Basil Wood Fired Pizza and Café

Although I love pizza (who doesn’t?!), I’m still a long way short of trying a lot of the purported best pizza spots in Dublin. I mean the Independent Pizza Company and Da Mimmo are at least close by, but I’ve yet to try the likes of Di Fontaine’s, Manifesto or Paulie’s. Shocking, I know! Especially since all I’ve been dreaming of lately is up and flying to Naples so I can finally try the undisputed best Neapolitan pizza. Thing is, that’s expensive, and not a realistic option for whenever I crave a wood-fired slice. Luckily, I spotted a somewhat-hidden but conveniently located place that provided the perfect solution: ‘Basil’, a recently opened wood-fired pizza joint/café in Ringsend.

And when I initially drove past it, I’m pretty sure I had to double take! It had the look of an almost hole-in-the-wall, street food type of location that had popped up overnight. But I could have sworn I spotted a few chairs? Not to mention I hadn’t seen whether or not they actually did pizza, but the name was teasing it. A quick Google after I got home revealed it was like nothing I’d really seen before, but either way my interested had been piqued and there was definitely going to be some pizza had. No complaints there! Fast forward a week later and Rebecca was at a hen party for the day, so I took a big old stroll through the city centre to work up the appropriate appetite for a pizza feast.

The first thing you’ll probably notice about Basil is the somewhat cobbled-together look of the place. The gentlemen behind it all spent a good three months seemingly throwing everything and the kitchen sink into building it, so don’t be surprised if you spot cable rollers, a shipping container, old garden fencing and even a Buddha statue or two. Literally everything has been reclaimed from somewhere. The floors are lined with a faux grass carpet and canopies stick out over the tables from pretty much every direction! It all combines wonderfully to give the place a bit of an eclectic yet homely feel, like you were having lunch in the garden of that one friend who takes their mindfulness just a little bit more seriously than others. I am wondering what it’ll be like come the winter since there is only the one small indoor space, but for a nice summer’s day it could not be more perfect.

Speaking of how much effort went into building up the place, even the oven itself was entirely hand-made! And what comes out of it is definitely up there with some of the best pizza Dublin can offer, let me tell you. I ordered a plain Margherita and another with pepperoni, although the way in which you order means that you’re able to build practically any pizza you like from a list of extra toppings. Margherita is the default and you go from there; nice and uncomplicated. And starting at only €7 for a nine inch pizza (€10 for a twelve incher), Basil offers pretty much the best value you’ll find either side of the Liffey.

The pizza itself is amazing, everything I had been hoping for. The base was chewy and the crust good and crispy, perfect sauce to cheese ratio with neither overpowering the other. That said, the mozzarella is cut nice and thick so it really stands out. All too often you end up with overly cheesy pizza where the sauce is pretty much drowned out or invisible; complete sin in my book, but they got it absolutely spot on here. It’s no wonder I ended up scoffing most of the leftovers I meant to save for Rebecca (sorry! …I’m not). My only criticism is that the menu champions the pizza coming with basil and in my case at least, it was sorely missing. I asked for it myself in the end and it was happily produced, but it’s definitely something you don’t want to forget given is literally the name of the restaurant!  

They also do the rarely spotted and much fabled dessert pizza, which I am absolutely guaranteed to get no matter where I am or what I’m doing. Their version is a soft base, smothered in Nutella with banana, raspberries and cream to finish it off. Absolute decadence, you only need to look at the picture! …Although I did have to share the leftovers of that one.

Pizza aside, Basil also offers tea and coffee, as well as scoops of gelato at €1.50 a pop. They take great pride in sourcing the coffee beans which are roasted in Wicklow, and although I’m by no means a coffisseur, the latte I got wasn’t overpowering and tasted very nice. It’s a lovely spot to have a sit down and drink on a suitable day but good luck resisting the pizza if that’s not what you’re visiting for.

One final note: I was pleased to see a steady flow of people coming in and out while I was there, especially considering the wind was nearly blowing the entire place away! They’ve been open for just under three months, so it’s still very much in its infancy and word of mouth goes a long way at this point. And that being said, Basil is definitely a place people should be talking about. I mean what’s not to love about good quality, unpretentious and cheap pizza? I am still curious to see how they adjust going into the colder end of the year, but as the menu itself proclaims, they are constantly evolving so I’m sure it’ll be fine. Once the pizza stays that good, I’ll keep going back no matter what the weather! 

Basil

97, Ringsend Road,

Dublin 4

Tph: 01-2325600

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Basil/360229470768211

Hell (closed)

Kris Kristofferson once said that “the Devil haunts a hungry man”. He may not have delved into the specific food types that Satan uses to tempt us, but everybody has their own preferred indulgence; for some it’s chocolate, others a plate of curly fries. One dish you can expect to find its way into almost any list of sinful comfort foods is pizza, truth be told perhaps the most popular food in the western world! And here in Dublin, we have the added benefit of being able to order it piping hot from the ovens of Hell itself. No, not Lucifer’s cooking range; what I’m referring to is Hell pizzeria of Wexford Street (sorry, the devil’s in the details).

Now I must admit that the first couple of times I saw Hell, I thought it was just a normal takeaway with a catchy name. Then again, this had always been at ten o’clock on a Friday evening with more than a handful of banteriffic lads spilling in and out the door! It wasn’t until my good friend Áine invited us into town for what she described as a ‘hunt for gourmet pizza’ that I finally took the time to look at Hell’s menu and realised exactly what it was they were offering. Five pizzas later and I was kicking myself not only for never having taken a closer look in the first place, but also neglecting to bring my camera to take the mandatory snapshots of what we’d just eaten (not for the first, seventh or twenty-sixth time either). Ever since then I’d been itching to return and photograph the food for a proper review, not to mention enjoy it! Thankfully, my friend and DVD jockey Niamh was recently in the mood for a lunch outing and although I mentioned several possibilities, I’d already made up my mind as to where we’d be heading.

*Fade in AC/DC’s Highway to Hell*

Before I get into the nitty gritty, let me fill you in on a bit of Hell’s back story. Like many a modern ‘gourmet’ restaurant, it serves unfamiliar variations on a familiar food type. Think ingredients that you look at and wonder how exactly such a combination is meant to work, yet alone when introduced to something like a pizza base. It’s the hallmark of an adventurous cooking style that originates all the way from far flung regions such as California or – in Hell’s case – New Zealand. Before this recent visit, I actually hadn’t the foggiest that Hell is a very popular restaurant chain in the Southern Hemisphere with multiple outlets feeding Kiwis and Aussies alike. The Wexford Street branch is one of a few locations to have opened across the UK and Ireland since 2006 when the franchise was being expanded further afield. Officially speaking, ours is a ‘pilot’ store, but hopefully that will change in the not too distant future. If Callum, Stu and Otis (Hell’s Kiwi founders) are reading this then here’s advice/plea on the matter: open a branch in North Dublin City, preferably smack bang in the middle of Beaumont. There’ll be little to no competition and you’re guaranteed to have one very loyal customer! Anyhow, back to Niamh and I’s journey into the pizza inferno.

Half of the fun in visiting Hell is to simply witness how stylishly designed the restaurant’s interior is. No opportunity to exploit the devilish theme is wasted, with cracked mirrors lining the wall, bare bulb lighting, red velvet curtains and a trio of big LCD screens that – depending on the day you visit – will either be displaying tongues of fire or Murnau’s Nosferatu.

Food is served on beaten metal dishes with ‘remains’ given to you in coffin shaped pizza boxes. Even the landline phone number ends with a 666! Literally everything that can be done to earn Hell the right to its name has been covered, bar being a deliberately unpleasant place to eat. It’s an altogether remarkable dedication to an image that you seldom see in most modern restaurants, yet alone one of many in a franchise.

When it comes to the menu there’s no let up in the Satanic send off either; the first handful of pizzas listed are affectionately named after lust, envy, pride and the rest of the seven deadly sins. Further on you’ll find the likes of ‘serpent’, ‘brimstone’ and ‘Mordor’, which feature some of the more exotic topping combinations.

If you’re expecting to find a basic margherita in Hell then you can forget about it; the closest thing to your average set pizza on the menu is a double ham, pineapple and cheese affair. There’s a create your own option if none of the pre-made choices tickle your fancy, and all pizzas come available in two sizes (seven/eight euro for an individual serving, fourteen/sixteen for a double). Oh, and you can order a cute ‘333’ size for the kids. In addition to Hell’s main fare they serve a decent selection of sides, salads, beer and wine, not to mention ‘dessert pizza’ which I’ll tell you all about very shortly.

So, after spending the best part of a decade oogling at not only the menu but also the restaurant itself, Niamh and I made our choice. She went for the brimstone (a Mexican style pizza with the whole shebang; avocado, onions, salsa, Cajun chicken and sour cream), whilst I chose purgatory (sun dried tomatoes, spinach, feta, onions, mushrooms, garlic and kalamata olives). The last time I’d eaten in Hell we’d tried some delicious wedges called kumara chips but unfortunately they weren’t available on the occasion. Shame, they’re almost identical to your average sweet potato chip; something I’ve a major weakness for! We settled for some Cajun wedges with a garlic mayo dip instead.

Ultimately, both of the pizzas were a success. I put this down largely to the base, which slots nicely into perfect thickness territory. It’s substantial enough to withstand the loaded toppings in most cases, but thin enough so as to not preclude any flavour – a very important aspect when you serve pizza with the likes of apricot and stilton cheese!

Niamh enjoyed her helping which had a distinct Mexican twang to it, whilst mine was definitely in and amongst the more flavoursome vegetarian pizzas I’ve eaten. The only let down was the Cajun wedges, which were just a bit too much on the salty side to properly enjoy.

As good as the savoury pizzas were, the star of the show on this particular day was the aforementioned pizza dessert. Unlike most other pizzerias that stick to the usual formula of ice cream, cheese cake and pie for afters, Hell offers us an interesting twist on their food of focus by serving a normal bread base covered in lashings of custard and other delightful sweet toppings.

At only a mere four euro, the combination of banana, chocolate and mixed berries was too enticing to resist, and it arrived looking even better than either of us could have imagined! The taste: absolutely divine. What else would you expect of hot custard laced with melting chocolate?

In total we paid just over twenty five euro for what effectively ended up being a two course meal for both of us; exceptional value when you consider the quality of food you get. Niamh was both impressed, and patient enough to wait for me whilst I chatted with the staff and Bruce, the head chef. If I didn't enough at the time, I'd like to thank him for giving me a great photo opportunity with a wonderfully presented dessert!

Hell is a rare example of a catering franchise that has a very obvious soul and sense of humour behind the ins and out of how it's run. The philosophy of their gourmet pizza is to present us with inventive and unusual creations, whilst their dedication to a very novel and 'damned' interesting theme goes far beyond anything else I've witnessed on such a large scale. Most importantly of all, they've given me a fantastic chance to get a few terrible puns into this write up. So, if you're disollusioned with any other Dublin pizerrias, then all I can say is that you should go to Hell.

Hell
32, Wexford Street,
Dublin 2
 
Tph: 1890-456-666
 
https://hell.ie/

Meeting Extreme Pizza's Philip Martin

A few weeks ago, Rebecca and myself had lunch in Rathmines’ newest restaurant, Extreme Pizza. Any of you who are following Consumed will remember that I was excited about finally trying out the menu I’d read so much about prior, but ultimately left disappointed with what had been served up. There’s no need to elaborate, the pizza we ate on that day just didn’t live up to our expectations. I wrote up a review summing up as much, and that was effective the end of that for all intents and purposes.

Unbeknownst to myself, it would take Philip Martin – owner of Extreme Pizza and effective master of the franchise on this side of the Atlantic – only a couple of days to come across my review and get in touch with me regarding it. How he did so is still a mystery to me, but there’s a big online campaign behind this particular restaurant (with Philip himself at the helm) so it may well have been brought to his attention through Extreme Pizza’s growing fan base. Regardless, he not only took any criticisms I had on board but was also kind enough to invite me for a chat about the food itself, to see where I thought the problem lay. A week or so later and there I was, back in Extreme Pizza much earlier than I’d intended to be!

And on that small note, let me give you a little insight into my philosophy on bad dining experiences. We all have them, whether or not it’s to do with service, the restaurant itself or a simple matter of the food on offer not appealing to your tastes. They happen, and in many cases we all immediately decide never go back to X, Y or Z eatery again after only a handful of hiccups on their part. Personally, I think this attitude is a terrible one to take when it comes to dining out. It’s important to remember that most restaurants are extremely dynamic places; service, atmosphere and the food are almost never the same on any given day or at any given hour and what you eat is, of course, a mere fraction of the entire menu. If you thought one single item from said menu was sub-par, it’s entirely reasonable to imagine that it may just have been an off day where the cook and that particular dish are concerned. We are, after all, only human and this applies to everybody who is working an ever worked in a restaurant. To expect comparatively consistent perfection – even proportionately – is a fool’s errand. To complain with conviction when you don't get it is even worse. Instead, expect the best that can be done and, as you should do in general throughout life, throw in a bit of empathy for good measure. In a nutshell, don’t rule out giving restaurants a second chance if one or two things go wrong! I never do, and Extreme Pizza was no exception to this. The only difference here was that instead of going of my own volition, Philip was inviting me back personally.

Of course, I wasn’t visiting for a meal this time. No, what had been arranged instead was a sampling plate of select ingredients from the pizzas Rebecca and I had ordered the last time and a half n’ half pizza from the menu. Philip and myself talked about food and the business, I tried the ingredients and gave what I thought was the advice best suited to the problems I’d experienced with the previous two pizzas. The main issue beforehand had been the thickness of the base which ended up dominating the pizza, however this time around I was introduced to Extreme Pizza’s wholemeal base; more flavoursome yet considerably thinner without pushing into Neapolitan thickness territory. It yielded space for the flavours of the pizza toppings themselves to shine, and altogether worked far better than the plain version we’d eaten the last time.

As for the ingredient platter, it raised more questions for me about how the cooking process affected good tasting, fresh ingredients. Philip takes pride in how he sources those that go into his pizzas, with a meticulous selection process going into each one. He sources the salami himself, with two varieties currently on offer. The tomato sauce used in some of the pizza recipes tasted fantastic, and I pointed out that Rebecca’s pizza had suffered from a lack of it. Other customers had done the same, but Philip puts this down to a matter of taste at the end of the day; some like more sauce, some don’t. I’d still say that more could definitely be used, if only in tandem with the normal base.

What was also brought to my attention that hadn’t been during our last visit was Philip’s enthusiasm for micro breweries; small beer and ale producing companies a that, in general, create a much more refined drink than what you’d get from the bigger multi-nationals. They feature heavily on Extreme Pizza’s chalk board, with Curim in particular standing out as one I recognised. It’s great to see serious, positive backing to local companies like this, especially from restaurants that you wouldn’t normally expect to provide it! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to push my luck enough to get a sample, but when I do go back I most definitely will.

Yes, if I hadn’t already made it clear then let me make it even clearer: I will indeed soon be returning to Extreme Pizza for another meal. Under normal circumstances I’d definitely have been a little slower to, but here we have a restaurant that’s run by somebody with a genuine passion for what he does; enough to see my and Rebecca’s negative dining experience not an irreversible disaster, but rather an opportunity to make amends and show off what he can offer instead. That alone is reason enough to bump it up into second chance salon, never mind that what I tried when meeting him tasted much better! Even if, somehow, the food still then isn’t my cup of tea for round two, I still have great respect for what Philip showed me in how he approaches running a restaurant. Any up and coming catering enthusiasts would be hard pressed to find a better role model. And if you happen to be just plain interested in a chat about pizza, he’s got you covered there too!

Extreme Pizza (closed)

Over the past week, there’s been something of a pizza binge going down in the Jones household. It kicked off on a lazy Sunday evening that involved one of Tesco’s finest pizzas (with the addition of some much-needed feta cheese!), quickly followed a trip to a Pizza Hut takeaway on Stephanie’s request the following night. Strike three came after Áine had invited us out to eat on Tuesday, whereupon it soon became apparent that it was gourmet pizza she was after. We went straight to Hell and found everything we needed. Hell on Aungier street that is; a gourmet pizza bar that – up until checking out the menu that very night – I had always thought to be just a takeaway with a catchy name! I’ll be revisiting that particular eatery in the not-too-distant future, but for now this review is concerned with how we ended the pizza binge: at Extreme Pizza in Rathmines.

For those of you who don’t know, Extreme Pizza is a relatively small American franchise that originated from California. No prizes for guessing what they deal in, if you’re looking for a burger or bucket of chicken then look elsewhere my friend! Stateside, you’d call the kind of pizza they serve ‘Californian style’; here, we simply refer to it as ‘gourmet pizza’. You know, the kind that makes you think ‘now that surely wouldn’t work as a topping?’ That kind. It followed closely on the coat tails of smoothie and bagel bars in the mid naughties, with Millstone on Dame Street amongst the pioneers.

Extreme Pizza eventually caught wind of our nation’s recent embracing of all foods chic, and in December of last year they chose to open their very first international branch on the emerald isle. Slow as ever, I only learned of this development just a few days ago courtesy of a friend joining their fan page, and in keeping with the week’s running pizza theme it had to be visited, never mind the fact that I’d oogled over their menu some months beforehand!

Roll on a sunny Saturday, some truly incredible bruschetta and lemonade in Ranelagh (I didn’t get Rathmines and Ranelagh confused again, don’t believe anything you hear!) market and we eventually made it to Extreme Pizza’s rather busy corner location.

Surprisingly, the ‘busy’ seemed to have stopped at the corner and outside of Extreme Pizza’s door. To sum it up, we entered an empty restaurant and left an empty restaurant. At lunchtime, mid-weekend. Yes, it was a gorgeous and sunny day outside, but there are still, nay, always people who are looking to be fed, regardless of the weather. For all intents and purposes, it appeared we might have been the first diners there that very day! I hear you arguing that hot weather = a light lunch, and to be fair you’d have a point. The killer blow is that we passed Jo’Burger – a gourmet burger restaurant that serves up obscenely large beefy sandwiches – twice in going up and down the Lower Rathmines Road, and both times it was teeming with at least nine or ten diners. Given their location, newcomer status and the style of food they serve, I imagined that Extreme Pizza would be a serious point of interest for epicurean Dubliners and casual foodies alike. Their Facebook fan page would suggest so, what with over seven hundred fans (nearly twice as many as Yamamori!). Zero activity in and around a Saturday lunchtime is, in reality, something any restaurant of their kind should be concerned about. Rebecca and myself, on the other hand, were only concerned about having some good pizza.

The walls of Extreme Pizza do their best to live up to the name; action shots of mid-air snowboarders and stunt bikes on the walls are punctuated by the odd surfboard or skateboard with American flag decals. Think a toned down yet sportier version of TGI Friday’s. Quiet as it was, and with songs like Brown Eyed Girl piping in overhead, the only extreme I felt was a mildly relaxing one. Then again, it makes me wonder how they could fit a genuine ‘extreme’ into the meals they dish out. Throw the pizza like a frisbee at your table maybe? Or they could have you kill the cows and chickens that eventually supplement the meat. I know! Just serve the food on fire and make you hunt for an extinguisher, that’s definitely extreme. And, if I’m going to be honest, it might even end up tasting a little better.

Which brings us onto the pizza itself. Extreme Pizza is advertised as a gourmet pizza restaurant and the menu certainly looks to deliver with exotic toppings that include marinated artichoke hearts, new potatoes, gorgonzola, shredded pork and even mandarins! You can create your own, and a choice of calzones are also on offer. Sides include the usual suspects of chicken wings and salads, with the addition of the interestingly named ‘extremely twisted sticks’. I opted for the eight-inch ‘kickin’ chicken’ which included scallions, fontina, mozzarella, coriander and chicken marinated in a spicy ginger peanut sauce. Rebecca chose a ‘yard sale’, topped with sausage, pepperoni, salami, mushrooms, black olives, green pepper and onions, tomatoes, mozzarella and a kitchen sink. Phew! We shared two of the extremely twisted sticks and dips to match: blue cheese and garlic.

Everything looked the part as it arrived, and we both had high hopes after the past week’s pizza shenanigans. By the time we’d each finished a slice, it was difficult to go any further. The problem was a simple matter of taste, or lack thereof in this case. You’d bite into the pizza, chew for about three, maybe four seconds and suddenly, all you taste is bread. For me, bread and spice. With all of the ingredients listed above, you’d expect either pizza to be a symphony of flavours, even if a bit scattergun. In either event, there was literally nothing, which only served to make the entire thing a chore to get through for both of us. I disassembled a slice of Rebecca’s ‘yard sale’ to see exactly how much of each topping there was and this is the amount I gathered:

That should collectively taste of at least something, right? Eating the ingredients separately revealed three things: 1) each component was flavourless; these were simply just bad ingredients, 2) said ingredients can be found in many of the set pizzas, so it can’t just have been a bad pick on our part, 3) the tomato sauce underneath was virtually nonexistent, and the base itself stodgy. The extremely twisted sticks meanwhile turned out to be cheesy garlic bread twisted into a roll, though we ended up barely touching them just to avoid going into a bread induced coma.

In total we paid only twenty-two euro (which also covered two cokes), so at least one positive to take was that it really didn’t end up costing us an arm and a leg. Such pricing did, however, raise more serious questions about whether or not it would have been worth our while to simply walk down the road and get ourselves a meal deal in Dominos instead. An extra fifteen minutes added onto that would then have led us straight back into Hell, which offers gourmet pizza cooked with a lot more care and flavours that don’t go MIA. More importantly, Hell is no pricier than Extreme Pizza, making it a no-brainer of a choice at the end of the day. This, topped off with an absolutely nonexistent Saturday lunch service, spells out potentially bad news for Dublin’s latest pizza franchise. The extreme food may just be a gimmick, but there’s nothing catchy about extreme disappointment.

Extreme Pizza
1, Upper Rathmines Road,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6

Tph: 01-4062626

http://www.extremepizza.com/