Ambitious 180-seat pasta restaurant Alondo set for Dunedin opening

Alondo Pizzetta & Pasta was set to make one of Dunedin’s boldest dining debuts, with a late-June opening planned for the ground floor of the former A&T Burt Ltd building at Stuart and Cumberland streets. The 180-seat layout gave the handmade-pasta concept an unusually large footprint for a restaurant pitching itself around scratch-made Italian food, with 120 seats in the main room, 60 more in a function area, and a vault for 12 guests.

Co-owner Mat Nicolson said the restaurant had been in the works since June 2025, turning the project into a long build rather than a quick turnover. He described the renovation as a “hefty investment” and said, “We wanted to create something entirely our own,” pointing to a plan built around a private dining area, a separate bar and a more intimate space inside the vault.

Nicolson’s background in hospitality helped frame the scale of the move. He previously operated Jizo Japanese Restaurant and St Clair’s Starfish Cafe, and said he and his partner had bought existing businesses before but wanted this one built from scratch. He also said Alondo was intended to cater to everyone, not only diners with Italian backgrounds, a signal that the restaurant is aiming beyond a narrow neighborhood following and toward a wider Dunedin audience.

The site itself strengthens that ambition. The former Bike House Lifestyle premises sat close to the new hospital site and near Woolworths Dunedin Central, while still being just off the beaten track from the Octagon. That positioning could help Alondo draw both destination diners and people moving through central Dunedin, especially with the promise of handmade pasta, authentic Neapolitan-style pizzetta, and dishes such as beef and fish broadening the menu.

The corporate trail matched the reported timeline. ALONDO MK LIMITED was registered in New Zealand on August 19, 2025, with restaurant operation listed as its business classification and Matthew James Nicolson and Kerry Dawn Mathieson named as directors and shareholders. With the building work, the seating scale and the scratch-made menu all aligned, Alondo looked less like a routine opening and more like a serious bid to become a dining destination in central Dunedin.