Saturday, October 22, 2011

Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar

C says:

With the opening of the Circle Line in our neck of the woods, Holland Village is now just a short train ride away and we can do away with the nightmarish parking that put us off dining at Holland V for some time.

We took our first ride on Saturday evening and tried Crust, located on Lorong Mambong just opposite Wala Wala. Crust is apparently an institution in Australia, and the opening of the Holland V store in August last year was their first international expansion. They pride themselves on serving healthier gourmet pizzas made with fresh ingredients. They have gluten-free bases available, and in Australia they’ve won multiple awards for their healthier offerings.

Immediately, healthy pizza to me sounds like an oxymoron, but if the pizzas here at Crust are supposed to be healthier, then sign me up for more, please. I was extremely impressed with all the flavours that we tried tonight. We each ordered a regular pizza, and for more variety we asked for half-and-half.


I had the Sausage Duo and the Wild Mushroom. The Sausage Duo has a tomato base and comes with both Italian and chorizo sausage, caramelised onion and roasted red peppers. This tasted the most like a generic pizza, though I was a bit thrown off by the sweetness of the peppers and onions.

The Wild Mushroom was really good – probably the best meat-less pizza I’ve ever had. It had wild mushrooms, asparagus and pine nuts on a béchamel sauce based, topped with truffle oil and shaved parmesan. The flavours went amazingly well; even the pine nuts added a nice nutty touch.


A ordered the Moroccan Lamb and the White Proscuitto. The lamb was a winner – slices of marinated lamb, red onion and baby spinach, topped with mint yogurt and a squeeze of fresh lemon. This tasted like a really good kebab. Best flavour of the night.

The White Proscuitto was interesting. Again a béchamel base, topped with sliced roasted potatoes, prosciutto, gorgonzola and fresh rosemary. The prosciutto used was quite salty and tasted almost like pancetta, but eaten together with the rest of the toppings, I thought this was pretty good in a unique, not your typical pizza way.

One of the best parts of the pizzas here is the crust. I think they dust the base with corn meal or something, because there’s a texture and a crunch to the crust that I’ve never had elsewhere, even with the thinnest crust pizzas.

The only downside is that there’s no indoor seating. There are limited tables that are under a few fans, that we managed to snag cos we were early. It wasn’t as busy as I would expect, for pizzas this good. They do takeout as well, and delivery to limited areas near Holland V. They’ve also opened a second outlet at Upper Thomson. I don’t think enough buzz has been generated about them, which is a pity because they’re a lot better than the substandard pizzas that are all too prevalent out there.

A says:

Not exactly cheap, but a very good selection of toppings. I recommend going early and getting a seat nearer the counter/away from the road.

Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar
34B Lorong Mambong
Tel: 6467-2224
Mon to Thurs: 5 pm – 10.30 pm
Fri & Sat: 5 pm - 1 am
Sun: 5 pm – 11 pm
www.crustpizza.com.sg

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's semolina, if you were curious. Gives the pizza more texture, and creates (a lot) less mess than flour too :)

atetoomuch said...

Oh! Thanks for enlightening us! :)

Anonymous said...

they also poke holes in the crust to allow air in. I was lucky enough to see the chef do it for us. My photos of the chef teaching us how to make the pizza will be out on my site on friday!