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Spizza: Pizza’s Divine Kitchen
By Melissa Ng · Urbanwire A
fond ambience
A lovely fire burning in the $30,000 wood oven greets you when you step into Spizza, the month-old branch of Spizza at Club St. The good news is that the prices and quality still deliver the original’s promise of value for money and great taste. The pizzas are prepared by Italian chefs who flip the daily made fresh dough right before your very eyes! And you thought roti prata (an Indian dough staple) was amazing. But busy as Italian-Spanish pizza chef Bartolo Ivan Agramonte, 29, and Indian assistant chef Haren Sudarshana, 24, are more than happy to let you in on what ingredients were tossed into the pizza served before you. Medium pizzas ($15) generally serve 2-3, while large pizzas ($18) can satisfy 4 average diners. Besides the eye candy of a chef busying himself in the kitchen, an array of pretty bottles of virgin olive oil with rosemary herbs sits before you. This Italian equivalent of our sesame oil enhances the flavour of the pizza. And lest a cheeky waiter convinces you the nifty packet of sticks lying besides the neatly laid cutlery are edible Italian chopsticks, these are biscotti to accompany your soup and even your Affogato (Expresso coffee served with a scoop of vanilla gelato [$7]). To show its authenticity, everything on the menu has Italian names such as Romolo, Cesare and Ursula, a welcome change from the menus with just the token and usual suspects of tiramisus and calamaris.
Padmanadan A/L Subramaniam, the restaurant manager, recommends the Subero ($10): Cold pasta tossed with the usual tuna flakes, onion and tomatoes. The olives in the salad were pleasantly sour and the fragrance of the piquant capers was just as inviting. And if you think the calamari at Spizza ($8) is the usual fare you’ve come to expect, think again. Springy squid pieces deep-fried to a perfect crunch, served with tangy tomato Pizzaiola sauce (with a tinge of herbs) is just the thing to whet those taste buds for what’s to come.
The pizzas of Spizza are christened with the Italian
names of women; and rightfully so because the pizzas, dolled up and
sprightly coloured, are so seductive, you forget your hunger pangs.
Claudia ($15) is the classic Italian beauty and she’s vegetarian. Lovely green and vibrant red bell peppers, artichokes, mushrooms, capers and crunchy zucchini are grilled to perfection. For meat-lovers, you can request they add pepperoni, which Spizza serves thinly sliced so it doesn’t overpower the full-flavoured fresh and crunchy bell peppers.
Alas, Sofia ($15) disappointed. The tomato-based pizza of mixed seafood and black olives fell short of delivering what the other pizzas before promised. Seafood is still best eaten as a main course instead of a topping. The mozzarella was springy but a tad too salty. A sweet
arrivederci Sweet pizza, Vera ($15) sadly, bordered on the plain. Similar to the blueberry pizza from Pizza Hut, the offering was simply bananas sprinkled with almond flakes on melted chocolate. Lamin offers homemade gelato (super rich Italian ice cream) and for the waistline-watchers, sherbet is also available; either is priced from $3 for a single scoop.
Chocolate Minerva (gelato) was exceptionally smooth, with a mild sweetness. Mint sherbet, however, was an acquired taste, since it was overpoweringly sweet. But Lucrezia (lemon sherbet) made the evening’s disappointments all but forgotten, with her zesty fragrance and sweet icy kiss is to die for. The
Verdict: Would you like to test out our verdict and dine at Spizza? [Click here] Rating: The Place: Getting
there: All photos taken by the reporter. |
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If
you thought commercial pizza was good, then buddy, your taste buds and
stomach has been lying to you. Time to taste the original oven-baked
pizza, the Italian way at Spizza. MELISSA NG checks out the newest addition
to Holland Village’s lanes of fine cuisines and discovers just
how the pizzeria is reinventing our concept of pizzas. 
