LOCATIONNext to owner Simon Kardachi’s The Pot Food and Wine on King William Road.
PROFILED BY DE GROOTS MEDIAThere is pizza and then there is pizza. At Melt, your take on it may undergo changes or even perhaps reach a gastronomic maturity. If to you pizza means having tyre-sized serves delivered by a boy in a gaudy uniform, then you are in need of education. If you would rather season and eat the box these monstrosities come in, then you are on the path to pizza enlightenment. Those at Melt are all a respectable 11 inches – a standard dinner plate size. They come with a thin base and don’t boast over-stuffed crusts bursting with extra “flavour”. Minimal toppings are used to highlight quality so each component can be identified and appreciated. The calibre of ingredients makes choosing hard, although there are just over a dozen listings, with no “pizza personalisation”. Why would you want to mess with the sublime combinations already orchestrated for us anyway?
Think a spud pizza sounds boring? Crushed potato, porcini, truffle, tallegio cheese, walnuts, thyme and parsley will humble that thought. The Turk summons Middle Eastern flavours with lamb, pomegranate, pine nuts, yoghurt and mint, while scallops are touched with the simplicity of peas, spring onion, buffalo mozzarella and truffle. There are no ladles of napolitana sauce to be found in the description of the house speciality calzone. It is plumped with roast duck, mushroom, cherries and shallots, thank you very much. A blackboard of tapas makes this designer label pizzeria even more special. Think pork hotpot, black mussels with curry sauce and soused sardines with chilli, raisins and red onion. The contemporary art-filled dining room and wine list exhibit owner Simon Kardachi’s taste in such matters, so immerse yourself in all of his work some time soon.
Roz Taylor, April 2009