Review at Pizza Express by Nicolini

Thanks for Michele and Rilsta for organizing this food bloggers’ dinner/meetup and Penny for letting me know of this event. I really appreciate of knowing you guys at dinner. It was so fun to meet up with other food bloggers in melbourne such as Adrian, Kat and Sarah! (Please pardon the indecent underexposed photos taken at this event – I seriously need to learn how to take photos in dark conditions.)

Being curious about this tiny pizza place, the food bloggers wanted to try everything off the menu. When that proved impossible to space constraints, we just ordered what we felt. Penny and th0i3, Adrian and I decided to order 2 pizzas and 2 pastas and share them among the 4 of us since we are sitting at one end of the table.

Prosciutto Crudo

The Prosiotta Crudo pizza had a mild and cheesy taste to balance with the prosciutto. It was a great way to start off with the meal.

Goats' Cheese Ravioli

The Goats’ Cheese Ravioli was a curious dish. I have never heard of goats’ cheese but I knew how strong goat diary products can be. With trepidation, I was slightly surprised to find that the goats’ cheese was somewhat delightful to taste and wasn’t that strong as I expected to be.

Gorgonzola cheese pizza with specks and pear

This cunning dish does have a few tricks up its sleeve. Penny and Thoi3 ordered off from the specials menu on the wall. The flavours of this pizza worked well together. Think of the saltiness of the ham with the sweetness of the crunchy pears hidden in the richness of the Gorgonzola cheese. I think the trick to this pizza was the cheese and the pears. I wouldn’t think pears would be an ideal ingredient for such a savoury dish but it has certainly worked!

Gnocchi in red sauce

This pasta was a disaster. The sharp and sour tastes clashed with each other like two little monkeys after a banana. Adrian’s facial expression after trying this dish was such a classic that we wished we had taken a shot.

Pacco Pizzetta (white chocolate and caramel)

The Pacco Pizzetta reminded me of the turtle shells that dear Mario stole to kill little mushrooms in the video game. It was a dish which was rather sweet, rich and creamy.

Sticky Date pizza

As for this dish, you couldn’t go wrong with lots of butterscrotch sauce.

Just before deserts, I excused myself to the bathroom. What greeted me in the bathroom shocked the hell out of me. The toilet in the female bathroom was unflushed. Yes, UNFLUSHED. I don’t know who was the last person who had used the female bathroom. It could be a staff member or even a customer. But this bloody idiot didn’t have the common sense to flush the toilet. While trying to flush the toilet, I felt I needed to vomit. Trying to keep my food down, I quickly washed my hands and found out the colour of the liquid soap was jet black. That was the icing of the bathroom visit. I can’t stand the general state of the bathroom and went straight to the dinner table feeling a little overwhelmed and sick.

Overall, the food was all right but because of the general state of the bathroom during dinner, I’m never going to come back to this place. I certainly value cleanliness over the aesthetic qualities of wonderful food when I dine out. Unfortunately, this visit would be marred by the haunting image of the toilet bowl. It was very hard to keep the food down in my stomach and I didn’t want to spoil the evening for others by telling what happened during the bathroom visit.

Pizza Expresso by Nicolini

17 Macedon Road
Templestowe Lower
02 9852 2333