Dinner last Friday was preceded by a flurry of emails - people made suggestions as to where to go, others narrowed it down to the one or two to choose from and by the time I finished work, we'd only managed to get it down to 'Meet at Crows Nest. See you there'. And well, to be the first girl to arrive, a good 15 minutes was then spent walking up and down Pacific Highway with the boys, pressing our faces against the glass windows of restaurants a) to study their menu, b) to work out if they actually had space to fit the 7 of us. At some point, someone announced that 'Mario Brothers' had good pizza and the fact they had empty tables, made it an easy choice.
As you walk in, you pass the ovens, the chefs rolling out dough, the cashier, the coffee machine - tucked at the back are about 8 tables which sit from 2 to 7 people. It's a tad dark at the back but there's air con and there's also the welcoming smell of freshly baked pizza coming from the oven.
Here's one of the starters - Chilli & Garlic Crust. I highly recommend!
Hanging on the walls are pictures of food, pictures of Italy (one assumes), people, and well, it's a bit of mixtape! Anyway, I love how Pizza places have those stands - it sure helps when the table isn't all that big and you've ordered more than enough to fit on the table.
My caption to this photo: K lost in thought about his gf M. Anyway, here's the "Phuket" pizza which was probably my favourite of the night.
J requested we had the Capricciosa - his boss, who's Italian reckons that a Capricciosa is the benchmark of the Italian pizza. I didn't find this one that spectacular - maybe just a bit too much ham and too bland for my liking.
This one the waitress recommended and is on their Special Menu - Roma. It was topped with olives, anchovies, salami - it's definitely one pizza with bite!
Oops!
Another one that the waitress recommended when we sat down - Spaghetti Meatballs. The serving was massive, the meatballs juicy and definitely one I would order again.
I can't decide - this pasta was pretty good too - Gaetanos Spaghetti Gamberoni (a combination of prawns, scallops, garlic, white wine, tomato salse and cream)
Dinner was extremely satisfying and I'd say we got a good taste of Italian food and culture - mid meal, two men sitting on separate tables broke out in song - one started singing, the other echoed his song. I can't remember exactly what they were singing about but it was definitely one interesting experience. Service was extremely friendly with the chef asking us how our meal went. I picked up a takeaway menu at the end of the meal and had the lady at the counter ask 'Do you live nearby?' J answered on my behalf, 'No, but we'll definitely be coming back if we're in the area and feel like pizza'. The lady smiled and truth be told, it is a neat little place serving up some awesome pizza.
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