Pizza Meine Leibe

LOCATION
Northcote

PROFILED BY DE GROOTS
"What sitting do you want – the 6.00 or the 8.15pm?", asks the voice on the other end of the telephone. That's right, it's Saturday night and there's a double sitting at Pizza Meine Leibe. The popularity of PML as it is affectionately known hasn't waned since opening two years ago. The young and the beautiful continue to flock to experience some of the best gourmet pizzas in Melbourne. They come for the inventive toppings and the divine rustic and chewy base of Chef Elena Bonnici's pizzas.

The menu reads like record labels from the 1960s with names like Smashing Pumpkin, Silver Fox, Wise Guy and Vicky Soir. Depending on your mood, try these classics or the very popular Hello Sailor – a combination of tomato, buffalo cheese, mozzarella with chopped mussels, clams and prawns. Mr Spudly is another big favourite – a mozzarella, tallegio, potatoes, slow cooked onions and chestnut pizza. The menu is seasonal. Order the orange salad with radicchio, fennel and orange slices and finish with one of the legendary desserts like the panna cotta with rhubarb and raspberries or banana and honey pizzette. Remember to follow the advice of PML and eat with your hands – "the pizza tastes better and you'll look sexier".

Fiona Symington