• Howick and Pakuranga Times
 

ECLECTIC: Platters show the diversity of food at Umu Cafe. Times photo Jon Rawlinson.

Dean Martin once sang: “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore.” Even though Deano often warbled out this tune ‘direct from the bar’, the old crooner had a point.

When I first tasted the pizza pies at Umu Cafe I was most definitely... in love! Umu Cafe, in Coromandel township, is well worth a visit for lunch or dinner.

Down that way at Christmas we stopped in for a bite and started with a Crisp Bacon Salad ($18.50) with bacon, croutons, salad greens, capsicums and Caesar dressing. While I wouldn’t exactly roll out the laurel leaves for this dish, I will give unto Caesar the respect deserved; this salad was fresh, well dressed and pleasant to eat.

I also shared, with my three dining companions, the Umu Mussel Platter ($24.50), featuring smoked mussel pate, grilled mussels, marinated mussels, a mini mussel hot pot, a taste bowl of mussel chowder, toasted ciabatta and salad greens. This platter shows the mussel-men at Umu certainly can flex those guns!

And so to the ‘pies’; we ordered large BBQ Kransky – smoked cheese sausage, chicken, bacon, capsicum, onion, capers, BBQ sauce – and Graeme’s Special – tuna, capers, feta, asparagus, pepperoni, capsicum, anchovies, onions, olives – pizzas ($24 – $17.50 for small). We exchanged chicken for tuna on the Special with no fuss or extra cost involved.  

Umu’s pizzas are worlds ahead of the cardboard style, fast-food creations available at certain ‘restaurants’.  I’ve sampled pizza from New York to Naples and can honestly say the offerings at this small town cafe are amongst the best I’ve tasted.

Full to bursting we skipped dessert. Although the menu was tempting, it has been some years since the cafe offered its sumptuous key lime pie; this has spoilt me for other Umu desserts.

It’s often said diners should ‘eat where the locals eat’; the regular stream of locals at Umu, often collecting pizzas to take away, shows this cafe is not simply a tourist trap! It’s a year round eatery enjoyed by all.