Author: Alex

Crust Gourmet Pizza – Brighton

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Crust Pizza

Crust Pepperoni Pizza

Disclaimer:  Crust sent me an Ultimate Night In voucher so I could check out their pizzas for myself.

When Crust’s PR people got in touch and asked me if I’d like to try a pizza from one of their three new South Australian pizza bars, I didn’t really have to be asked twice. While I make a lot of pizza from scratch (we’re blessed with a brilliant oven) we actually also order in on a semi regular basis. It really doesn’t feel good to see that written down!

Crust markets itself as gourmet pizza and the first thing I noticed when checking out the menu was the huge variety of pizzas on offer. There are six vegetarian pizzas, there are “healthier choice” pizzas, there are four each of chicken and seafood pizzas and then there are the five Upper Crust pizzas (wagyu and prawn pizza anyone?). So it was quite a good thing I’d downloaded the menu in advance and changed my mind umpteen times before going through the options with Andy.

While I was tempted by the Moroccan Lamb and Sausage Duo options we ended up going for Pepperoni, which makes us sound really boring but it was the closest to what we’d normally order (Mexican), which we thought made for a fairer taste test. Crust’s Pepperoni pizza is not just pepperoni and cheese – it’s pepperoni, Spanish onions, green capsicum, ground beef, olive tapenade and garlic with chilli optional (yes please! in our case), all on a tomato base.

Our voucher also included a salad – not something I’d normally even consider ordering from a pizza bar. I’ve got absolutely no benchmarks here (do other pizza bars even offer salads?) but we chose the Greek salad.

Decision making over and done with, we placed the order and were told it would be ready for collection in 20 minutes (Crust does deliver, but we live outside the delivery zone). The Brighton restaurant gets a massive thumbs up for our food being ready when they said it would be. I arrived, picked up the food and left in one swift manoeuvre.

At home, I was most interested in checking out the salad. It was really good! It came in a cardboard box (which was a plus – salads in plastic boxes are all horrible and sweaty) and the salad dressing came in a sachet for us to add to taste. As someone who (generally) loathes salad dressing, this made me happy. The olives in the salad were good quality but best of all was the feta cheese which was really creamy.

On to the pizza – the first thing I noticed was that the crust was considerably better than on most pizzas (including our regular). It was thin and crispy and not at all soggy or heavy. The pizza wasn’t laden with topping, which I liked – I suspect this helps with the crust and also meant that everything was well cooked and the cheese was starting to bubble and caramelise. I was also impressed that the tomato base was evenly spread out and was not sweet. There was also some good heat to the pizza – it wasn’t overwhelming and there was a bit of debate whether it came from the extra chilli or from the pepperoni itself.

Overall, it was the crust that made the pizza for me. That was absolutely a cut above your standard pizza bar pizza.

The downside to all of this pizza goodness is that the pizzas aren’t cheap – the large pizzas are $21 (seafood $22 and the Upper Crust 15″ rectangular pizzas are $24). The large pizza and salad was definitely enough for the two of us for dinner – this would have set us back $30 which is not bad for two people but if you were particularly hungry (or wanted leftovers) you could easily be spending a lot more. But with all things, you do get what you pay for. So if you fancy a decent pizza, you should give Crust a try.

Crust currently has branches in Brighton, Norwood and Unley. You can check out a review of the Norwood Crust over at d bites. There are better photos too … I’m always too hungry for good photography!

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Seven Stars Hotel

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Seven Star HotelPhoto thanks to Scenic Adelaide.

 date of visit: Tuesday 16 August 2011

Often a meal out, especially to a pub, simply involves turning up, ordering a chicken schnitzel parmigiana, eating said schnittie and then going home. There’s not a lot that’s taxing on either side of the hospitality fence. However, I recently volunteered to organise a dinner out for about 20 people with some difficult BYO requirements (everyone would be bringing a bottle and we really needed a set price per head, to make paying easy). Generally, I love organising stuff (that’s why I volunteered) and I find it really interesting seeing how different businesses deal with slightly left of centre requests.

So, I began by ringing around a couple of venues to see what could be done. The first venue, I was told flatly that they don’t ‘do’ BYO. A subsequent venue, even after I’d explained what I was after, wanted to limit BYO to 6 bottles (for 20 people, can you be serious?!) and then grudgingly decided that perhaps they could handle additional bottles … but by this point, they’d lost the customer.

And then I rang the Seven Stars. The last time I went here I would have been in uni and probably on a pub crawl of some sort. But I’ve seen the pub’s name pop up on twitter in a positive context and it rates highly on Urban Spoon so I figured it was a good next step. The first person I spoke to wasn’t sure if they would be able to accommodate my requests but, without any prompting, went off to fetch her manager. He was really helpful and said that it wouldn’t be a problem to accommodate us and he could put together a few menus, with costs, that we could choose from.

Best of all, he was happy to email me this information! When the email arrived, he’d booked us into the hotel’s Courtyard Room and provided four different menu options for us (all inclusive of the BYO charge). I opted for a choice of two entrées from the hotel’s function menu and then a cut down selection from the à la carte menu.

Because the booking experience had been so painless, I encouraged everyone in the group to turn up and have a couple of drinks before dinner. The whole evening ran smoothly – we had spittoons provided, the food was good* (well, I was happy and the people immediately around me were happy – including one person who’d ordered a steak which was cooked to order), and the hotel even provided us with extra glasses. When it came to paying, they were happy to accommodate us paying individually, to save us the hassle of trying to sort out change.

The whole experience made me realise how important service is. The fact that the food was good was just icing on the cake. Most people did turn up early and have a couple of drinks, someone in our group bought a couple of bottles of bubbly mid-way through the meal and plenty of people were ordering coffees when I left. On a quiet (and very wild and wintery) Tuesday night I imagine most pubs in Adelaide would have been quite pleased to have our group spending some money.

And I, for one, will be more than happy to return to the Seven Stars. Thumbs up for a team that obviously knows what it’s doing!

*For the record, I had herb marinated lamb skewers to start, which were nicely juicy and not remotely overcooked as is always the risk with function food, followed by beer battered fish and chips, which were definitely a cut above a standard pub fish and chip dinner.

The Seven Stars on Urbanspoon

Good Food and Wine Show

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Friday week ago I was out in the sun enjoying some nibbles and chatting to Amanda from Lambs’ Ears and Honey, as a guest at the launch of the Adelaide incarnation of the Good Food and Wine Show.

The afternoon began in Rundle Mall, under the canopy at Gawler Place, where we sampled tasty tidbits from South Australian producers such as Beerenberg, Cocolat, Barossa Fine Foods and Carême. I was particularly taken with the Carême chicken pithivier because it’s never occurred to me to make a savoury one. Actually, it’s never occurred to me to make one because my mum makes an awesome traditional one, with a frangipane filling … anyway, that’s an idea to keep stashed away for future reference.

After a bit of banter in the open air, we headed to the Hotel Richmond for drinks and dessert and the launch proper (that’s the speeches!). Alastair McLeod (of Brett’s Wharf in Brisbane, and of Ready, Steady, Cook fame) did the honours and there was a run through of the major sponsors as well as the celebrity chefs who will be present – the star billing this year going to Ainsley Harriott*.

The Good Food & Wine Show also features wine and cheese classes if you fancy something away from the celebrity chefs.

This year’s show runs from 7-9 October at the Showground. Tickets are $20 (that doesn’t include entry ot the Reidel Decanter Bar, which is $55 but does include show entry). I do have 5 vouchers for $5 off entry which I’m happy to post out to the first 5 commenters who have managed to read this far!

* Even if you’re not a fan of his on-screen persona, Harriott’s recipes tend to be very reliable. They’re usually quick, easy and tasty. I’m a fan!