I had wanted to eat here for a few weeks so I was surprised that when I dropped by on Friday, it had only been open for 3 days. I had seen people trying out their slices in the past. Perhaps these were soft-openings for testers and friends? The menu highlighted that this store offered a unique combination: thick-slice Sicilian-style pizza with Middle-East toppings. After looking it over, I chose the Sumac Musakhan ($19). This Palestinian dish of spiced, roast chicken has been adapted for pizza, with the taboon bread being replaced with a "4-day proof" dough.
The rest of this review will be with left-overs consumed over several days. I thought the pizza seemed small for the price at first but the substantial dough turned out to be quite filling. In fact, it was best eaten with additional sides like salad to keep the slice from feeling too heavy. The sumac was front and centre both good: a citrus-y, perfume-like fragrance unlike any other pizza toppings I've had, and questionable: a pink-ish liquid that you don't want to see when you cut through chicken. The latter had good texture and nicely spiced. It went well with the egg-like whipped ricotta. The dough was spongy unlike other deep-dish styles I've eaten. There was a thin, cracker-like bottom crust similar to a Romana pizza (the good sort, not the inedible kind). Overall, it made for good dinners especially so I don't have to labour in the kitchen during this heat wave.
It seems odd that I would talk about the left-overs, but I hated this pizza freshly made: the dough was gloopy, the toppings dripped and ran. As I grimly made my way through the first slice, I thought "Why not stick with an authentic pide or lahmacun if you wanted Middle-Eastern pizza"? But like the recent coconut bun, it looks like a day or two in fridge reduced the moisture content and turned a mediocre dish into something great.
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