SPIGA D’ORO

Where: 465 Innes Road, Morningside, for dinner and at Alliance Française, Sutton Crescent, Morningside, for breakfast and lunch. Monday to Saturday.

Call: 031 303 9511

THERE was a buzz on Facebook. It’s back. Spiga d’Oro, everyone’s favourite Italian spot was reopening.

Then all the rumours. First it was Gordon Road, then at the Alliance Française, and then in the old Grill Room Café spot on Innes Road. Social media was all a-twitter.

The short story is that they’re in Innes Road in the evenings, next to Charlie’s, and at the Alliance Française during the day – a sort of Spiga Lite, if you will.

We had to join in the fun and so descended early one Saturday evening. Well, obviously 6.30pm is not early enough because the queue was already substantial. We were seated in the Charlie’s eating area, where fortunately there were waiters serving drinks. The holding pen, I called it. The vibe was good as we socialised over a few bottles of wine. And, after about an hour or so, they did bring a plate of very good tomato and basil bruschetta.

It was 8pm when we got the invitation to our table. The atmosphere in the new space is pretty much that of the old Spiga we all loved. There’s a wall already filled with the scribblings of thousands of Durbanites welcoming them back. There’s the same hustle and bustle of waitrons, convivial banter of patrons – if anything, it’s noisier. And the menu had changed little from the basic Italian dishes so loved, with pasta alla Shaik still in prominence.

We shared a series of starters – the marinated olives (R35), which were good; the tomato and buffalo mozzarella salad with basil pesto (R85), which was enjoyable, and the spicy chicken livers (R50) served with bruschetta. These were nicely cooked and had a decent kick even if they were somewhat heavy on the onions. But that’s no sin in my books.

Things slid downhill with mains. Maybe the famed kitchen was flagging. The spaghetti al cartoccio (R195), a selection of seafood with garlic, chilli and white wine and cooked in a paper bag in the pizza oven, was very good. But a friend who remembered the tagliatelle alla Roma – a mix of red and yellow peppers with chicken and cream – was disappointed, especially because there was very little evidence of any roasted peppers in the dish. The vegetarian ordered his favourite from the old Spiga – the penne Romana (R70) with garlic, chilli, mushrooms, napoli and cream. The dish was just chilli hot and one-dimensional.

My gnocchi gorgonzola (R85) was grim. The sauce was decent, but the gnocchi more like potato bullets. It seems one should forget ordering gnocchi in Durban because your chances of disappointment are exceptionally high.

With few bottles of wine down the hatch, we went for desserts, especially as they had a tiramisu made with limoncello (R60). This, too, was disappointing and more a soggy mess without any real boozy or zesty flavours. The traditional coffee tiramisu (R60) faired a little better. For some strange reason the chocolate volcano (R60) tasted salty.

We left having had a fun and sociable evening, but the food, sadly, was not a highlight.