SPQR Pizzeria

26 Liverpool St
Melbourne, VIC 3000
https://spqrpizzeria.com/

This is a little embarrassing, but I have been craving pizza ever since I got off a recent cruise, where there was freshly made, moderately good pizza on tap. And that’s how I ended up at SPQR Pizzeria, which unfortunately didn’t quite hit that pizza craving. Though a perfectly decent Neapolitan pie, it just didn’t have the wow factor I had hoped. I was also confused by their target audience; though promising traditional pizzas at fine dining prices, the atmosphere and service leant more towards dive bar, complete with loud music and graffitied walls. It’s not a bad pizza by any stretch of the imagination, but if the craving hits again whilst I’m in the CBD, my choice would be Dom’s for unusual and sensationally executed flavour combinations, or Romo for a classic slice with the puffiest crust.

Rating: 12/20 – best pizza at the MCG (yes they have a shop there).
Check out: their DJ setup with pizza turntables.

The Calabrese ($32) had all of my favourite things on paper – nduja, fior di latte, hot honey – but the elements just didn’t come together right. There wasn’t enough punchiness to the spicy sausage paste, and the hot honey was too plentiful and too sweet. It was still a reasonable pizza, but the promised salty-spicy-sweet combination was watered down and forgettable.

The Mortadella ($32) did much better, with its generous swaths of mild, fatty pork, garnished with creamy stracciatella clouds and crunchy pistachio. My only complaint is that this actually didn’t feel so much like a pizza as it did a flatbread with toppings; there was melted fior di latte on the base, but otherwise it was literally just meat draped over carbs. Once again, delicious, but not pizza.