Pizza

Pizza Religion

Pork Pizza

(pork sausage, chilli, fennel, apple and cabbage salad)

Quite enjoyable but there wasn’t enough pork sausage (many mouthfuls of this pizza were purely of cabbage salad)

★★★☆☆

Beef Cheek Pizza

(braised beef cheek, celeriac puree, caramelised onions and gremolta)

The pungent beef cheek tasted marvellous with the sweet caramelised onions.

★★★★☆

Overall:

There is a wide range of fresh gourmet pizza toppings available and they are all served on crispy thin crusts. The staff here are helpful and the atmosphere is truly family friendly.

Pizza Religion

493 Tooronga Rd, Hawthorn, VIC

(03) 9882 2555

http://pizzareligion.com.au/

Mr Ringo’s Pizza (plus your chance to win Menulog vouchers!)

Shop 1/127 Jacksons Rd, Noble Park North 9790 0122

Ringo’s Super Special

(ham, salami, capsicum, mushroom, olives, prawns, pineapple, garlic, oregano)

Aussie Pizza

(ham, bacon, egg)

Satay Chicken

(satay sauce, chicken, onion, pineapple, cheese)

Overall:

There was no food in the house and the weather was wet and horrible outside, making it the perfect night for getting takeaway food delivered to our doorstep. I had recently been invited by Menulog to try out their service, which turned out to be super easy to use. In case you have never heard of Menulog, it is Australia’s Number 1 online takeaway service that hosts over 3500 restaurants. The way it works is simple:

Head to the Menulog website
Enter your suburb or postcode
Choose from a list of restaurants who are a part of your local Menulog community
Order your meal from the online menu
Decide when you would like your meal delivered, including the time you would like it to arrive. (You can also choose to pickup your meal in person)
Checkout and pay.
You will then receive an SMS confirmation as to when your order will be ready

What I also liked about Menulog were the promotions on offer (eg. 10% off your first online order at certain places) and the accessible reviews that have been written about each place.

And thanks to the generosity of Menulog, I have two $10 vouchers to be given away! Simply click on the link below for your chance to win! (entries close 4th July)

WIN 1 of 2 $10 Menulog Vouchers

Now back to the food. We decided to have a pizza night and chose Mr Ringo’s Pizza because of all the positive reviews on the site. This was definitely a good choice because the pizzas we ordered were pretty good! Not only were they delivered on time, they arrived hot, had a nice crispy base (which wasn’t too oily), and had an ample amount of topping on each pizza. I will certainly be ordering pizza from this place again in the future.

Noble Calzones

238 Railway Parade, Noble Park 9791 2699

The Sweet Hot Chick

Pepper Steak with Goats Cheese

Choc Berry Double Bliss calzone

Thoughts:

The Sweet Hot Chick – sweet chilli chicken, capsicum, onion, fresh chilli (that is actually hot) and herbs = Good

Pepper Steak with Goat Cheese – sliced steak (bland and chewy), onion, capsicum, chevre (goat cheese) and peppercorns = Not bad

Choc Berry Double Bliss calzone – chocolate fondant and berry calzone served with vanilla ice cream. Although the photo I took of this is not particularly appetising, this calzone was actually quite tasty. The sweet butter dough reminded me of donuts and the fondant itself had the right amount of sweetness to it and was not overly rich = Good

Overall:

The terrific thing about this place is that all the meat and dairy used here are certified halal products and that no pork products are used or kept on the premises. The menu items that contain ham and bacon are in fact beef ham and turkey bacon (I had no idea that turkey bacon existed!). The service was incredibly warm and friendly, and the food tasty and exciting.

Basilico

216 Blackburn Rd, Glen Waverley 9887 6288

Al Salmone gourmet wood fired pizza

Polpette Al Sugo (Meatballs) Risotto

Belgian Dark Chocolate and Strawberry dessert pizza

Thoughts:

Al Salmone pizza – thin crispy pizza base topped with slices of tomato, cheese, salmon, finely chopped leek, fresh basil, spanish onion, spring onion and cracked pepper. There was a generous amount of salmon on this pizza which made it noticeably salty, however the sweetness from the leek and onion helped to balance this out = Good

Polpette Al Sugo Risotto – tender Italian meatballs in a Napoli sauce. The sauce itself was tasty but the risotto was unfortunately hard and undercooked = Not bad

Chocolate and Strawberry dessert pizza – thin crispy base topped with deliciously melted dark chocolate brownies, fresh strawberries and four massive scoops of sweet vanilla ice cream. The base was superb and the ample amount of topping was fantastic. Hands down the best dessert pizza that I have tasted so far! = Excellent

Overall:

Great pizzas (there is a large selection of gourmet wood fired pizzas to choose from as well as original wood fired pizzas), average service, casual family-friendly dining atmosphere. But seriously, come for the Chocolate and Strawberry dessert pizza!

The Last Piece

7/2 Stadium Circuit, Mulgrave 9545 3040

Spiced school prawns with saffron aioli

Chunky chips with aioli

Hunter & collectors pizza – tomato, roasted chicken, peppers, flor di latte, olives and mushroom

I like italian sausage pizza – tomato, fior di latte, pork & fennel salsiccia, broccollini, cherry tomato and oregano

Penne grande with pork & fennel sausage, broccolini, cherry tomatoes, fresh chilli and white wine

Chocolate fondant with salted caramel ice cream

Flourless orange cake with blood orange sorbet

Spanish doughnuts with vanilla custard and nutella

Thoughts:

Prawns – the batter was unfortunately too hard and was difficult to cut, but the saffron aioli was nice = Not bad

Chips – regular chunky chips = Not bad

Hunters and collectors/I like italian sausage pizza – freshly made thin pizza bases with a decent amount of topping = Not bad

Penne – pasta was a bit undercooked = Not bad

Chocolate fondant – dense and tasted quite eggy, while the salted caramel ice cream was overly salty = Not bad

Orange cake – extremely moist and left a distinct orange peel aftertaste, while the sorbet was sweet and citrusy (tasted just like blood orange soft drink) = Not bad

Spanish doughnuts – are a different shape and are slightly more dense than regular doughnuts, but otherwise taste pretty much the same = Not bad

Overall:

An average pizza and pasta place located in a newly developed residential area that happens to overlook Waverley Park oval (where the Hawthorn football club train). Service was good (although our waitress wanted to clear our plates time and time again before we had even finished eating), and the atmosphere was friendly and relaxed.