La Spiaggia — Italian for 'the beach' — is a family-owned Italian restaurant on Beach Road in Murrays Bay, Auckland, serving dinner by the sea Tuesday to Sunday. Built on a foundation of family values, quality ingredients and a love of great food, it has become a favourite with locals and visitors alike since opening.
The kitchen centres on a wood-fired pizza oven turning out everything from garlic pizza bread to eighteen pizzas, made with key ingredients imported from Italy, Greece and Spain. Pasta is fresh and homemade, with every meal and sauce made to order — from spaghetti bolognese and housemade gnocchi to seafood standouts like the Gamberoni and Linguine Marinara. Secondi bring slow-cooked pork belly, confit chicken, veal scaloppine and NZ Angus steaks with a choice of three house sauces, and there is a dedicated kids menu for children 12 and under.
Guests consistently praise the seafood pasta, the friendly staff and the lively atmosphere. The restaurant also offers private dining and takes reservations online or by phone.
On Beach Road in Murrays Bay, La Spiaggia — Italian for 'the beach' — introduces itself with a simple tagline: Restaurant By The Beach. That plain description captures the idea behind the place. It is a family-owned Italian restaurant bringing the flavours, warmth and joy of Italy to Auckland's coastline, and it has grown into a firm favourite with locals and visitors alike since it opened.
Like all good stories, this one began with a dream. The founders wanted a restaurant built on family values, quality ingredients and a true love of great cuisine, and that is what they set out to serve every night. The kitchen, they say, is filled with laughter, love and the delicious aromas which bring people together — and diners seem to agree. Reviewers describe friendly staff and a great atmosphere, with one regular calling it their favourite Italian restaurant in Auckland.
The engine room of La Spiaggia is its wood-fired pizza oven. It turns out everything from simple pizza breads — the garlic Aglio Olio or the rosemary-scented Rosmarino, both vegan — to a list of eighteen pizzas that runs from the classic Margherita to the Monti, built on a truffle base with porcini mushrooms, rocket, prosciutto and parmesan.
What distinguishes the pizzas is the sourcing: whole peeled tomatoes, mozzarella, flour, anchovies, capers, olives, feta, artichokes, chorizo, salami, prosciutto, olive oil, gorgonzola, pancetta, parmesan, pecorino and porcini mushrooms are imported from Italy, Greece and Spain. One honest caveat comes from the oven itself — because it is wood-fired, the kitchen cannot safely offer gluten-free pizza bases, though gluten-free pasta is available for pasta dishes.
Pasta is the other great pillar. The kitchen describes its pasta as fresh and homemade, and every meal and sauce is made to order. The list spans the comforting — spaghetti bolognese with premium beef mince, lasagne layered with housemade napoletana sauce — to housemade gnocchi in a creamy leek and blue cheese sauce, spinach-and-ricotta ravioli, and porcini tortellini in a sweet amaretto mushroom sauce.
The seafood pastas are the ones guests talk about most. Linguine Marinara gathers king prawns, mussels, prawn cutlets, calamari, clams and fish in housemade napoletana sauce; Spaghetti Alle Vongole pairs clams with white wine, chilli and garlic. The Gamberoni — spaghetti with king prawns, parsley, chilli and lemon zest in a white wine sauce — drew particular praise from one reviewer, who rated the seafood pasta five stars and noted how high-end everything tasted while remaining affordable.
Beyond pasta, the secondi offer real heft. Slow-cooked pork belly arrives with fondant potato, pickled vegetables, brandy jus and burnt apple sauce; there is confit chicken leg with truffle velouté and pickled shiitake, veal scaloppine in marsala cream, and harissa lamb with ratatouille and smoked carrot purée. For steak lovers, the choices include a 200g filetto aged 21 days, a 300g Scotch filetto from Savannah Angus and a 500g rib eye cooked on the bone — each with a choice of three sauces: Paris butter with black garlic, red wine porcini jus or creamy white wine peppercorn.
Antipasti set the table nicely — tiger king prawns in garlic and white wine, chunky fried calamari with jalapeño alioli, or a sprawling antipasto board — and a kids menu keeps under-12s happy with mini pizzas and pastas. A dessert menu is there for those with room left.
Service runs at dinner time, Tuesday through Sunday — from 5pm, closing at 9pm early in the week and on Sundays, and 10pm Thursday to Saturday. Mondays the restaurant rests. Reservations can be made online or by phone, a sensible idea for a restaurant this popular.
A few practical notes: roadworks outside mean parking is available next door at Outram Hall until 11pm, an arrangement in place until June 2026. The restaurant also takes a summer break from 23 December 2025 to 6 January 2026, reopening on 7 January. For gatherings, private dining is available — worth enquiring about for celebrations.
What emerges is a neighbourhood Italian with serious cooking at its heart: imported ingredients, sauces made to order, a wood-fired oven working flat out, and the kind of warm, family-run hospitality that turns first visits into traditions.