APPLECROSS Pizza are the Led Zeppelin of the pizza world.
The owners aren’t cavorting with mudsharks, groupies and using cocaine instead of flour to make their dough, but their pizzas are “heavy” – each slice piled high with cheese and toppings in a molten celebration of artery-clogging hedonism.
The base is reasonably light, but the top half is brazen Aussie (traditional Italian pizzas don’t have many toppings and the base is super thin).
On the plus side it’s great value for money and each slice is extremely filling and tasty, but purists might balk at the “it goes to 11” pizza making.
Applecross Pizza are clearly doing something right and have been around for years with sister stores in Nedlands and Cambridge.
• Like a Led Zeppelin concert, there are no holds barred on an Applecross Pizza.
I was first introduced to their pizza while having a jam at my friend’s house in Palmyra – it was the perfect robust snack for four blokes guzzling craft beer and massacring Stairway to Heaven (yes we did). But how would they fare midweek with my family when I was sober?
The menu had a nice range of classic and premium pizzas with everything from meatlovers, Hawaiian, Aussie and Sicilian to the more refined pancetta and pear, garlic prawn, Spanish and Portuguese.
It was a nice menu that had a few interesting twists and turns without veering too far away from the classic formula.
I often get bored slogging my way through one pizza, so I was happy they had a half/half option, where you could choose different toppings for each half of the pizza.
They should also be applauded for doing three pizza sizes – 10”, 13” and 15” (family), giving you flexibility when ordering.
You can phone for pick-up or they deliver to the surrounding suburbs including Alfred Cove, Melville and Willagee.
It must be one of the last takeaways that has its own online ordering system instead of using a third party like Uber Eats or DoorDash.
It wasn’t long before the man with the Applecross Pizza livery was banging on my screen door.
We ordered two half/half premium pizzas ($23.90 each) – Spanish/Spring Chicken and Garlic Prawn/Greek Vegetarian.
The standout was the Spanish – a beautiful medley of sundried tomatoes, Spanish chorizo sausage, garlic, sliced tomato and artichokes.
All the ingredients were top notch and there was a subtle, sweet refrain to the pizza from the Spanish chorizo and tabasco sauce.
A really enjoyable pizza and different from what you would get elsewhere, especially the use of tabasco.
Coming a close second was the Garlic Prawn, a refreshing mix of garlic prawns, sliced tomato, capers, cracked black pepper and fresh rocket.
After all those strong flavours on the Spanish, the rocket helped refresh my palate and the capers really got my taste buds zinging.
In a vague attempt to be reasonably healthy, the Greek Vegetarian was a hit with a nice assortment of sliced zucchini, onion, garlic, sliced tomato, feta cheese, kalamata olives and herbs.
The olives were lovely and the feta wasn’t too salty, so you weren’t reaching for the water every two seconds.
The Spring Chicken didn’t quite reach the same heights with its mix of chook, sun dried tomato, rosemary, pumpkin and feta, but maybe it got overpowered with all the bullish flavours in the Spanish.
My two young kids shared an Aussie (tomato, bacon and cheese $19.90) and wolfed it down no problem with the large being the perfect size.
The pizzas are super tasty and great value with a 15” family classic only $23.90.
If you like your pizzas like a Led Zeppelin concert – bold, brash and full-on then Applecross Pizza will be right up your alley.
Applecross Pizza
36 Kearns Crescent, Applecross
applecrosspizza.com
by STEPHEN POLLOCK