It’s been years since I’ve been to a Criniti’s Italian Food restaurant. I’ve been to the one in Carlton a few times years ago. Criniti’s has always struck me as a very high-quality pizza franchise. It has 8 locations across Victoria (Carlton and Southbank), NSW (Brighton-Le-Sands, Castle Hill, Kotara, Parramatta and Wetherill Park) and WA (Westfield Carousel in Cannington).
I would say that this, my first order from Criniti’s Southbank has stood up to my expectations of what to expect from eating at their Carlton location several years ago. So what did I order? My colleague Jack was really feeling pizza today, especially with it being the first day back at work after payday. Jack suggested Criniti’s as he didn’t think he’d tried it before. For a moment, he then got it mixed up with Crust Port Melbourne which he had recently been disappointed by, but luckily these franchises are completely different companies.
So whilst Criniti’s offers a wide range of food including wood-fired pizza, pasta, BBQ ribs, burgers, loaded chips and various interesting starters and sides, we kept it simple today with a pizza each. I got the Marley Truffle pizza and Jack got the Suprema
Marley Truffle Pizza at Criniti’s
Black truffle paste, sausage, mushrooms, parmesan, mozzarella, oregano & parsley
Surprisingly to some, I am actually a big truffle fan and it’s not very common to find pizza places with truffle as an ingredient. It is kind of similar to how I like a garlic base rather than a tomato base. In this instant, the black truffle paste acted as a similar flavour here, so I was pretty happy with how it turned out. As well as this gourmet truffle, the other ingredients all appeared to be very high-quality as well, the sausage especially. I’m usually more of a pepperoni guy, but this sausage is far better than what I typically see being used. As a wood-fired pizza, this has nice dough and is definitely one of the better examples of this style of cooking. I would definitely eat this again and recommend it.
Suprema Pizza at Criniti’s
I decided to go with the Suprema pizza from Criniti’s Southbank. This pizza had napoli sauce, mozzarella, mushrooms, ham, sopressa salami, roasted capsicum, bacon, onion and olives. I requested they remove the bacon and replace it with extra cheese, however, they rudely did not oblige. The pizza itself came in what I thought to be a high-quality box, it looked slick and felt relatively smooth in my hands. The taste and texture were rather delightful upon my initial few bites, however, after the hype had died down I concluded it was average. This pizza was nothing special, it tasted starchy and completely fell apart in my hands. The olives were far too big for the pizza and therefore would lose traction the pizza and fall off, not good. I give this pizza a 6/10. Not bad at all, however, nothing special.
