Italian’s love their pizza and cured meats, so it was time to check out Gradi at the Crown Casino and see how their pizza compared to some of our other favourites in Melbourne. With several locations throughout the city, they must be doing something right!
ATMOSPHERE & SERVICE
Not just another pizza place, this new comer to the Crown Casino Melbourne has brought a modern take on traditional Italian staples, pizza & cured meats. Walking in, there are two over sized pizza ovens, hanging meats and a large bowl of mozzarella to give you the full vision on what’s to come once seated.
The fit out is modern, with chic lighting fixtures, large wooden tables and chairs and a Venetian-style bar with rustic wine rack spanning up to the ceiling. They have done a fantastic job to make walking into the restaurant feel like you are walking straight into Italy.
Johnny Di Francesco, the mastermind behind the Gradi name has taken the award for ‘World’s Best Pizza’ so knew we were definitely in for a tasty meal. The service matched the food, impeccable and flawless. The hostess and waiter were both friendly and welcoming, giving wonderful recommendations to the food and wine.
FOOD
Wanting to order everything on the menu, the decision was quite difficult to only pick an entree and few pizza’s for us to share. We decided to start with a selection of salumi, served on top of a thin wafer of Sardinian bread. Our salumi selection consisted of Salame felino, Mornello 18mth, Secretum 30mth, Hot cacciatori and buffalo mozzarella. It was the perfect selection, served with a generous portion of mozzarella drizzled with EVOO.
Traveling through Italy, our two most ordered pizza’s were the Capriccios and the Diavola. So thought we’d order the same pizza’s and see if they lived up to the real Italian traditions. The Capricciosa was made with San Marzano tomato, fior di latte, artichokes, olives, leg ham and mushrooms on a beautiful, slightly sweet crust. The ingredients were fresh and not over powering. I hate ordering pizza and they have covered the pizza with way to much ingredients that everything just slides off.
This is one of Gradi’s most ordered pizza’s and I can definitely see why!
We also ordered the Diavola with San Marzano tomato, fior di latte, hot salami, rocket. Again another winner for us! It was simple, with minimum ingredients. I was hoping for the salami to be a bit hotter than it was, however still amazing!
