjool dates, cinnamon lime butter, surely inspired by Marcella Hazan.

It sounds exotic. But if you, as they say, deconstruct, it's straightforward cooking of familiar bases with neatly added touches.

We took a Contiki bus trip around Italy: Tuscany one course, Umbria the next. A quick dash to the Veneto: tortellini, duck liver parfait, goats cheese, fried sage; cannelloni filled with veal, mozzarella cheese, tomato essence, pancetta and (again) fried sage; rabbit confit, smoked bacon, mushrooms in a chianti reduction atop pappadelle.

It was a flying visit. When you're in a destination area, and the destination is the cinema across the road, c'est la vie, or whatever they say in Italy. But we would go back. There are mains to be investigated. There are desserts to be enjoyed - Ell, for Bridget. For me, there is a more than promising array of cheeses.

A couple of hours later we toddled out of the cinema. We were 20m away from the car when ... "Oh no," cried Bridget. I couldn't see anything wrong. "Has it been broken into?" I asked. "No, it's the wheels, they're on an angle. Boys always leave them straight. I hate parking like a girl." Told you she was an Alfa female. 

Address: 380 Manukau Rd Epsom
Phone: (09) 638 3916
Open: 7 days from 10am
From the menu: Soft shell crab, watercress, kumara salad, pancetta, smoked-paprika mayonnaise $17 / $28; Honey truffle glazed duck, forest mushroom couscous, citrus-glazed beetroot $28; Bellini sorbet, poached peach, champagne jelly and tuille biscuit $13
Vegetarian: Serious dishes
Wine: Serious sommelier