Mt Alexander Road offers a feast of restaurants and cafes — Greek, Japanese and Mexican cuisines are on offer, as are numerous wine bars. But what’s a food strip without a good Italian restaurant?
At No.528 on the busy road, Italy 528 easily carries the flag for great Italian food.
The open room, with a huge mural to one side, white walls and dark wood furniture, is stylish and welcoming.
The restaurant, open now for two years, was previously a motorcycle shop that was gutted and renovated, incorporating a wood-fired oven for chef and co-owner Antonio Caruso to weave his pizza magic. Called variously a pizzeria and cucina (kitchen), its pizzas are a menu highlight, but there are some tempting starters including a simple bruschetta of tomatoes, basil and extra virgin olive oil ($9.50).
Equally delicious, we discovered, was a plate of buffalo mozzarella and San Daniele prosciutto ($22) — the luscious cheese and fine slices of prosciutto complementing each other with subtle flavours.
The pizza list takes up much of the menu with a varied selection topped with good, fresh produce, and combinations using only a handful of ingredients so that the quality of each is highlighted.
Apart from the Margherita (small $8/ large $15), all the pizzas come in just one generous size.
A sturdy, slightly seasoned base is topped with sweet tomato, cow’s milk mozzarella and the odd basil leaf. It’s quite simply delicious.
Other pizzas include a Capricciosa ($20), topped with ham, olives, artichokes and mushrooms. Ours was sweet, salty and savoury; a delicious, classic pizza.
When I asked for a Broccolotta ($20) topped with fontina and burata cheeses, broccoli and lemon, I was told there was no broccoli available but they happily served it to me with zucchini instead.
It was a thoughtful gesture and proved to be a great pizza with saltiness from the fontina and creaminess from the burata cut through with the addition of lemon and a bite from the zucchini.
If you want good Italian on Mt Alexander Road, or the west in general, Italy 528 is certainly worth a try.
