Zucchini Bros Pizzas

As promised, since my last review, my friends and I have managed to try five different pizzas from Zucchini Bros (dining-in and taking-away twice respectively). We could have actually tried more than just five of their pizzas, but as always, we discovered a few favourites very early on, couldn't get enough of them and then just kept ordering the same thing!

The thing that sets their pizzas apart from the rest is that their ingredients are more finely minced or chopped and in smaller pieces than other pizzas. Not only does this allow the flavours and textures to be more evenly distributed throughout the pizza, but it also alleviates the problem of toppings slipping off the slice - which often occurs with pizzas topped with large pieces of ham, pepperoni, etc. Ah, gone are the days of slices with just half a disc of pepperoni on either side and a couple of pieces of olives here and there. Now I can enjoy the taste of every single ingredient that is meant to be on the pizza, on every slice! Very clever Zucchini Bros.

#3 - Mexican beef, bacon, capsicum, jalapeno and oregano: Tried this one first with C and S and it was an immediate hit. Spicy and incredibly tasty. I love the almost earthy, spicy flavour of the minced beef and the sharp saltiness of the bacon.

#7 -  4 Cheese – mozzarella, blue, parmesan, cream cheese and oregano: D-the-cheese-fiend's favourite. Very cheesey, rich and tasty. I can only have one slice, but turophiles like S and D will probably have no problem polishing it off.

#8 - Bacon, anchovy, mushroom, black olive and oregano: Again, love the saltiness of the bacon and anchovies, balanced out by the mellow flavours of the mushrooms. Delicious.

#12 - Salami, ham, mushroom, tomato and oregano (sorry no photo): One of the lighter, cleaner tasting pizzas. Milder, but still tasty. 

#18 - Smoked salmon, cream cheese, tomato, red pepper and oregano (sorry no photo): A bit too rich and cheesey for me. The textures of the ingredients were also a bit too similar, i.e. soft, mushy. OK, but not one of my favourites.

I should also mention that our favourite ZB pasta is on the 'specials' menu and is served with prawns, spinach/asparagus and peas in lemon butter. It is the same one I wrote about in the first review, but when asparaguses are not in season, they substitute it with spinach and the freshness and sweetness that the spinach brings to the dish is just divine. Don't know why it's not on the main menu even though I've seen it on their specials menu since Dec 2010.

Zucchini Bros.

292 Highgate

Roslyn

Dunedin

Ironic

It irks me when the dining experience at a place that I intend to review is neither good nor bad. It's just uninspiring. I find it difficult to get motivated to write about it and then when I force myself, it inevitably turns out to be a dull exercise with boring results. That is why I am only writing about Ironic now, when the brunches that I will be talking about actually happened months ago. I just want to get it out of the way, so this is going to be quick and dirty.

Fresh pancakes with bacon, banana & maple syrup (sorry, no pic): Nice hearty serving of pancakes drenched in maple syrup, with lots of banana and bacon. Nothing extraordinary, but good nonetheless.

Garlic Loaf: Nice and buttery and garlicky. Very tasty, but I am not crazy about hard breads, so this was a tad too hard and dense for me.

Ironic handmade prime lamb burger, smoked cheese, spicy tomato relish & aioli in toasted olive & rosemary bread with hand cut fries: The juicy, succulent patty covered with melted cheese, accompanied with lettuce, fresh slices of tomato, bright tasting relish and tasty aioli was excellent. The over toasted, rock hard bun was definitely not and marred what would have been a thoroughly good burger. An awful let down. The fries (on this occasion) were decent.

Pappadelle chicken pasta with spinach, served in a stunning tomato cream sauce finished with roasted pine nuts & freshly shaved parmesan cheese: S's comments - "Good, liked the flavours of the chicken and the pine nuts. Sauce was just okay." ...and not so stunning after all.

Mushroom Soup (of the day) - This was S's dish and I don't remember her saying anything memorable about this. I am sure that if I am mistaken, she will correct me when she reads this.

Fish of the day in a light speights beer batter served with hand cut fries & salad: The fish was unremarkable and the pieces were way too small for $25.00. The salad was somewhat soggy, but the fries were the absolute worst. Under seasoned, undercooked, dense and chalky. Shockingly bad and categorically the worst fries that I've had in a long, long time. 

Ironic Cafe and Bar 
9 Anzac Avenue 
Dunedin