Zesty Pizza & Pasta
Zesty Pizza has only been open for four months, after re-branding. After two years of trading as 'Veggie Choice Pizza', they decided to branch out to a larger crowd by offering meat options alongside their vegan and vegetarian dishes. An added bonus is that anything can be made Gluten-Free, Vegan, or Nut-Free.
We dined tonight as guests of Zesty Pizza, but all opinions are my own.
The dining area isn't large, but still has quite a few seats available for eating in, but they do also have takeaway and delivery options to the nearby suburbs.
Pizza is their main focus, but they also have pasta and burgers, so we opted to try one of each option. We decided to start with arancini balls as an entree, but wasn't expecting much when the menu offered no description of the dish.
Arancini Balls
served with garlic aioli
I'm glad I got to try these because they were simply delicious. The size of the balls were actually quite large, instead of being bite-sized as I had initially expected.
The centre was soft and creamy, with tasty mushroom slices, and coated in a delightfully spiced, crispy shell. The garlic aioli on the side had a good amount of garlic flavour, but wasn't overpowering.
Carbonara
bacon, onions, garlic, shallots, sea salt and parmigiana cheese, egg yolk, cream
This dish was simple, with a delicious rich and creamy sauce. The flavour wasn't overly strong, but there was a good amount of parmigiana, adding a nice sharp flavour to the dish. The spaghetti was very soft and easy to eat. I would have liked it a bit firmer, but it was still quite nice.
Four Cheese
home made pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, bocconcini and fresh feta cheese with cracked black pepper
The pizza base was thin, but very crispy. I was quite surprised by the firmer texture as it did have a generous amount of pizza sauce on top. The different cheeses tasted great together, with the feta adding that extra salty hit.
Peri Peri Chicken Burger
loaded with chicken patty, fresh tomato, fresh spinach, cheese with peri peri sauce served with chips
This burger looked quite simple, but was packed with flavour. The peri peri sauce packed a punch, but tasted great overall. The bun was soft, with crispy edges and covered in a layer of melted butter. The chicken was soft and succulent, coated in a thin, crispy batter. There wasn't enough of the spinach, but was overall a nice burger.
The chips were cooked perfectly, with crispy edges and soft, creamy centres. They were topped with a delicious mix of what tasted a bit like sweet peri peri salt.
The staff were friendly, and while the service was good, the dishes took quite some time to be prepared. I felt as though they were trying to bring the main dishes out around the same time, but while the pizza was piping hot, the pasta was barely warm. The burger and chips arrived some time after - the chips would have been great to snack on throughout the meal.
Zesty Pizza 580 Burwood Road, Hawthorn (03) 9819 6887 Website / Facebook
Hours: Monday - Friday // 4:00pm - 10:00pm Saturday - Sunday // 11:00am - 10:00pm













