Crust Pizza in Canberra?

Jurls said :

#41 agreed!!!

Having recently lived in New Zealand, I am seriously missing my Hell’s Pizza!! One of the biggest things I miss are the sides, lemon pepper wedges, corn nuggets, which I’d always get to accompany my pizza… mmmmmmmmm my idea of Heaven….

Hells Pizza? Pizza Hut/Domino’s style pizza, with even crappier advertising (think inappropriate racist comments – with suitably ‘who us’ refuting…) TG we don’t have Hell’s here – give me Crust any day….

Funky1 said :

Look nothing like the pictures on their website. There is small text at the bottom of the page which says “Pizza images enhanced for presentation purposes” but still a little disappointing.

Tasted OK, but not that much different to a Dominos or Pizza Hut.

Definitely agree with you there. I got a meatball pizza one night and was really disappointed with the tiny meatballs I received rather than the huge ones they advertise.

I normally just read stuff in the mornings and usually keep replies to myself, because it’s likely I will be in my own world and stuff up or something.

I should stick to that..

I think I may’ve meant #52 not Woody’s post at #51 for the review but I did enjoy Woody’s post for making me laugh and making sense (is that legal?).

Tried Crust for the first time on the weekend. Wanted to order from the Erindale store but they don’t deliver to the Woden area so had to drive down any collect them.

Look nothing like the pictures on their website. There is small text at the bottom of the page which says “Pizza images enhanced for presentation purposes” but still a little disappointing.

Tasted OK, but not that much different to a Dominos or Pizza Hut.

Jurls said :

#41 agreed!!!

Having recently lived in New Zealand, I am seriously missing my Hell’s Pizza!! quote]

Sounds like my kind of pizza..

#51 – Woody, very much enjoyed your little review. Shame about that though.

#49 – Holden, which store was yours from?

We were personally wondering whether to try the one at Belconnen the other week, so all this is most helpful. Thanks!

Tried Crust at Erindale on Friday night. The pizzas are better than Dominos and Pizza Hut, but that isn’t saying a lot really. These guys need more time sort themselves out in so far as:
-The online ordering wasn’t working so I had to ring through an order
-The girl who took my order wasn’t the least bit interested to know that online ordering wasn’t working
-The girl who took my order needed me to repeat my address four times and my order three times. She spent at least 3 minutes looking for one of the pizzas in the system, to the point where I had to suggest that she ask someone else at the shop to show her where to find it.
-The delivery driver rang from down the road, the girl had still managed to get the address wrong. I gave him the correct address and told him how to get here, mentioning that I had left a light on for him out the front.
-Five minutes later the delivery driver still wasn’t here, I rang back the number he called from and get no answer. Boyfriend heads down the road and finds the guy trying to deliver the pizzas to another house.
-Eventually get pizzas home and discover that one of them was not what we ordered.
-Given frustration with the process so far I wasn’t happy to let that go, so I rang the shop and asked to speak to the manager. The same girl again asks twice if i want pickup or delivery before she realises that I am asking to speak to the manager.
-Manager comes on the phone and he seems pretty sensible. Acknowledges that a mistake was made and offers to send the correct pizza to the correct address. It arrives 40 minutes later as promised and is tasty enough for mass-produced delivered pizza (as above, better than Pizza Hut and Dominos)

So, a frustrating experience for pizza that is not really that amazing. Perhaps once all the staff are trained properly and the dead wood is weeded out it will improve. Props to the manager for appropriately dealing with the customer. No props to the telephone girl or the delivery driver.

Wow, that recipe for pizza dough posted above is ridiculously complex.

Yeah, putting flour, salt, yeast and water in a bowl, letting it sit for a bit, kneading it a little then chucking it in the fridge is really hard. I much prefer your simple recipe, which requires putting flour, salt, yeast, oil and water in a bowl, kneading it a lot, letting it sit for a lot then chucking it in the fridge.

I think it’s the extra, totally unnecessary ingredient, futilely trying to work gluten in an unhydrated dough instead of letting the dough do its own thing and much longer waiting time that makes it so much easier. And the total lack of oven spring in the crust because you’ve let it double in size, exhausted the gluten, then rolled it flat like roadkill? Genius.

I bet it’s great topped with nettles picked from the driveway of your local morris dancing hall, the greening breasts of a pheasant left to hang til its head drops off and some rustic cheese made from Hugh’s earwax, then baked over a fire of peat and wild harvested seaweed at your county fair. You’re reading this in his voice right now. I’m on a horse.

#41 agreed!!!

Having recently lived in New Zealand, I am seriously missing my Hell’s Pizza!! One of the biggest things I miss are the sides, lemon pepper wedges, corn nuggets, which I’d always get to accompany my pizza… mmmmmmmmm my idea of Heaven….

I had my first Crust dinner tonight, it was a Peri Peri. Bloody nice too.

Thank you RiotACT!

As I reinhale a belch from the second last slice of a large Crust peri peri chicken pizza, my thoughts:

Meh. Maybe the one on the northside is better, because this was pretty ordinary. Got there at 4:30 to beat any rush. With one person ahead of us ordering two medium pizzas and 12 people out the front plus more out the back I was pretty confident when they said ’15 minutes’. Medium Hawaiian for the sprogs, large peri peri for us.

12 minutes later the people in front of us got their pizza. Out came a medium Hawaiian. Somebody looked at us funny, then scrambled with some guy who looked like Jimbo from The Simpsons (complete with hat, dude), who scrambled with somebody else who hurriedly started making what turned out to be our peri peri. Not surprisingly, by the time it was ready the Hawaiian was cold. Hungry kids, now 5:00 so said fuggit and headed home.

It’s not greasy or soggy, and the portions were generous, but that’s about the best I can say. The base is on the dry side and doesn’t taste that much different to a $5 Dominos thin and crispy sold twenty meters away. The crust was like a Salada. The fresh touches like spring onion lifted the flavour a bit, but overall, it was pretty uninspiring. Next time I’ll get a much larger large chicken pizza from Erindale Takeaway over the road for $15 and ask him to throw some peri peri sauce over the top, or just add it myself at home with a bottle of Nandos.

And get hair nets, you grubs.

no-one has mentioned pizza arte, or whatever it is called, in kingston. sensational pizzas. and, if you’re up for a bit of a drive, cork street cafe in gundaroo. best in canberra region.

apart from home made delights, of course.

goose said :

The best Pizza in town is from: PLAKA PIZZA – http://www.plaka.com.au/takeaway.html

🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

Forgot about this gold mine.. definitely excellent Pizza!.. but unfortunately haven’t been for years.

I stopped by Chapman shops a month or so ago and the Pizza from the takeaway there was definitely worth a second go!

ConanOfCooma said :

Grail said :

$20 for a gourmet pizza is cheaper than $700 for a pizza oven you only use four times a year 🙂

$10 for a pizza stone is half the price of a takeaway pizza, and you can re-use it over, and over, and… Well, you get the picture.

Yeah but it wont cook the pizza anywhere near as good as a pizza over, trust me I’ve tried… So I bought a pizza over, with a bread maker pizza is simple and easy to make, yeah it might only cost $3-4 to make, but to have someone else make a pizza and make it well while you wait is great!

That Pizza Place on London Cct is a great feed, maybe just because they are the only place to do 18inch pizza’s….

Reply

Grail said :

$20 for a gourmet pizza is cheaper than $700 for a pizza oven you only use four times a year 🙂

$10 for a pizza stone is half the price of a takeaway pizza, and you can re-use it over, and over, and… Well, you get the picture.

For those of us in the deep south – with fewer options for good pizza it is great to at least have a choice of something other than the cardboard brigade. At the moment if you want something else APK in Woden is the closest for anything better. So I can’t wait to try Crust – A friend had one the other day and raved about it and the reviews here confirm it might be worth the extra $$.

When will will this Kiwi franchise open up in Canberra?

https://www.hellpizza.com.au/

joeyjo said :

I’m surprised Debacle hasn’t been mention in a discussion about gourmet pizza in Canberra. Crust is ok, but Debacle is definitely better.

The problem with Debacle is the crust – this, rather than toppings, is where the art of pizzamaking lies and the Debacle crust has nowhere near enough flavour. Not enough salt nor sugar, it just tastes like flour.

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

$20 for a gourmet pizza is cheaper than $700 for a pizza oven you only use four times a year

If anybody’s looking for a way to make great pizza in an ordinary electric oven, I highly recommend Jeff Varasono’s recipe (warning – pizza porn, may cause uncontrollable urge to eat pizza). The actual recipe is quite simple – there’s just a lot (a lot) of supporting info to go with it! Obviously you’ll get best results in an oven with superhot clean cycle and some careful rigging of the safety lock, but they’re still fantastic with your oven at its highest temp for an hour with a pizza stone. His tips on sauce are great too – couldn’t believe the difference rinsing tinned tomatoes made.

You are definitely on the money with the Pizza porn call. I felt positively filthy/hungry at those pics. And, as stated, I now need Pizza.

Crust is pretty good and the pick of the bunch for that style of pizza, the thickish base with loads of topping ‘australianised’ pizza – or maybe it was ‘americanized’ first. (that is, they’re unashamedly not aiming for the italian pizza napolitana syle, thin base with just a few good quality toppings cooked really hot like in a wood fired oven, there are some good ones of those elsewhere)

The best ones to get from them are the ones with lots of ingredients and flavours, the simple ones are a bit bland. The wholemeal base is a nice touch, makes them both a bit lighter and more substantial. Their calzones are good too.

#11 etc. yes earth ‘n sea was in byron bay at least as recently as a couple of years ago – wow that was great pizza! Same sort of style loaded with toppings.

Mothy said :

* Philly Steak – avoid, wasn’t great.

Everything is obviously personal taste but I had one of these a few hours ago and thought it was fantastic.

I’m surprised Debacle hasn’t been mention in a discussion about gourmet pizza in Canberra. Crust is ok, but Debacle is definitely better.

Wow, that recipe for pizza dough posted above is ridiculously complex. Look, it’s originally street food. People walk past the pizza shops in Italy and buy a piece or two at a time from the window or the counter to chomp on while they’re on the go.

I like gourmet sourdough pizzas too, but if you’re spending a WEEK to get your dough ready and expecting to get temps of 800F from a domestic oven, come on. This recipe works well for most purposes: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/05/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall-pizza. The dough can keep for a while in the fridge and used bit by bit. And the quarry tile really does work, as does a terracotta pot plant saucer.

they also do some sort of promo on twitter. i used to wonder what it was, now I know… and its around the corner from me.

pity I am on a health kick!

I agree, Crust is pretty good for a commercial pizza. Nice menu, quality ingredients. Though I also caught the olive pip on my pizza. I’ve heard two other reports as well about the Potatos being underdone. I’d go back there again.

I’ve had the Peri=Peri Chicken and the Meateater ones and they are very nice.

Still prefer the pizzas from Hawker takeaway and they are $17 or so.

Dominos, Pizza Hut etc are just about inedible – although for $5 I can manage to force down a pepperoni … not much they can do to stuff that up.

I have had the Peking Duck and the Moroccan Lamb – both really tasty, but I’m not sure they were worth the $23 each.

Have to agree with Clown Killer, the best pizza in Canberra, by far, is done by Italian and Sons. If you’re prepared to pay $20plus on a pizza already, forget the dross at Crust and book a table at Italian and Sons. And you can wash it down with some fine Sangiovese ! Just don’t expect fast service, but then again, how is that different to waiting an hour for Crust to deliver?

I am left wondering what “prefabricated” might mean in terms of Dominos and Pizza Hut. Sure, they send pre-proportioned pizza dough flour to the shop, but everyone who has home cooked a pizza knows you have to let the dough rise overnight! You want it pre-fabricated. If anything, the flaw with Dominos is that their dough is too sweet, Pizza Hut is too salty/oily, and both don’t let the dough rise anywhere near long enough (the cooked crust is heavy).

sBest ever pizza in Canberra was the Parakeet pizza joint at the Ainslie shops in the 1980s … anyone remember Ferris’s “nuclear pizza” with a “mushroom cloud” in the middle, and “nuclear fallout” all over it? : )

You are kidding aren’t you? Hawaiian is the standard unit of measurement. The baseline. The one pizza on the menu by which all others from the same venue are measured. Some people just have no sense of culture, LOL 😉

I still haven’t worked out how an olive pit managed to make its way onto the Hawaiian though …

Antagonist said :

I wasn’t impressed at all. I ordered a Hawiian last night. Waaay too much pizza sauce on the base. Chipped a tooth on an olive pip (go figure that one out!) SFA ham. Cheese was bland and bordering on insipid … most gourmet pizza outlets use a blend of cheeses rather than just boring old Mozarella. I’ll be sticking to APK and La Porcetta.

Perhaps my expectations from a gourmet pizza outlet are unreasonable … or I just got a dud???

I think the problem here is ordering Hawaiian in the first place, let alone from a ‘Gourmet’ Pizza place 😉

The best Pizza in town is from: PLAKA PIZZA – http://www.plaka.com.au/takeaway.html

🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

Mothy said :

* Satay Chicken – a SPICY satay, you’ve been warned. But my outright favorite. Good quality shredded chicken versus that prefab stuff you find on a Dominos or Pizza hut pizza.

I had the Satay Chicken from the Braddon Crust about a week ago, and while it was very tasty (a lot better than Pizza Hut & Dominos) mine wasn’t spicy at all… it was the only disappointing thing about the experience.

+1 for Pizza Capers in Kippax. I had pesto chicken fettucini from Capers that was pretty good for a takeaway joint, but the other half had a margherita pizza with added prawns that he said was great. My parents have also been there and recommend the Raja and the Thai Barramundi & Prawn pizzas.

Clown Killer said :

I don’t think they do take-away, but the pizzas at Italian & Sons in Braddon are excellent.

If you’ve got enough money to ignore the prices.

Hopefully Zeffs will lift their game since Crust opened in Belco. I have noticed Zeffs have new signage so they must be noticing some kind of an effect.

Crust is OK but not amazing, definitely better than Dominos though.

The missus and I discovered Crust on a trip to Melbourne a few years ago and were instantly hooked. Imagine our delight when Crust finally opened in the city.

I love the Philly Steak, Peri Peri, Florentine Ricotta and Mediterranean Lamb. The Samosa calzone is also very yummy. Capricossa is great as well, but as someone’s mentioned, I’ve hit an olive pit in one before.

Agreed on the delivery times from Braddon, they’re a joke sometimes. You’re better off walking/driving down and picking them up 15-20 minutes after you’ve ordered.

Kath said :

Also, their chocolate mouse is made with mostly cream and is highly fatal!

Mostly cream with just a few mice?

I’ve been very happy with the crust pizzas, but unimpressed by the delivery times / reliability from the Braddon store.

I don’t think they do take-away, but the pizzas at Italian & Sons in Braddon are excellent.

$20 for a gourmet pizza is cheaper than $700 for a pizza oven you only use four times a year

If anybody’s looking for a way to make great pizza in an ordinary electric oven, I highly recommend Jeff Varasono’s recipe (warning – pizza porn, may cause uncontrollable urge to eat pizza). The actual recipe is quite simple – there’s just a lot (a lot) of supporting info to go with it! Obviously you’ll get best results in an oven with superhot clean cycle and some careful rigging of the safety lock, but they’re still fantastic with your oven at its highest temp for an hour with a pizza stone. His tips on sauce are great too – couldn’t believe the difference rinsing tinned tomatoes made.

Grail said :

$20 for a gourmet pizza is cheaper than $700 for a pizza oven you only use four times a year 🙂

Nice perspective 🙂

Have been to Crust (Belconnen) 4 times now. Just fell together that way after catch-ups with different groups all nominated “that new Pizza joint in Belconnen” as their choice for dinner. Has been a good chance to sample the menu.

These guys aren’t going to set the cullinary world on fire. But it’s pizza, its a comfort food, I’m not looking for white linen table cloths and a wine menu. They serve up good pizza made with fresh ingredients in an open kitchen and it delivers what you expect. There’s none of the prefabricated base nonsense Dominos, Pizza Hut and Eagle Boys have fallen into. This stuff is good.

The philosophy is a take-out joint. The Belconnen store at least is not structured for eating in and the tables provided are a token gesture to it. Be prepared to take this stuff home.

Note: These guys are BUSY. Order ahead (online) and you should be fine, and it allows you to nominate what time you will come to pick it up. That only went badly once, but what do you expect from a Friday night. Have never gone with the delivery option, so cant comment there. On Pizza’s;

* Satay Chicken – a SPICY satay, you’ve been warned. But my outright favorite. Good quality shredded chicken versus that prefab stuff you find on a Dominos or Pizza hut pizza.

* Philly Steak – avoid, wasn’t great.

* Meat Deluxe – A good meaty pizza.

* BBQ (actually BBQ Chicken – Very good.

* Roast Potato and Pumpkin – the pumpkin is actually a pumpkin sauce, under thinly cut layers of potato. Could have done that better.

* Shepherds Pie – Yes, we had to order it. It sounded odd, it was odd, but in a good way. Some debate held over whether the potato on top was of the Deb packet variety. But the pizza underneath was nice even if you just scrape that right off.

Also can reccomend the Mousse.

Crust is the best in canberra for pizzas (other than homemade of course). Especially the healthy tick pizzas!

OzChick said :

Pizza Capers has just opened up in Kippax, Holt. They have awesome gourmet pizzas too.

http://www.pizzacapers.com.au/

Best news i’ve heard all week!

Godot – completely offtopic, but I believe the Earth & Sea pizza people shifted north to Noosa. Never tried it, but that was the story I heard when I was up that way.
OzChick – Capers is the one I was thinking when I mentioned Brisbane having better pizza than Canberra. If it’s as good as the ones up north, I’ll be glad to see it spread through Canberra too. Their reef & beef pizza with hollandaise sauce is a weird combination of ingredients, but is the best pizza I’ve ever had.

I wasn’t impressed at all. I ordered a Hawiian last night. Waaay too much pizza sauce on the base. Chipped a tooth on an olive pip (go figure that one out!) SFA ham. Cheese was bland and bordering on insipid … most gourmet pizza outlets use a blend of cheeses rather than just boring old Mozarella. I’ll be sticking to APK and La Porcetta.

Perhaps my expectations from a gourmet pizza outlet are unreasonable … or I just got a dud???

Aurelius said :

Since returning to Canberra from Brisbane, I’ve noticed that there’s two categories of food where Canberra loses out to Brisbane – pizza, and fish & chips. Canberra blitzes every other category, especially the Asian styles of restaurants.
Crust rectifies one of Canberra’s weaknesses, coz their pizza is pretty awesome.
Their peri peri chicken pizza is especially nice.

The best pizza I ever tasted was at Earth and Sea Pizza in Byron Bay, January 1985. I haven’t been to Byron since. No doubt Earth and Sea is now long gone as the town transformed into a millionaire’s playground over the following years (thanks for nothing Hoges and Strop).

$20 for a gourmet pizza is cheaper than $700 for a pizza oven you only use four times a year 🙂

They’re very, very nice. I’ve had a few from the Belconnen shop and the only one that didn’t work for me was one with ‘baked’ potato on it (it wasn’t cooked long enough, though it might have been a one-off). If you’re cashed up and going to get takeaway pizza anyway (as a treat, rather than a 2-minute noodle alternative), it’s very good. The larger size was too much for me and my hubby to get through.

Also, their chocolate mouse is made with mostly cream and is highly fatal!

Definitely one of the best takeaway Pizza places around

Hrm. I thought this was just the Italian Grill under a different name. Will check it out tomorrow. Best pizza in Canberra is quite a claim!

sensational pizza. give the chinese roast duck one a go – best pizza I have had in a long time

Since returning to Canberra from Brisbane, I’ve noticed that there’s two categories of food where Canberra loses out to Brisbane – pizza, and fish & chips. Canberra blitzes every other category, especially the Asian styles of restaurants.
Crust rectifies one of Canberra’s weaknesses, coz their pizza is pretty awesome.
Their peri peri chicken pizza is especially nice.

Maybe I’m just a skinflint but I can make a nicer pizza at home for $5. I guess Crust is ok if you have money to burn but in all honesty they aren’t that much better than Zeff’s IMHO.

Pizza Capers has just opened up in Kippax, Holt. They have awesome gourmet pizzas too.

http://www.pizzacapers.com.au/

They certainly are. They aren’t top shelf, but they are the best pizza I’ve had in Canberra, and I’ve been looking for years =/

They’ve been around since late last year. And yes, their pizzas (especially the gourmet ones) are very, very, very nice.

Cheap delivery too – around $2 (if I remember correctly) if you live it inner north.