Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar, Mount Lawley – food bloggers party

What do you get when you throw a pizza party for a bunch of food bloggers?

The pizzarazzi, of course! They stalk and pounce on every pizza that comes out of the kitchen, photographing them from every conceivable angle, then devour them with gusto!

Perth food blogger Michelle of Foodie Cravings and her hubby Joe have opened Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar on Walcott Street in Mount Lawley, right near the corner of Beaufort Street. The store’s been open for just over six weeks now, and a couple of weekends ago, Michelle and Joe threw a food bloggers pizza party. Partners were welcome to attend, so Jac came along with me. We love pizza and were pleased to join the celebration and show our support (mostly by eating everything in sight).

Michelle’s told me there’ll be plenty to eat. We’ll be getting a three-course pizza lunch, so Jac and I have skipped breakfast this morning.

It’s fun to watch our pizzas being made. From the toppings, Jac and I try to guess what pizza is coming up next.

We begin with olive and feta squares and garlic and herb squares, the cheese bubbling hot from the oven. We munch on prosciutto wraps (parmesan and rocket wrapped in prosciutto with balsamic glaze). These are all items on Crust’s “Starters” menu.

I know there’s a lot more eating to be done so I’m carefully pacing myself.

The Mediterranean Lamb pizza is one of my favourites: it’s slow-cooked marinated lamb with tomato, green capsicum, Spanish onions, feta and oregano on a garlic infused base, drizzled with mint yoghurt and garnished with lemon. The tangy mint yoghurt and garlic are especially delicious, as is the hot tender lamb. If you like lamb and tzatziki, you’ll like this pizza.

The Szechuan Chilli Prawn pizza is loaded with prawns flavoured with spicy Szechuan seasoning, fresh capsicum, shallots and bocconcini on a sweet chilli base, garnished with lemon and chopped fresh chilli. I’m impressed by the plump and bursty prawns. I find the heat from the Szechuan seasoning and chilli quite pleasant, but you may not like it so much if you’re a chilli wuss.

Note: in addition to any other cheeses mentioned, all Crust pizzas are topped with 100% Australian mozzarella cheese.

The Vegetarian Supreme is loaded with lots of veggies – grilled eggplant, marinated artichokes, baby spinach, roasted capsicum, mushrooms and sundried tomatoes, with bocconcini on a tomato base, topped with pesto aioli (pesto aioli features on a number of Crust pizzas – that stuff is tasty!). Even I, a proud carnivore, would be happy to order/eat this vegetarian pizza.

The Pesto Chicken Club is Crust’s take on the club sandwich and features marinated chicken breast, bacon, avocado, Spanish onion and tomato, drizzled liberally with pesto aioli and topped with fresh rocket. I love a club sandwich, but I find this pizza quite salty.

I sneak a peek at what’s coming up next – it’s the first of several Upper Crust pizzas, the Peking Duck pizza (now we’re really starting to get “gourmet”!). Upper Crust pizzas come in one size only, a 15-inch rectangle, for AU$24 (the round pizzas come in medium and large).

The Peking Duck pizza features marinated peking duck fillets and steamed bok choy, sprinkled with shallots, sesame seeds and fresh chilli on a hoisin base. I’m not convinced I like hoisin as a pizza sauce nor bok choy as a pizza vegetable, but it tastes pretty good. Eating this makes me crave Peking duck pancakes – haven’t had any for ages.

The Five Spice Pork Belly pizza has a tomato base topped with the five spice-marinated pork belly, fresh pear slices, rocket and crushed walnuts, drizzled with a balsamic glaze. It’s like a Jamie Oliver salad on a pizza. But even the peppery fresh rocket and sweet pear slices cannot disguise the slightly fatty flavour of pork belly – it’s deceptively rich.

The Wagyu Prawn pizza looks like a painting. This fancy surf and turf pizza consists of slices of 4+ marble score Wagyu beef, marinated tiger prawns, fresh asparagus, roasted capsicum and shallots on a tomato base, drizzled with hollandaise sauce and finished with cracked pepper and sea salt. Despite my careful pacing I’m starting to feel very full by now. There may just be enough space for something sweet.

The dessert calzones resemble a giant curry puff or empanada and are extremely sweet and decadent and a meal in themselves. You’ll definitely need friends to share this dessert (and the calories) with.

The Rocky Road calzone has a filling of mud cake, dark and white chocolate, marshmallows and cherries. There’s a Hokey Pokey calzone available too, filled with caramel cake, honeycomb chunks, dark chocolate and whole hazelnuts. Just in case the savoury pizzas weren’t indulgent enough…

WARNING: when fresh out of the oven, the filling (the chocolate especially) is molten hot and runny! Don’t burn yourself or dribble it onto your clothes! Yes… sadly, these words of wisdom have come from experience.

We also enjoy chocolate mousse, cookies and cream mousse and mango sorbet. I love the creamy chocolate mousse but Jac loves the cookies and cream mousse, which has real crushed cookie bits in it.

There were a couple of other pizzas which I didn’t get photos of – Gourmet Smoked Ham and Pineapple (with Brie cheese – absolutely beautiful!) and Peri-Peri Chicken (with peri-peri sauce, another one for spice lovers). My favourites were the Mediterranean Lamb and Vegetarian Supreme. Jac’s favourite was the Szechuan Chilli Prawn.

Michelle and Joe, congratulations on your store and thank you for your generosity in putting on this fantastic party! The food was excellent and the company was awesome. Thank you to your friendly team who looked after us so well.

Crust Pizza Mount Lawley
69 Walcott Street (near Beaufort Street intersection), Mount Lawley, 6050
Telephone: (08) 9227 1288
Gluten-free, wholemeal and vegetarian options are available.
The store has stools/tables to seat up to 10 diners.

Opening Hours
Open 7 days
Sunday, Monday to Thursday 5pm to 10pm
Friday and Saturday 5pm to 10.30pm

Delivery Area
Mount Lawley, North Perth, Inglewood, Maylands, High Gate, Coolbinia, Menora and parts of East Perth, Dianella, Bedford, Bayswater, Perth and West Perth (contact the store to confirm details)

• Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar Mount Lawley Facebook page
• Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar website, including other Crust franchise locations around Australia

Other bloggers’ posts about the pizza party (if you’ve posted your write-up, let me know and I’ll add your link)

• Perth Food Engineers
• Perth Food Journal
• Perthmunchkin
• Simon says eat!

Facebook comments

comments

Mount Lawley, pizza  Like