Ovest

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572 Barkly Street, Footscray West, 9687 7766

My score: 4/5

Three pizza lovers walked into a restaurant. The first one said, “Wow, it smells good in here.” The second one inhaled, “Yeah, how good does it smell?” The third one (me, actually) mused, “I’ve got a good feeling about this meal.” So began a fragrant, fabulous Footscray interlude.

Ovest comes with a good pedigree. Chef Ben Sisley cooked at St Kilda’s Mr Wolf before falling into food styling for the likes of Curtis Stone and Heston Blumenthal. Obviously a western suburbs pizza parlour was the logical next step. Business partner Alex Rogers owns Seddon’s Sourdough Kitchen so he’s got the whole dough thing sorted. Artisan pizza deprivation was evidently a big issue around here because Ovest was instantly busy. Families come and go early (the $12 kids’ pizza and icecream deal doesn’t hurt), followed by grown-ups feeling relieved that there’s finally sangiovese within walking distance.

The striking corner building was once a bank and more recently a graffiti-covered card den. Now it’s bright and open with parquetry floors, black ply tables and promising arrangements of tomato tins, flour sacks and cookbooks. The food is built to please, more concerned with doing simple things well than being obsessively authentic or innovative. Those smell-good pizzas have thin crusts, puffy edges and plenty of cheese; I loved the roasted pumpkin with crunchy sage and the saucy sardine with fresh, oily fish and gooey smoked scamorza cheese. There’s more than pizza: coleslaw with apple and radish is the perfect zesty foil for cheesy goodness, the prawns have heaps of garlicky sizzle and the lasagne is sublime, mostly because the veal and pork mince is mixed with smallgood offcuts to create a rich, funky ragu. I predict it will be a key dish this winter and part of the reason Ovest will settle in to be a Footscray favourite.

See their website.

More pizza:

Supermaxi, 305 St Georges Road, Fitzroy North, 9482 2828
How good is it here! The pizzas are perfect, the other food (gnocchi like a hug, fried custard like a dream) is great and the mood is happy and warm.

Itali.co, 173-177 Barkly Street, St Kilda, 9537 5300
Innovative Itali.co uses the stoneground flour preferred by the Vatican and proves it for at least two days to increase digestibility. The restaurant also offers alternative pizza bases made from low-gluten kamut flour.

Gradi at Crown, Shop 25, 8 Whiteman Street, Southbank, 9696 9888
The casino offshoot of Brunswick’s popular 400 Gradi is run by world champion pizzaiolo Johnny Di Francesco. Impeccable pizze are backed up by other hot dishes like the mussels cooked with garlic, Cinzano and chilli.

First published in The Age, April 12, 2015.