Espressino Coffee & Pizza Bar, 9 February 2012
68-70 King Street, Melbourne Vic 3000
It’s Thursday, and P and I are both working in the Melbourne CBD so we decide to meet up for a quick lunch. We’re on different ends of Collins St so I tram down to his end, and get off at the corner of Collins/King. My eyes light up at the sight of a vibrant red +39 sign splashed onto the corner of an otherwise dull grey building, and for a moment I’m under the impression that the highly-revered +39 Pizzeria & Degustation is right before my eyes. We’ve been dying to go to this place for ages. But then, P informs me that this is in fact a smaller outlet version of the Age/Epicure-loved Italian eatery. My excitement level falls just a bit, but we’re starving and running out of precious lunch break time so we decide to give the place a go.
We wander through the courtyard of tables and pounce on a couple of businesspeople who happen to be getting up from their completed meal (thank goodness, otherwise we would have been waiting for a table for a while). The place is bustling with locals and suit-clad professionals enjoying some tasty Italian cuisine over their lunch hour, and the place noticeably quietens as the clock gets closer to 2pm.
We self-service ourselves with menus, cutlery and water – the Italian-accented expat waiter takes a while to collect our order (two pizzas, no coffee), and even longer to clear the table (we have to hide the previous diners’ dirty plates on the spare chair). While some might consider the wait staffs’ Italian interjections as overdone and cliche, we find it amusing and refreshing given P speaks Italian and I’ve just completed a term of Italian class. P orders in Italian but the waiter sadly doesn’t seem to appreciate this, though he is friendly.
We wait some time for the pizzas to come out. Obviously the eatery is busy but given how hungry we are/how quickly the lunch hour seems to be passing, the wait time seems longer than average. However, this gives us time to absorb the pleasant surrounds – it’s a great city corner, adorned with many trees and ever so slightly removed from the daily hustle.
We’re also sitting at a polished wooden table engraved with the name of a Victorian country town and brief comment about how that town was affected by the terrible 2009 bushfires; presumably, the wood comes from whatever they could salvage. It’s a nice touch. I question what relevance this has to an otherwise very Italian restaurant, but somehow in the Melbourne CBD it doesn’t seem too out of place.
Finally, our pizzas arrive (we drink a few bottles of water in the meantime).
Salsiccia – tomato, mozzarella, Italian sausage, Porchini mushroom and Parmesan, $18
Capricciosa Italiana – tomato, mozzarella, artichokes, leg ham and mushroom, $13.50
Well, the wait is worth it.
The pizzas we’ve ordered are well-balanced, flavoursome and taste just as good as the photos suggest. There’s something authentically non-fuss about them – they manage to achieve ‘effortlessly gourmet’ status amongst so many other players in the field. The ingredients are also very fresh, and we like the fact that the haphazardly halved olives still feature pips – a true Italian touch. The Salsiccia includes quite a wet tomato-ey base which unfortunately takes away from the fantastically thin, crispy yet chewy crust – but this is mastered on the Capricciosa Italiana pizza.
We chow down the pizzas in record time, and although we demolish just about everything, we would recommend a pizza to share between two (unless you’re seriously starving like we were). We leave the eatery feeling very stuffed indeed, but it doesn’t take long to digest the food and have one’s stomach crying out for more.
The verdict.
Espressino Coffee & Pizza Bar is located in the heart of the business district, and offers a fun and tasty dining experience.
We took minimal points off for the lack of service – but acknowledge that we did visit during the lunch rush, and also for the initially confusing signage which may lead one to think that they’re at the real +39 Pizzeria & Degustation (they’re definitely attempting to milk off the success of their original venture, but we’re not really complaining given how good the pizzas ended up being).
Obviously, the fairest comparison would be to assess the current against the former – stickydates review to come.
Food 4/5 Service 3/5 Ambience 3.5/5 Value 3.5/5 Total 14/20
stickydates 