Pizzodyssey #3

Point of origin: Scoozi, Rundle Street
Topping: vegetarian (char-grilled mushrooms, eggplant, roasted capsicum, artichokes, diced fresh tomato and basil, plus bocconcini as an extra)

Pizzoddyssey looked like languishing for a while. I even had pizza and couldn’t be bothered reviewing it because it was it was so boring. There really wasn’t much to say about it, except that it was too salty. If pizzas were shops, this one would have been Harvey Norman. Yawn.

Finally, though, I’ve had Good Pizza. Woot! Angels sing, sun shines down from heaven, etc., etc. My Scoozi vegetarian was fresh out of their wood oven and had a perfect base. It was crisp and thin and had just the right amount of brown. The topping was spread out to the edges, leaving exactly enough crust as a handle. The tomato sauce base was good, too – not too sweet, not too acidic and a goodly lump of garlic.

As for the toppings, often if you want eggplant on pizza, it's salty. I know this, but I’m devoted to eggplant, so I’m always optimistic (with pizza, if nothing else) and continue to order it. It’s a relatively simple concept, but so few people seem to understand the need to rinse off the damned salt. Thank Ford, Scoozi understands.

The roasted capsicum was sweet, the bocconcini was mild and creamy and the whole thing had been sprinkled with fresh, shredded basil after it came out of the oven. But the real highlight of this pizza was its mushrooms. After salty eggplant, my pet pizza hate is lousy mushrooms, especially the canned variety. Scoozi used whole button mushrooms that had been marinated in something tasty before being char-grilled. I couldn’t finish the pizza, but I did pick off all the mushrooms. In fact, I probably would have been happy with an all-mushroom pizza.

Rating: 4 and a half stars.