Otto Restaurant is a pasta-led Italian kitchen at 375 Karangahape Road in Auckland's CBD, where the pasta is made by hand every day and the filled pastas change with the seasons. Alongside the rotating selection sits a list of Favourites — the iconic dishes that have earned a permanent place on the menu.
The menu builds from snacks and small plates (lamb ribs in honey balsamic, spinach and goat cheese dumplings in sage butter, taleggio arancini with NZ truffle) through to generous bowls of handmade pasta and risotto, finishing with desserts like affogato with hokey pokey ice cream and tiramisu semifreddo. A share set menu lets the kitchen take the wheel, and private dining rooms welcome groups of 10 to 50.
Otto is fully licensed, pours a broad range of non-alcoholic drinks, and takes limited bookings for parties of two or more. Doors open Monday to Wednesday from 5pm and Thursday to Saturday from 4:30pm.
Otto Restaurant occupies a bright corner of Auckland's dining scene at 375 Karangahape Road, where the kitchen's obsession is simple and total: pasta, made by hand, every day. The website says it plainly — "hand made daily … that's amore!" — and the menu delivers on the promise with a rolling cast of seasonal filled pastas sitting alongside a short list of Favourites, the iconic dishes that have earned a permanent spot.
Dinner at Otto unfolds in stages. It begins with the snacks: potato pizza fritta layered with mortadella and ricotta, warm focaccia with leek skordalia, chickpea parmesan chips with feta and oregano, cauliflower fritti dusted in smoked paprika, grilled cos with lemon mayo and parmesan crisps, and a simple farinata with pickled fennel. Several are vegan, so mixed groups can graze happily.
Small plates raise the stakes: sticky lamb ribs in honey balsamic, pork belly with burnt leek salsa verde, and the spinach and goat cheese dumplings in sage butter that have become one of the restaurant's most-loved plates. There's burrata over smashed cannellini beans with red onion agrodolce, arancini with taleggio, caramelised onion and New Zealand truffle, and Brussels sprouts with puy lentils, vincotto and mint.
Then the pasta arrives. Ricotta cavatelli comes with a pork and saffron tomato ragu; spaghetti alla chitarra is dressed with lemon, pinenuts and parmesan. The larger bowls are where the kitchen really shows its hand: maltagliati with a deep beef cheek ragu built on guanciale, bay leaf and black peppercorn; cannelloni rolled with lamb shoulder, celeriac, cavolo nero and black olive capers; kumara gnocchi with gorgonzola, watercress and walnuts; risotto with roasted cauliflower, smoked mozzarella and pangrattato; and tortelli filled with beetroot, finished with burrata, smoked ricotta and hazelnut brown butter.
Desserts keep the Italian thread running: affogato made with hokey pokey ice cream, tiramisu semifreddo, the chocolate nemesis with salted caramel, chocolate quince sorbet with rhubarb and mascarpone, a chocolate amaretti pudding with mascarpone sorbet, and mascarpone panna cotta with red wine roasted pears.
For diners who'd rather not choose, Otto offers a share set menu that travels through the greatest hits — focaccia, baby cos with lemon mayo, burrata, lamb ribs, the dumplings, maltagliati and kumara gnocchi — with optional additions like the chickpea parmesan chips and the beetroot tortelli. In the private dining rooms, which host groups of 10 to 50, a whole slow-roasted lamb shoulder with lentils, cavolo nero and salsa verde can join the feast; pre-bookings are essential.
Otto is fully licensed, with a broad range of non-alcoholic drinks for those skipping the bottle. The kitchen flags dairy, eggs, gluten, nuts and vegan dishes on the menu, and ingredients marked with an asterisk can be removed on request — worth mentioning when you book. Hours run Monday to Wednesday from 5pm until close, and Thursday to Saturday from 4:30pm until late, with limited bookings taken for parties of two or more through the website.
Whether you come for a plate of dumplings and a glass of something, or commit to the full set-menu procession, the formula stays the same: honest, handmade Italian food served in the middle of one of Auckland's most characterful streets.