Month: September 2010

46 Holmes St, Brunswick
Phone: 9386 5522

For the best part of a decade, I lived in Brunswick. As a suburb, it will alwys hold a special place in my heart, even though it’s already very different from the place I once knew. I remember when I Carusi became the place to go for pizza, back in the early to mid-2000s. There was so much hype, and it being in my neighbourhood, of course I ignored it and never got around to going.  One of the paradoxes my foodblogging activities produces is that I actually hate crowds, and I loathe the idea that a place is ‘completely packed’ or that I’ll need to queue for a table; yet trying out the new ‘cool’ places often means I end up throwing myself in just such situations.

It’s been a good half a decade since I Carusi was the ‘it’ place to go. But when I stopped in on a Sunday night with Mr R and his friends Mr S and Ms C, it was still full. This might explain why we waited about fifteen minutes for our wine to be brought, only to be presented with the wrong bottle, which I had to take back to the kitchen personally to have exchanged, after the waitress disappeared for another five minutes. We got there in the end, I suppose.

I ordered the ‘pizza for a friend’. Pumpkin, pine nuts, rocket and goat’s cheese. If there’s ever goat’s cheese on a menu, you can be pretty sure that I’ll order it, at least 75% of the time.

The pizza was good, if a little oily. I thought it was also lacking a little in the salt department, but perhaps that’s just the style.

Mr R and Ms C both ordered the pizza with the prosciutto and the porcini mushroom. Which they both promptly finished. The wait had made us all a little hungry!

I can’t quite remember what was on Mr S’s pizza, but there looks to be some rocket and a whole lot of Parmesan cheese on top!
We were all tempted by the dessert menu, because, well, it’s dessert. And on a chalk board. I suspect desserts seem more special and seasonal on a chalk board. Even when they’re not.

Mr S and I both saw the words chocolate pizza and got excited. So we decided to share the dark chocolate pizza with pear. It came with a vanilla ice cream that was pretty awesome, and it was a bit messy to eat.

It was a bit of a shame that the pear was blandsville, because that was the only problem with it, but it was also the most lingering memory of the dish.

Mr R and Ms C had more refined tastes (or less chocolatey ones)and opted for the vanilla ice cream with fresh berries.

I’m not sure I’d go back to I Carusi in a hurry. There are places around which are putting up better pizza for comparable prices. Though that being said, I probably wouldn’t avoid the place. You know what they say, pizza is like sex: bad pizza is still pizza.