Monday, May 18, 2015

Pizzeria 1889 for Lunch

Pizzeria 1889
http://www.pizzeria1889.com.au/


One block of restaurants I don't utilize anywhere as much as I should is The Barracks at Paddington. It is just a hop and skip across the Brisbane River and if I was in the mood for a stroll, it would be an achievable short walking distance away. Even if I was too lazy to walk, my other commonly-used excuse for not going to certain restaurants is lack of parking. If you dine at The Barracks, you get validated parking so in my eyes, that just makes it extra desirable. I just need to start making a conscious effort to go there more often.


Marc and I had tried FaB Fish and Burger a couple of times and we were always curious about their sister venue, Pizzeria 1889. One day I spotted a Groupon meal deal and swiped it straight up. I don't think I 'needed' the coupon deal to justify going there; honestly, they are good value without any specials, but I just have too many restaurants I want to try so sometimes the extra incentive works for reasons beyond the monetary. We ended up going for weekday lunch a couple of weeks back.



This post will be relatively short but it highlights what I now think of as the perfect couple's weekday power lunch. Our voucher entitled us to a pizza of choice and salad to share, as well as a glass of wine each.


I think that pizza sits at different places in people's minds, often depending on their mood and what they're picturing (greasy fast food pizza vs thin Italian-style pizza). I almost always class pizza as a weekend meal because it's carby and cheesy and I prefer not to have those treats for no reason. Whoever came up with the idea of adding a garden salad to pizza was a genius. Suddenly it was transformed from being a heavy, luxury meal item that could only be enjoyed on occasion to something that (in my mind), harnessed all the essential food groups in one easy and enjoyable package.

Carnivoro pizza with mixed leaf salad

Our pizza of choice was the Carnivoro, which as the name suggests was the meatiest option on the menu. It didn't look as scary as most other 'meat lover' pizzas because there was ample green in the form of fresh rocket. The 'carnivoro' referred to the components of salami, proscuitto and Italian sausage, all of which was delicious. Marc described this type of pizza as 'Australian-Italian' because it had a thin base and good quality ingredients but wasn't as sparse as pizzas we actually tasted in Italy.

The salad on its own was simple but very fresh. It was the perfect accompaniment for the pizza because even though we didn't have a very greasy pizza, adding fresh salad with a light and zesty vinaigrette balanced out the meaty, cheesy and carby components. We ended up wonderfully full but not at all ladden-down or queasy. It's the kind of lunch you can have and then go on your merry way to continue the rest of your day rather than having to take a nap and digest.

Although we didn't get to try many items on the menu at Pizzeria 1889, I really enjoyed what we did get to eat. Both our pizza and salad was fresh and flavoursome and they complimented each other well. The wine helped as well, of course.
Pizzeria 1889 on Urbanspoon

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