1 Decent and 1 unusual (blueberry!) Pizza at Pizza di Pane
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| Pizza di Pane |
The street perpendicular to my cooking school is slowly becoming hip. There is a chocolate cafe aptly named the "Chocolate Cafe" across from the Rice Cake Museum. The Chocolate Cafe makes...chocolate that is brown and shiny- sorta like the chocolate bunnies you would get during easter. There is also bakery that makes mediocre bread and a cafe that serves...coffee. Ok, it's not a culinary gem yet, but it's in the state of development. There is a Nescafe that has opened on the corner and a Family Mart as well. On the main street are some decent Korean restaurants such as Jongro BBQ Bossam, and several Korean raw fish restaurants. Adjacent to the main streets are where the food shines. Here you get authentic pork (garmaeggisal) restaurants and there is also a very famous knife-cut noodle shop as well.
The other new addition to this street is a pizza shop named Pizza di Pane. The place is cute. It has a nice interior, a porch and a pizza oven. The coffee is pretty good as well and damn cheap. You can get an Americano here for 1,800 won. Oh, but remember, this is a pizza place. How is the pizza? Hmmm...It's a mixed bag. The toppings are flavorful and inventive. They have onion and red onion pizza, chicken curry, cheese, and even blueberry rucola.
The pizzas are a bit overly sauced- these pizzas require a knife and fork. The onion and black olive pizza is topped with a sour cream, cheese sauce with finely shredded cheddar cheese and parsley. The crust is where this restaurant is best. It is like a foccaccia pizza, it is crispy on the bottom and a bit doughy. It's not bad and decent for the money (5,000 won).
I was pleased with this one, so I decided to go back and give the blueberry rucola pizza a try. It was so wacky that I simply had to. This one is an interesting experiment, but I don't think I will try it again.
To note, it shows that the chef is creative (maybe too creative :). The concept of tart blueberry and green and bitter rucola actually works- it's the execution that is lacking. The blueberry is in the form of sweet blueberry yogurt over bread topped with tomatos, rucola, and shredded parmesan cheese. Blueberry and tomatoes actually work as well. I mean I think I might try and make a salad with the elements of these ingredients but with fresh ingredients and take out the sweet blueberry sauce.
I know what the chef is trying to do. He is trying to make a healthy pizza (I know a paradox).
This place has potential. The people that work there are very nice and they are very hard working. I will give this place another chance. I think I'll get the chicken curry pizza next time.
Pizza di Pane
Subway, Jongro 3-ga (line 3) exit 6 walk out and walk about three minutes.
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| Blueberry Rucola Pizza |
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| Pizza di Pane |
