Pizza Mario, Surry Hills

My first visit to Pizza Mario was with my blogger friends on the night of our visit to Tio's and Wild Rover. I knew I wanted to come back ASAP as I'd enjoyed one of the BEST pizzas of all time here. Strong words indeed but I don't mess around when it comes to Pizza.

You'll find Pizza Mario hidden within the St Margarets complex on Bourke Street. I find this a really s-t-r-a-n-g-e area.  A courtyard is surrounded by modern apartments that have been developed around the old St Margaret's hospital. The hospital part is really cool, but to me the courtyard is kinda soulless and it's a mega wind tunnel so being outside on a day when there is the slightest breeze is not fun.  But...head in doors to Pizza Mario and none of that matters anymore (you'll also find Morena here plus an awesome looking cheese shop).

We start our dinner with a Ruchetta Salad - rocket, Parmesan, olive oil and lemon juice ($8.00). I always like to have a simple salad when I'm indulging in pizza. I think it tricks me into thinking I'm being healthy. It works for me so it's a theory I'm going to stick with.

Our only meat pizza of the night is the Calabrese - mozzarella, ‘ndujia (hot salame) and gaeta olives ($22.50). I love how THIN the pizza bases are here and they have a wonderful, almost smokey flavour from the wood fire oven. This is a good pizza, but not the one I've been lusting after since my first visit.

Ah, behold my beloved Gorgonzola - con radicchio mozzarella, gorgonzola and chopped radicchio ($21.50). I ADORE the earthiness and saltiness of the gorgonzola on this pizza - I'm a salt fiend so perhaps this is why I love this pizza so much. The radicchio is just window dressing really although its bitterness does offset some of the pungent gorgonzola.

The margherita  ($17.50) is a true Naples style of pizza - tomato, mozzarella and basil ($17.50). It's simple but as is so often the case, the simple things in life are often the best.  This is also the only "red" pizza we ordered for dinner - all the others come sans tomato sauce.  I think this style of pizza just illustrates how gross all those "stuffed crust" abominations really are...blergh. 

Last but not least is the Patate - sliced potato, sea salt and rosemary ($15.00). This is something that I often make at home as I have more rosemary growing on the balcony that I can poke a stick at!  What I make though cannot compare to this.  The base is cooked directly on the floor of the hot oven is just marvelous and I think impossible to recreate in a conventional home oven. Shame.

Oh we also had wine. I think this is a Pinot Gris...whatever it was I REALLY liked it. It was quite sweet in an understated way and I think it paired really well with all the "white" pizzas we enjoyed. Bottoms up!

Pizza Mario is located at the St. Margaret's complex; shop 9, Ivy, 417 – 421 Bourke Street, Surry Hills.

Leura Garage, Leura

Over the October long weekend The Boy and I went for a drive up to the Blue Mountains. My sole motivation was that I had been wanting to try Leura Garage for ages.  Given enough time I will eventually tick every cafe of my wishlist...maybe.

As the name suggests the cafe is located in a former mechanic garage and there are little nods to this all through the decor...a tyre here, a wheel rim there, a few car doors on the wall, some old exhausts on a shelf, a car hoist acting as a wine rack. You get the picture.

 

When we finally got ourselves a table I had massive amounts of trouble trying to decide on what to order. Not because I wanted to eat everything - which I did - but because of the HEFTY prices against each item. $15.00 for a SMALL rocket salad - that's just criminal in my mind, especially when the bowls I saw heading for the tables were pretty petite and I know a WHOLE big bag of rocket costs less than $4.00 in the supermarket. I don't know if the prices were exceptionally high for the public holiday, but still...! If we weren't so hungry I would've gone somewhere else...but I was getting hangry and needed food ASAP.

In the end The Boy and I decided to get two small - albeit pricey things - and go for a light lunch and fill up on dinner when we got home later that night. To start with we choose a Charcuterie Board for THIRTY TWO DOLLARS! My wallet nearly got up and ran out of the restaurant at this point let me tell you. Now, the board was good - everything was very tasty and well presented but I was disappointed that we only got TWO CRACKERS and three small slices of bread with it.  I did ask for more crackers and they came to the table with hassle and no extra cost. I thought the meats provided were really nice - prosciutto, hot salami, a potted terrine and some smoked ham and I liked the addition of a rockmelon ball to accompany the prosciutto.

We decided to get a bowl of rosemary salted fries ($9.00) to pad out the charcuterie board. The fries were really good - very flavoursome and I like the addition of rosemary to the mix.

All in all we had a nice lunch. The food was very nice and the atmosphere of the cafe was buzzy + fun. The fit out of the place is quite quirky and the staff were very friendly. Bearing all that in mind the prices were just beyond what I personally think is reasonable for a casual lunchtime eat, or justifiable so we'll be on the hunt for somewhere new to eat in Leura for our next visit.

Leura Garage is at 84 Railway Parade, Leura - NSW. Phone them on (02) 4784 3391.



And now I'll leave you with some photos of the cicadas that had literally taken over the Blue Mountains on the day we visited. They were EVERYWHERE - either crawling up trees, flying about, having "sexy times" with each other or leaving their dead shells all over the place! The noise was deafening.  It was actually quite magical until one flew onto me and I put my neck out trying to escape it's little claws.

Chirp chirp.

Napoli In Bocca. Haberfield

Surely there cannot be a person on earth who doesn't like pizza? Although with the advent of crusts overly stuffed with cheese and/or hotdogs (hotdog stuffed pizza crust is an abomination I tell you) and toppings that look like the contents of a compost bin my pizza consumption has dropped off...a lot.

I prefer my pizza simple and that's why the discovery of a place like Napoli In Bocca is a godsend.  Good, simple, honest pizza - just the way the Italian's intended.

I have Megan (from Veggies and Me) to thank for introducing me to this place - she swore it's the best pizza place in Sydney and I think she  may be right (though I'm sure that statement will meet with some contention).

When we came with Megan we ordered all manner of things, but I only had eyes for one pizza upon my return - Patata - a glorsiously flavoursome pizza with a simple topping of potatoes, rosemary, mozzarella, onions and  olive oil ($19.50). The pizza is just a little bit salty which makes it like crack cocaine to me. I ate this whole thing and I would've ordered a second one if I didn't think the waiters would think I'm a pig.

Tara choose to revist the Funghi - tomato, mozzarella and mushrooms ($18.50) - another simple pizza that is perfection, proving once again that less is more.

Napoli in Bocca is at 73 Dalhousie Street, Haberfield. Phone them on 9798 4096.

Cooper's Hotel, Newtown

It seems that I am not the only one who likes to take advantage of the multitude of internet meal deals floating around in cyberspace these days.

The Baking Lady From Work (hereafter referred to as the Baking Lady as my fingers will drop off if I had to type her whole name each time) had nabbed herself a $19.00 voucher for a pizza and a bottle of wine at Cooper's Hotel in Newtown, so we put on our walking shoes and head on down to King Street for lunch.

The bistro at Cooper's Hotel (this is the company that does these funky signs) is located on the top floor and has a really nice, open rooftop terrace. These rooftop terraces seem to be the terrace de jour in Newtown as there are at least three pubs that I know that have them.

Given that a) it's lunchtime on a school day, and b) neither of us are big drinkers we decide it's probably not a good idea to drink an entire bottle of wine between just two people and then head back to work for the afternoon.  The Cooper's are more than happy for us to substitute the voucher's bottle of wine for Herb Bread (normally $7.00). They even throw in two Lemon, Lime and Bitter's which makes us tea totlers nearly squeal with delight. 

The pizza menu isn’t huge with only six different pizzas on offer. That said, all the options are tempting with pizzas erring on the more gourmet side of things.

We decide on the Moroccan Lamb Pizza (normally $19.00), although if I'd actually registered that they had pizza with chorizo on it we would've gotten that for sure! The pizza is so big that we didn’t really need to order garlic bread as well – definitely enough for 2 people to share and not feel hungry afterwards.  

Our pizza has a lovely thin and crispy base and is topped with tomato, spiced lamb, roasted red capsicum, red onion and a creamy cucumber and mint sauce.  The lamb is lovely, char-grilled and perfectly cooked.

Asides from pizza the bistro menu has quite a lot of really interesting sounding Modern Australian food that I wouldn’t mind coming back and trying one day.

The Haloumi wontons with a snow pea leaf and beansprout salad and chilli yoghurt dipping sauce has piqued my interest and has me hoping The Baking Lady buys another voucher for this place and invites me to lunch again! 

The Cooper's Hotel is at 221 King Street, Newtown.

Zia Pina Pizzeria, The Rocks

The MCA are very kindly staying open late on Thursday nights during March so that worker bees like the BFF and myself can scurry down to The Rocks after work and check out the Annie Leibovitz exhibition. Thanks MCA!

As the night is all about Annie Leibovitz and not about food (unbelievable I know) we decided beforehand to find somewhere cheap and cheerful to have a quick but tasty bite to eat before heading off the exhibition at the MCA.  This appears to be easier than it sounds as, whilst The Rocks has quite a few great places to eat, a lot of them are a bit pricey and not really the "eat and run" type of place we are after.

The BFF had suggested a quick noodle dish from Wok On Inn so I went to check it out before we were due to meet up.  Whilst it fit the criteria (quick, cheap, cheerful) the surrounding courtyard eating area was all but closed down for the night and it didn't have a nice feel about it.  This would be a much nicer place to eat during the day when the area is buzzing with activity.

I thought I would wander down to the harbour to check out Greenhouse by Joost, the new pop-up environmentally friendly and sustainable bar & restaurant that has set up camp on the waterfront until the end of March.

I'd read quite a bit about this place and knew the food was reasonably priced, yummy, wholesome and you couldn't ask for a better location.  As I approached the makeshift structure I got a tad excited...the place seemed empty, with none of the crowd I was expecting to encounter.  Squee - I'd just grab myself a recycled-billboard table and text the BFF and tell him where to meet me.  It wasn't until I got right on top of Greenhouse that I saw the big, spray painted sign "Sorry we are closed for a function tonight".  D'oh!

So, it is on to plan C.

I had been to Zia Pina Pizzeria more than a few times back in my youth and thought it could do the trick tonight.  Albiet I'd always had a few drinkies before eating at there, so I had fond memories of the place. It was always busy with tourists seeking a cheap dinner, or city workers grabbing a quick pizza on their way home after a few post-work drinkies with colleagues.

When we walk in the place is just as I remember it, so not much as changed in 15 years.  The downstairs is tiny, with about ten tables all with mandatory red and white checked table clothes.  Quaint. Zina Pina's is aiming for the rustic Italian feel with wooden floorboards and exposed brick walls.

The menu is quite large with at least twenty different types of pizza on offer, as well as pasta, salads and soup.  There is also a set menu available for groups at $28.00 per person.

The pizzas are quite reasonably priced and a medium Cabanossi Pizza sets us back $14, and it is enough for two people with modest appetites to share. We add anchovies to our pizza for an extra $2.00 as I just cannot seem to eat pizza anymore if it doesn't have anchovies on it. I think I have a serious salty food addiction happening.

The pizza has a super-thin base that is perhaps just a bit too thin (or perhaps not quite cooked enough) for the thick ooze of cheese and tomato sauce that smothers it as goes a bit soggy...but it's still pretty tasty, albeit sloppy.

We also decide to order a Prawn Salad ($18.00) to add a bit of healthy eating to our cheesy pizza fest.  The salad is a bit on the expensive side for what is essentially a salad of rocket with five garlic prawns and three cherry tomatoes.  That said the salad is tasty, with a scattering of pine nuts adding a nice nutty crunch to the mix.

This is by no means a fine dining restaruant, nor a gourmet foodie experience. It won't be the best pizza you've ever had but it's pretty tasty and hits the spot when you need a quick bite to eat on your way to somewhere else.

The service is friendly, quick and efficient and we are in and out in under 40 minutes (we're faster eaters too, which helps speed things along nicely).



Zia Pina Pizzeria is at 93 George Street, The Rocks
www.ziapina.com.au