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MELBOURNE | As far as restaurants that I’ve been meaning to visit but haven’t got around to doing so are concerned, I’ve got several. One of these is Supermaxi.
Despite being walking distance from my apartment and having just recently celebrated its 10th birthday, it took until last month for me to finally get there, for a “yay restaurants are open for dine in again catch up dinner” with a few friends (oh that glorious time between lock down 1.0 and lock down 2.0).
The restaurant is owned by wife and husband duo Rita Macali and Giovanni Patané. The concept, a simple one – rustic Italian food, fantastic pizzas (Macali was one of the original chefs and co-owners of Ladro who helped kick off the proper pizza trend in Melbourne), and personable, attentive service.
The food, is brilliant. For starters, I can highly recommend the crumbed and fried mozzarella sticks, served with an olive tapenade , and the lightly crumbed and fried Ascoli style stuffed olives with fontina.
For mains, a pizza is a must. I recommend the signature “Maxi”. It’s a thin base pizza with a tomato sauce, pancetta, treccia, parmigiano, and radicchio. The flavours and textures are well balanced, and the thin base springy and light. Also try the pasta, which is made on site. The daily special when I visited was a pasta gnocchi hybrid. I can’t remember exactly what it was but it tasted great.
To finish, you have to order the crema fritta. Yes it’s a thing, a popular street food in Venice, and it’s as wonderful as it sounds. Here it’s served topped with vanilla ice-cream and honey. Also worth getting, at the end of your meal to enjoy with an espresso or digestif, is a serve of Anna’s pangiallo. It’s a Roman sweet bread/cake/slice hybrid packed with nuts and chocolate.
Any place that evokes memories of family meals and banter back home gets a tick in my book. Supermaxi does this and more.
Supermaxi
305 St Georges Road
Fitzroy North
Victoria 3068
Australia
Telephone: (03) 9482 2828
E-mail: [email protected]
Website
Open
Tue- Sun: 5:30pm to 10:30pm