Extra Virgin Pizza (Asia Square)

had a pizza craving and we went checking out pizza places last week - we tried pizzeria l'operetta , EVP then mozza. came here on a quiet weekday night so the kitchen wouldnt be stretched and service should be decent.

we checked out the kitchen and the staff working the pizzas for a good 5 mins, was rather entertaining to see the dough stretched out, laid on the peel, assembled and baked.

good blistered crust with quality ingredients - slight snap and crackle on the crust, chewy.  overall good value for the pizza. but once the pie gets cold - be prepared for a jaw workout..the chewiest pizza ever for me, and i always eat my pies fast while hot, no time to pose or take pics.

we didnt like the outdoor seating, rather uncomfortable and the high chairs arent all that friendly for kids or short skirts...

service rather unpolished, staff thought their italian beer came from germany, and generally indifferent, the bill took 10 mins to come despite having 4 tables. would have rated their service as fail if not for a really good staff called sun tong. friendly girl who took time to explain the pizzas, recommendations and checked on our table even though we were not seated in her section.

oh yeah, we paid for the food ourselves, nobody invited us.

we'd still return, but this time, will dine at sun tong's table. she rocks, they do not have a feedback form for us to compliment her, so i have to do it here.

footnote: after comparing the 3 places, there is no consensus amongst us friends which is better, the crust is a matter of personal preference. i liked mozza's crispiness but 2 prefered EVP's version. im glad there are more pizza choices now.

 

For photos, please visit Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow.

Decor: The inside of the shop is the kitchen while the tables and chairs are all outdoor (as shown in the photos above). The server didn’t know I was here for the food tasting and she eagerly said, “Do you want to see the kitchen? Come in!” That’s honesty for you! Don’t you love honest eateries? You walk into the kitchen, and everything is displayed: the ingredients, the tomatoes, the oven, and how they make the pizzas. No secrets, no gimmicks, just natural and fresh ingredients. AWESOME.

The best natural and fresh ingredients are imported from all over the world: organic tomatoes from California; salami from France; flour from Italy. Extra Virgin Pizza went through great lengths just to get the flour. They had to order 50 tons to establish good relations with the Italians and store the flour in a temperature-controlled warehouse.

The ingredients are not the only ones that needed to be found. The bosses of Extra Virgin Pizza traveled the world–from Europe to America–just to find the perfect executive chef,Chef Matthew White, who has worked in Europe and Michelin-starred restaurants and has a diverse background of pizza-making and fine French cuisine.

Chef White said to me, “I told the bosses, if we are going to go this, we must do it in the best way. Can we get a Wood Stone Oven?” [The same oven is used in Pizzeria Mozza at MBS.]

The bosses replied, “Why get one? Get two!” The amazing thing about Wood Stone Oven is it goes up to 500 degrees, so the pizza is cooked within 2 minutes. Chef White said that precision is key: he only has a ten-second grace: pull out the pizza 10s earlier, it’s undercooked; 10s too late, it’s charred. The amazing thing about the oven is that thetaste and the juiciness of the food are retained and sealed in by the high heat.

Another anecdote Chef White told is they actually tested pH of Singapore’s chlorinated, fluorinated water. After getting all the ingredients from all over the world, Chef White worried that the pH of the water would affect the taste of the crust — let’s see if the water has affected the taste!

The menu isn’t extensive but it is focused. For starters, Chef White recommended theSalami & Cheese Board ($22). I wanted to tell him that eating cheese is a very Western thing; Singaporeans don’t usually eat cheese for starters. So Hot Boy Jasper from Six & Seven and Old Uncle Wise Guy (aka me) picked Veal & Ricotta Meatball ($15) andoven-fired clams in garlic, butter and white wine sauce ($18).

We love balls and we cannot lie. The meatballs were a lighter color and a lighter taste because of veal, so that they didn’t get excessive and heavy like Ikea meatballs. The choice of cheese (Provolone) provided a distinct smelly cheese taste–not for people who dislike cheese–while the minty, peppery basil gave the balls a kick.

Jasper said the clams, which are delivered freshly every few days, were a surprise since pizzerias have no use for clams. Jasper seemed to like it but I can’t say I do. The bread was crispy but also tough. The entire dish had a very “clammy” taste, too intense, too smelly sea-shelly for me. My critique of both starters is that they were both greasy although the portions were very generous.

The spicy pepperoni pizza ($22) arrived first and after a first bite, I said to Jasper, “OMG OMG, it’s so good.”

The crust (for pizzas across the board) was AMAZING. It was crunchy like potato chips, like an apple. Every bite you bite into it, the sound of the crunch reverberates within your soul. The texture was amazing for a second reason: the crust was smooth and airy but there was a grainy substance–semolina?–scattered on it to provide an interesting contrast. For the third reason, the crust was charred. They are actually called “leopard spots” which are characteristic of authentic Neapolitan pizzas. The “leopard spots” provided such an interesting variation–and plus I loved charred food. Usually pizza crust tastes monotonous like this: —– but Extra Virgin’s crust tasted like this: –^-^–. Besides the texture, the taste was very savory–one of the best crusts I’ve eaten–sweetened naturally from the flour and high heat.

The organic tomatoes imported from California on the spicy pepperoni pizza were extremely fresh. At first, when I didn’t know the origin of the tomato, I bit into it and exclaimed, “OMG, they bottled sunshine. The tomatoes tasted like a burst of sunshine.” There was also mozzarella on the pizza, which after the high heat, seemed to transfigure into a sweet milk powder substance. My only complaint is the spicy pepperoni, imported from France, wasn’t fierce enough. But still, spicy, tomatoey, and creamy made a very excellent pizza.

Then came the vegetarian pizza, Pistachio Pizza ($24), eat already very chio. Get it? Pista-chio? I am a carnivore, how good can a vegetarian pizza get right? If the spicy pepperoni was amazing, the Pistachio is an alien… out of this world. There was surely magic involved. The combination of pistachio pesto, mozzarella, and parmesan caramelized in the high heat, giving off a mind-blowing, unbelievable taste–it tasted almost like the skin of very good BBQ chicken wings. It’s guilt-free BBQ chicken skin!! The bitter raw arugula and zesty lemon vinaigrette added after the oven added awesome dimensions to the BBQ chicken skin, providing layers and layers of different tastes. We were truly blown away by this perfect pizza.

Jasper was praying, “After such delectable pizzas, please please please let the dessertsbe good.” Well, both the tiramisu ($8) and nutella panna cotta ($8) were competent. The nutella panna cotta was… I dunno.. like that lor. So-so, not particularly good but not bad either.

It wasn’t fair for me to comment on the tiramisu because I just had one of the best tiramisus in Singapore the day before coming to Extra Virgin. The cream cheese–mascarpone–was actually comparable to this best tiramisu, rich enough, but the sponge was not soft. It would be nice if they soak the sponge in rum. As it is, this tiramisu is alcohol-free.

Recap:  Yumyumformytumtum and I both opine that Peperoni Pizza may be the best pizza in Singapore but now I no longer think so. Extra Virgin may possibly win that spot. It is going to knock your socks off. It is going to be sensational. Delivery will start in early 2012. I wish one day they do island-wide delivery.

Directions: How to get to Asia Square. Asia Square is so new its postal code isn’t even on gothere.sg. This is the same building as Google, which I wrote an entry on the lunch buffet Google has for the staff. If you’re taking public transport, Asia Square is diagonally across from Lau Pa Sat. Asia Square is behind One Shenton Way Building. If you’re driving down Collyer Quay, keep left, turn left into a very, very small lane just after Lau Pa Sat, just before One Shenton. There is a small sign pointing “Asia Square.”

For more photos, please visit Six & Seven.

“Each pizza is like a teardrop; every one is different,” the enthusiastic Chef Matthew White shared with us - oh yes, he actually used the word ‘teardrop’. (Has someone been listening to Coldplay?) Sourced from Philadelphia, and with a background in French cooking, Chef White is no stranger to making pizzas. In fact, he says “making pizza is fun” while introducing us to the pizzeria.

The interior is kept casual yet contemporary, with clean displays and loud signboards. I liked how you can see the hustle and flow of the works as orders are being processed and readied.

The ceiling, in particular, is done in a very dramatic way–elongating and adding a unique touch to the place. Just don’t stare too long at it.

I would say Extra Virgin Pizza is a rebel. Their pizzas are made with globally sourced premium ingredients: flour from faraway Naples, organic tomatoes from California, great cheeses and meats from Italy, France, etc. No preservatives and additives – ‘fighting’ the regimen of AVA to import more crazy, fresh stuff – ingredients are limited and so are the pizzas!

The Lo & Behold Group really pulls out all the stops for this new casual pizzeria concept, bringing in two large Woodstone ovens–taking less than 2 minutes to cook pizzas at searing temperatures of 450 degrees Celsius!

Onto the food! We started off with a starter of Oven-fired clams ($18). I appreciate that the dish came with some extra garlic virgin bread, to conveniently soak up the sweet juices and white wine combination. The clams were fresh, imported in every 2 days, and quite a good portion to share.

The bread is good–soft inside with a slightly tougher crust. The only thing I could want with the dish was a wet towel so I could wipe the crumbs off with.

I could smell the Ricotta and Provolone cheeses from the veal & ricotta meatballs ($15) even before digging in. The tomato sauce is light and doesn’t overpower the natural taste of the tender and moist meatballs, to which the chef executed well.

Before we move onto the main stars of the cheekily named and logo-ed Extra Virgin Pizza, I must get this out of my system: they have weird music. When we first entered, I heard Pussycat Dolls, and through our meal, it became a mix of Reggae. Only a small factor, but it just kept me puzzled on this awkward mix with Italian food.

Due to the high temperatures of the oven, our pizzas came with the black spots, distinctive of Neapolitan pizzas. The spicy pepperoni pizza ( $22)–tomato, mozzarella, spicy pepperoni, chili flakes, oregano–was superb! The thin crust is light, chewy with slightly ‘crusty’ parts and possessed that slightly ‘burnt’ flavour that enhance the taste of the imported pepperoni.

I have eaten pizzas all the way in the US of A, and this really brings back memories of trench coats, scarves and New York City. Don’t bother using utensils, just get down and dirty with the pizzas here!

Against all instincts to order another meat-based pizza, we tried the recommended pistachio pizza ($24)–pistachio pesto, mozzarella, baby aruglula, lemon vinaigrette, parmigiano reggiano.

The very green, and vegetarian, pizza topped with loads of fresh baby arugula seemed slightly more oily than the previous pizza, probably from the caramelized pistachio pesto which gave the pizza a bit more of a crusty edge.

Though I usually prefer meats, if all pizzas were this awesome–with a somewhat earthy, fresh taste–I’m saying goodbye to meats!Nothing better to wash down carbs with than desserts. I ordered the Nutella panna cotta ($8) with hopes of a sinful dessert. The actual dish though, was light and  smooth, not thick and rich. Not that the dessert was bad–it definitely is not ‘jelak’–but I expected something richer with the mention of ‘Nutella’.

Luckily, their tiramisu ($8) shone through. They’ve manged to achieve that fine balance of Mascarpone and espresso-soaked ladyfingers, though the alcohol was very faint and I could hardly taste it. Desserts may not yet be a forte here, but this is a pizzeria after all.

Note that there aren’t any indoor seats within the restaurant–or I should say ‘stall’–so everyone has to cosy up outdoors on some hard grilled metal chairs. I can only recommend ladies not to wear short skirts.

Should you not want to submit yourself to the hard metal seats, takeaway services are available, with delivery services starting in early 2012.

Did it turn us on?

Say ‘YES’ to virgins. Extra Virgin Pizzas, I mean.

If you like our review, please drop by Six & Seven!