Pinocchio is an Italian restaurant at 188 Maraetai Drive, in Maraetai on the Auckland coast, and it makes its pasta by hand every day. The menu is Italian at its core, with New Zealand ingredients given an Italian touch. The pasta is made fresh daily using recipes the website says were passed down through generations.
The menu also includes Neapolitan-style pizza, house-made tiramisu and panna cotta, and an Italian wine list with cocktails and aperitivi. The restaurant was started in 2023 by three people who came from Italy: Maddalena, who is from Sardinia and worked in Auckland restaurants before opening Pinocchio, Riccardo, who cooks the dishes, and Pietro, who learned pizza-making in Milan and now makes the Neapolitan-style pizzas. The website says the team is aiming to show the heart of Italian cooking on the plate. Pinocchio sits in Maraetai, a short drive from the rest of the Auckland region's east.