Fabulous food, outstanding service, ambience is some of the best around town. Great prices, have been there a few times now and have had all good experiences. The staff are extremely friendly.. Would recommend to anyone, a lovely place for excellent Italian food and wine.

I’m a guy and I was impressed with the Italian staffs who worked there. I went there a few months ago and the staffs were very warm and very friendly.

The cooking was excellent. I have tried many other Italian places and this place definitely knows how to cook a good al dente pasta and a good pizza.

Having said that however I must warn that the dishes may be a bit oily which is partly the reason why the dishes were so good.

We ordered several dishes ranging from pasta to pizza and yeah we did come in with a voucher. Without the voucher the price may be a bit high but nevertheless it was worth the experience and food for anyone wants to come here for the first time.

I took a couple of girlfriends from work late November and we had a great night!

Really friendly staff and a great menu.
You can just about order anything – nothings a problem, any sauce with any pasta….

Will visit again!

We ventured out to Covo on a Thursday night, keen to try something new in our local suburb. We chose to sit in the well-lit courtyard and liked the stuccoed walls with images of the Italian countryside painted on them, as it made for a nice setting to unwind. We thought we weren’t hungry so ordered a pizza at first, which was exceptionally tasty (the haters on this site may describe food that has flavour as being ‘salty’ but I beg to differ) and made us realise that we were, in fact, hungry so we ordered an entree of calamari after our pizza. The service was awesome – someone else has made the comment that the staff made you feel like family, and that is exactly right.

I would have given Covo 5 out of 5 stars after eating here – however, after our meal and deciding we were definitely coming back, I realised Covo is run by a good acquaintance of mine. So I’ve knocked off a star on what i would have otherwise rated it to demonstrate that I havent been attempting to inflate Covo’s ratings here – Covo is a great chilled out place serving great food that I am happy to recommend to others.

We had a 2-for-one-coupon and decided to give this place a try. My partner had the fish of the day. It was OK, but seemed like a foodtown fillet that we could have prepared at home. I had an extra large pizza. I was torn between 2 styles of pizza (2 different sets of ingredients) and asked if it would be possible to split the pizza and have both. The waiter said “No problem, but there will be an extra charge.” I thought that was fair. When I presented the coupon at the end of the meal he said that he would be charging for two large pizzas and that I would get one free. So instead of getting a $30 fish of the day for free, I got one $20 pizza free and paid over $50 for a 2 for 1 meal. Why spend the money on coupon-marketing if you are going to treat your potential future customers this way? I won’t be back, and neither will my mates. Get it together Covo.

Went to the COVO the other night to have a big family dinner. The Don himself was looking after us very well and let us try the new dishes of the menu. It was super delicious, especially the Chicken Marsala was a treat. The service was outstanding and we had great fun. Strongly recommend this place!!!

I was looking for a byo for my 20th birthday and thought a pizza bar would be perfect for us young ones. I got in contact with the owner of Covos and he was very happy to help us out. The courtyard room was ideal for our group and everyone had an awesome time. The pizza and breads were delicious and the staff were very accomodating. I was really happy with how our night went and I will definately be going back there:-)

Me and my brother dined here last night and we had such a lovely evening! The restaurant is small but cosy, and it has a lovely little courtyard out the back, where we decided to sit. We ordered the extra large pizza, which was more than enough for both of us, and it was absolutely delicious. But best of all was the service. The waiters are SO friendly! They were more than happy to stop and chat to us, and they made us feel very welcome. Me and my brother had such a lovely time, we both agreed we want to return and bring the whole family next time. Thank you so much Covo for such a lovely evening, I can’t wait to come back!

Yum this place was great! we hadn’t booked so it was after 8.30 by the time we got there and they were happy to seat us straight away. The food was delicious and service is friendly upbeat and efficient. Love that this is a great local to go to, would definitely go back again. Pizza’s were the best

I have been meaning to try out this place for ages and as we have just moved in around the corner and had no food in the fridge we decided to give it a try.

We were greeted by a friendly front of house team and seated out the back in the courtyard. We were promptly give menus, and drink orders were taken.

We had the bruscetta to start, and then Jess ordered the Risotto and I had the prawn and spinach lasagna – everything was delicious. Main size was almost too big for both of us but you cant really complain about that now!

Very enjoyable evening at our new local!

We had a fantastic evening. The owner is absolutely charming and really cares about you having a lovely time. We werent hungry and just bought a salad and pizza to share, but were treated like family. The food was delicious and you could actually taste the fresh ingredients. And the thinnest, crispest pizza crust.See you again. Ciao

I had read previous reviews ( some great some scathing )so went with mixed expectations. We found the service to be exceptional, the atmosphere pleasant and relaxed and the food delicious. Would definitely recommend Covo to others.

Overall had high expectations as had been to a Sunday afternoon function there. Went on a Friday night and it was busy (good sign) …and also a lot of takeaway orders – which I suspect from a couple of apologies we received from staff was putting some pressure on the kitchen to get all orders thru quickly.
Asked if we wanted something to drink I asked to see the wine list. Manager (as I was to find out later) said they didn’t have one and asked what we would like. A bit hard to tell when you don’t know what they have. He commenced running thru (imaging pacy Italian accent here) the types of Italian wines which for most unfamiliar with Italian wines is tricky. For most NZ wine drinkers what is the difference between a Nebbiolo, Barbaresco, Barolo, …… except maybe the good old favourite Chianti.
Confused by the verbal only download and no wine list to review I said I didn’t want to spend $95 for the Barolo (far too expensive) and he pointed to the wine the next table were drinking indicating it was good and not too expensive – about $48. Great

We ordered pizza bread and calamari to start. The pizza bread was very thick and doughy and we didn’t finish it. The shocker though was the calamari which contained about six very small pieces – each about 2cm long! Feeling slightly ripped off we hung on for the mains. The pasta carbonara was barely Ok (slightly chewy… a stage or two before al dente) The pizza was extremely salty, the tomato base was v-salty and tasted more like a concentrated tomato paste that we have purchased as an imported product and needs to be used as an “ingredient” to sauces etc rather than directly on its own. ALL the toppings were salty. So no real balance of tastes/flavours/high notes /low notes – just salty with salty. So overall the food quality was below par. And before anyone says “this is how it’s done in Italy” we are very familiar with Italian food having been there several times with a focus on specific regional cuisine and wine.

The meal unfortunately ended with a bill which had our wine priced at $78 (I thought we had asked for the $48 wine) The staff couldn’t assist as the manager had gone home – but if we could wait they would call him to come back to the restaurant. What a scam.
So as you can probably guess we won’t be back.

We ate here last night and had a less than great experience sadly. First up, the place is tiny – a strip style eatery that opens up to an larger outdoor courtyard out the back. We were seated right alongside a table of 8 young women who were doing their level best to break the sound barrier – shouting and screeching with laughter and without a thought to other diners. Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for people enjoying themselves but when it impacts negatively on others it becomes selfish & rude. I had to put my finger my ear on that side – the shreiking was literally hurting my ears, and I couldn’t hear my husband across the table. So I asked if we could move to the courtyard. Was told that all the tables out there were reserved. One minute later a couple came in and asked for a table for two. They were walk-ins, no booking. They were shown to a table for four in the courtyard, which really annoyed me!! The restroom was not particularly clean, sink could do with a good going over. Wait staff were friendly enough and I didn’t have any trouble understanding their Italian accents (some have mentioned that in other reviews) but there was a push to order dessert at the same time of mains etc (weird) and he spilt the wine all over the table when he was pouring the glass. The food was really, really bad – we both ordered pasta dishes – in an Italian restaurant run by Italians I had hoped for homemade pasta but it was placed in front of us in about 10 mins, and strongly suspect it was microwaved. The cabonara tasted fishy (the bacon maybe? Cheap bacon sometimes can, due to the pigs being fed fish scraps) and as I am not keen on seafood this was gross. Neither of us finished our meals and couldn’t wait to get out of there – the loud women were really cranking it up. Hope they manage to turn it round as they were a nice bunch but if not, would be surprised if these guys are still around in 6 months.

We thoroughly enjoyed our 2 pizzas. Rollo Chicken and the Darren Butcher. They were both very tasty, hot and looked exactly what we expected. Very Yum! We will be back… Thanks.

I went to dinner with friends in the den and I was happy ..
the food again and ‘was very good. we ordered various pasta and tuna in sesame crust fantastic presentation and taste delicious, even good selection of cheeses accompanied by several jams, and even good wine pinot noir .. apresto ciao

Personal analysis:
FOOD: delicious I’m sure will improve ‘more and more’ VOTE 8
ATMOSPHERE: cozy, warm, friendly (gangster??? maybe u mean PROHIBITION???) VOTE 7
SERVICE:very good but nothing personal next time I’d like talk with my girlfriend not with the waiter and please changed the menu (incomprehensible)VOTE 4
However I enjoyed it and hope you accept my advice

Dear Grey Lynn and surrounds,
Having just gotten over the fact that our wonderful Indian fusion neighbour M had closed and an Italian restaurant taken over I resigned myself to go back to support the new local business.
BIG Mistake! I ordered a take out pizza and when I got it home and opened the box, I found a less than desirable sight, it was a square looking piece of what seemed to be a much bigger pizza, it looked like it had been left in the sun for a day or so, and had a pathetic strip of proscuitto and a few miserable rocket leaves hiding what could only be described as a dried up base with dehydrated tomato puree! An attempt to get cheese onto the mess had failed and the parmesan was of the pre grated, Countdown plastic bag variety, unmelted and unsophisicated!
To add insult to injury the price was $22.50 and the thing was COLD!
In short, the worst pizza of any nature I had ever purchased! It went into the bin! RIP M, and RIP my $22.50, I miss you both!

i ve been there last night after a friend raccomandation…result…excellent!!!
the service provide from a trully italians was impecable the food was over the top,we have got pizza lamb fish and pasta and all off them were perfectly cooked.
a great experience we will defenetly come back!
a great add to grey lynn village

Came highly recommended by a friend and the reviews I read were great…however the experience was disappointing…We were expecting gangsters and mobsters instead we got greeted by a waiter with a hat and poor English. The waitress English was so bad she couldn’t explain the difference between the lamb dish on the menu and the special for the night. We were looking forward to the nice and hot garlic bread and what we got was cut up crostini drizzled with garlic and herb infused olive oil?! All food was very salty, my pasta was home made OK but clumpy, the pizza was on pre made base (the one you buy in the supermarket) that was under cooked and the lamb dish had so many strong and different flavours…Desserts were impressive, tho the waiter was very pushy and came to talk us into having dessert long after we have already order it. We will not be going back!

OMG… the worst pizza we’ve ever had… ordered a take-away Johnny the Gardener pizza on the weekend…. it was luke warm and the cheese (what little there was of it) wasn’t even melted and the tomato paste was all dried up around the edges – it was like it had been made in the afternoon and reheated before putting the toppings on. It was so dry we couldn’t actually eat it and had to throw it away. Would have been better off getting a frozen pizza from the supermarket at a fraction of the price (it was $22.50!) that would at least have been edible….