+39 Pizzeria

362 Little Bourke St, Melbourne 3000
Date visited: 3rd May 2014

I've wanted to visit +39 Pizzeria for years (yes, years!) but haven't had a chance to.  Why?   Because MerlinFan the freako doesn't love pizza (Seriously???  Who doesn't love pizza?) so we always wound up going off somewhere where she might actually have something she would enjoy ordering.

Today, we both had cravings for something cheesy, and without my car this rainy weekend, MerlinFan finally agreed to give +39 Pizzeria a go. (Score for me!)

It was just before 1pm when we arrived, so it was pretty quiet and we were seated and had our orders taken straight away.  I liked the dim, warmly lit interior, reminded me a little of a cosy cave.

I wanted the Blood Orange Granita, but it wasn't ready yet, so I settled for the Lemon Granita.  MerlinFan had the Lemon Tea.

Lemon granita (left), Lemon tea (right)

I loved the granita - it was like a grown-up version of lime slushy I had as a kid.  It sweet, sour - all things lemony, with a powerful zesty aftertaste.  

Lemon granita (love this)

MerlinFan and I decided on the Quattro Formaggi aka Four Cheese pizza and added hot salame.  No changes can be made to the pizzas and they do not do split pizzas either.  BTW at the time of writing, the menu prices on their website are outdated, so there are actually more options and also, expect to add $3-4 more onto the prices.

Quattro Formaggi $20, hot salame $3

Now, I don't know when I starting loving cheese - I remember as a kid we visited a cheese factory and I had to stand outside in the parking lot like a loser because I absolutely could not stand the pungent stench of cheese in the making.  @_@  Oh well, things change...

I loved the Quattro Formaggi pizza.  Salty, melted Fior Di Latte, smoked scamorza, parmesan and bursts of earthy, sharp gorgonzola on top of the tangy Italian tomato salsa... throw in a generous amount of salty, mildly spicy salame (more buried under the cheese) and it was yuuum.  The crust was paper thin - the edges were nicely crisp but the middle was quite wet from the tomato salsa and melted cheese, so the toppings just slid off - I had to eat with my fork and knife but since it was yummy, I wasn't complaining.  MerlinFan said it got quite salty for her, but hey, if you order a four cheese pizza, you can expect it to be quite salty.  My granita was heavenly to cut through all that saltiness.  OMG salivating like a rabid dog at the memory.

We decided to hang around for some dessert.  We had a different waitress - we saw the Coppa Di Gelato which stated 'mixed artisan gelato' for $10.  We asked the waitress what flavours they had - she went to check and told us chocolate, strawberry, lime and vanilla.  Since the menu stated $10, we asked how many flavours we could choose, and she said one.  Okay, must be a big serve then?  A bit bewildered, we chose the chocolate.

We were even more bewildered when out came a single scoop in a tiny cup - $10 for this?  Talk about most expensive ice cream ever!  MerlinFan really liked it though, very rich and chocolatey.

Chocolate gelato $2.50

Anyway, it was only on paying the bill that we realised it was $2.50 for a scoop.  I have no idea why they listed $10 for a cup of ice cream and why the waitress told us we could only choose one flavour - totally confusing, would have been clearer if they just said $2.50 per flavour.  We would have been happy to pay $10 for all four flavours.  Oh well, not our loss.

I really enjoyed the pizza and the granita - would love to return and try the +39 Pizza and blood orange granita.




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