Perth Voice Interactive

WE’VE all been there.

Guts churning, face red, bloated and sweaty.

No, I’m not talking about sitting through a Fremantle election debate, but the feeling you get after eating a poorly made pizza.

I tend to go for the super thin Italian bases as they agree with me more, but I’d heard good things about Slowdough Pizzas in Willagee, so I decided to give them a go.

In recent years, Willagee has shed its Wild West image with property prices rocketing and a new range of modern trendy restaurants, including the Venezuelan Pantano Bar.

Slowdough is a few doors down from Pantano and part of a pleasant group of shops and eateries in the suburb.

Their menu had a nice mix of traditional and slightly more sophisticated pizzas.

There was a good variety of toppings with everything from Calabrese sausage and blue cheese to prosciutto crudo and caramalised figs.

Slowdough has followed the recent trend of giving pizzas quirky names like Cave Man, Cinderella and Kebob’s Your Uncle.

Some of them were mildly amusing, but others didn’t have much connection to the ingredients, so you had to slog through the entire list to understand what was on offer. Maybe have a few quirky names and keep with tradition for the rest.

They also sold sweet pizzas with toppings like chocolate custard, mascarpone and vanilla custard, as well as crust dippers and a range of artisan ice cream.

My wife “Special K” and I shared a Supremo pizza ($23).

In terms of the sourdough base, it was the best I’ve had.

Slightly chewy with just the right thickness and a puffy attention-seeking crust, it was beautifully light and airy.

I even wolfed down the crusts and didn’t get that horrible feeling afterwards.

I don’t normally go for website spiel, but they claim their pizza dough base is rested for a minimum of 72 hours and “micronutrients are released which makes the pizza dough more nutritious and digestible”.

Whatever’s going on, it works.

The Supremo had plenty of stringy mozzarella cheese and a nice assortment of bacon, mushrooms, pineapple, cacciatore and capsicum.

The cacciatore was the highlight with plenty of robust flavour.

The toppings were really nice, but I’ve had other pizzas where they were next level with a richer tomato sauce.

Across the table my two young kids were sharing a Basic B ($23).

There was plenty of mozzarella cheese, leg ham and pineapple.

The kids wolfed it down and enjoyed the light airy base and, unusually, finished off the crusts.

On Wednesdays and Sundays, Slowdough do an offer with a half price focaccia-style pizza for $8.

This was the standout for me – a strong punch of garlic with a delicious mix of fior di latte, rosemary and sea salt.

Drizzled over the top was some extra virgin olive oil.

I’ve had some shocking dried-out focaccia-style pizzas in my time, but this was light, fresh and crammed with flavour.

We rounded off the meal with some Little Scoops artisan ice cream, opting for the honeycomb (500ml tub for $16.50).

It was too sweet for my young kids, but my wife thoroughly enjoyed the creamy vanilla ice-cream, which had chunks of house made honeycomb.

I thought the sourdough pizzas at Slowdough were well priced, great quality and had some of the best bases I’ve tried.

The eatery is run by pizza chef Mauricio and sourdough baker Sophie, and you can tell it’s a quality establishment that takes pride in its food and service.

The pizzas were so nice, I might even order some for election night.

“Extra anchovies, Mr Cook?”

Slowdough Pizzas
82 Archibald St, Willagee
slowdoughpizzas.com.au

by STEPHEN POLLOCK