Come here for: great quality ingredients; amazing cheese
Don't come here: if you are lactose intolerant
I've always been intrigued to visit D O C Pizza and Mozzarella Bar.
Think about it: pizzas basically consist of a base made of flour, water and salt and toppings. So what is the secret to a good pizza? Good quality ingredients, I'd say.
Obviously, the dough needs to be fresh, fluffy and super thin, the oven needs to be right. But no matter how much effort you put into the dough, no pizza can be great with low quality toppings.
Here is a brief definition of D. O. C., or denominazione di origine controllata, written on their menu:
I love my cheese and travel all around town to buy fresh Italian and Spanish cheeses. I also rarely miss the farmers markets selling fresh buffalo mozzarella (so hard to find in Australia for some reason...).Have to say that none of the cheeses that I have bought here so far are as good as this one. The Italians do know a thing or two about their cheese!
We tried the calzone with cow's cheese, which was perfectly creamy, fresh and soft. No stinginess on the cheese either. Although artichokes and ham have quite a strong flavor, they did not overpower the sizable serving of cheese.
Mozzarella Fontina D. O. P., artichoke and ham calzone ($19)Calzone was followed by ham, tomato and buffalo mozzarella pizza. Again, the cheese was amazing, even better than the cow cheese for my taste (I think somehow buffalo milk manages to taste creamier that cow milk without being as fatty).
Tomato, D. O. P. buffalo mozzarella and D. O. P. San Danielle prosciutto pizza ($22.90)I asked one of the waiters where they got their cheese from and he said they buy direct from the importer, who apparently doesn't sell retail. What a shame...
The food was exactly what yo see on the pictures: no frills, no gimmicks, no crazy ingredients or spices. Just plain amazingly good quality ingredients.
I also liked the restaurant's atmosphere. Staff was young, courteous and super Italian - it felt like a cool little modern cantina you would find in Milan.
I love love love buffalo mozzarella! I wish it was a bit easier to find as well, and wish it wasn't so horrendously expensive here. Sometimes though, you just have to lash out and it is ALWAYS worth the expense :)
ReplyDeleteI am italian and being a pizza maker (I worked there for more than 1year and I wnat to say to the writer: Isn't not true that a good pizza doesn't need of effort on the dough!!! the dough is the first thing in a pizza!! Secondly the dough has not to be fresh otherwise doesn't develop all the chemicals that make the dough a good dough), and looking at the picture I can say regard the calzone: The dough is not developed (non lievitata), and if you see on the top and in a side you can see flour which is not good!
ReplyDeleteRegard the San daniele pizza if you see the edge you can see the pizza is burned!!! and the whitness tells you is full of flour used during stretching which means has been made by someone not professional. And then the qauntity of bufala is really poor for a 22.90 pizza. Before posting something please be informed.
Hi Conor - good mozzarella is worth the eventual splurge!
ReplyDeleteAnonimous pizza maker - I have never made pizza dough before, so I judge the pizzas I eat based on the way they taste rather than on the technical process. As I said in the post, obviously the dough is important. But you can ruin a good dough with bad quality toppings, and that is what I often see happening in Melbourne. I welcome your technical comments on the dough, but disagree with your comment on poor quality bufala mozzarella - it tasted great and super fresh. One question for you: which pizzeria would you suggest as best quality dough in Melbourne?
unfortunately I couldn't taste all the italian pizzeria in melbourne but 400 degrees is a good pizza dough and good topping. Another good place is +39 but somethimes the dough is not the best due the bad organization (the dough somethimes is not full developed), and the problem is the oven (moretti forni) which is electric and not woodfired (on my opinion the best is woodfire). About the bufala in doc, the mozzarella is not fresh but frozen and unfortunately due to huge distance here is really difficult to find fresh bufala (you can find for example to enoteca sileno but the cost is unaffordable).At the moment I think the best pizzeria in melbourne is 400 degrees.
ReplyDeleteJust a little note - as an avid lover of pizza and lactose intolerant DOC is perfect for me as bufallo mozzarella is lactose free (lactose is in cows milk only)
ReplyDeleteDOC is great but having experienced the joys of food poisoning two years ago (hospitalized), I would rather see the guys adding the buffalo mozzarella wearing gloves, and not cutting the San Daniele proscuitto directly onto their hand (plate would be nice) and sticking by hand onto the already cooked pizza for customers to eat. The ovens kills all bacteria but using bare hands straight to the table makes me think back to my near death experience and takes away the enjoyment of the fresh quality ingredients. If the food handler is carrying something like Hep A and hasn't washed his hands, GOD help us all! Perhaps don't order anything with the yummy proscuitto or buffalo mozzarella to be safe. Guys please wear gloves or use plates and tongs to add uncooked toppings!
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteNice blog i like it about melbourne restaurant thanks for this blog
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