Firechief

Firechief

169 Camberwell Rd, Hawthorn East

(Ph) 9831 1700

After reading a lot about the awesome pizzas at Firechief, which has opened for merely a year, I was so excited to finally try it out for our end of year work dinner. The restaurant is like an old warehouse with bright yellow beams framing the room, and colourful rugs and wooden panels lining the walls.

The centerpiece of the restaurant is definitely the low-hanging brass chandelier which was actually swaying above us during our meal - a little scary =P

We came here on a weekday night, and it was packed to the brim! I like how you have an open view of the kitchen - seeing the chefs busily making your pizzas and the waiters rushing in and out. A nice family friendly atmosphere, only downside is the afternoon sun streaming in - we actually had to wear our sunglasses during the meal until the waiters decided to pull the blinds down!

Their menu is predominantly of pizza - no surprises there =P They do 3 types of pizzas here.

Authentic & original pizza from Naples - the pizzas in this column are made to the exacting recipe as stipulated by the "associazone verace pizza napoletana" in naples, italy. cooked in our wood fired oven for 2 minutes at 400 degrees

The modern artisan "hand style" pizzas - the pizzas in this column are cooked in a classic italian twin deck oven worked by hand & shovel, cooked on the stone floor at 360 degrees in around 4 minutes, they represent the most popular pizza in italy

The great australian family pizza - the pizzas in this column are cooked on pizza trays in a special conveyor oven from italy - we use the very best local ingredients. the average cook time is 6 minutes at 340 degrees

You know they're a serious pizzeria when they send their chefs to get the Associazone Verace Pizza Napoletana accreditation! So I thought I definitely had to try the woodfire type of pizza =)

I got the Special Woodfired Pizza of the week - San Marzano crushed tomato, chicken, avocado, fior di latte, capsicum, topped w rocket $21.00

Had all my favourite pizza toppings! Chicken, avocado and fior di latte! The crust was super thin and crispy with the nice smokey woodfire taste. Only downside was the toppings made my pizza really wet! Not sure what it was that made it so wet - probably the tomatos? =/ The middle of the pizza was soft and damp - I usually like to eat my pizzas with my hands, but it was just so sloppy and wet that I had to eat with knife and fork. The pizzas come on a piece of baking paper, but the moisture and the serrated knife meant I kept cutting the baking paper and nearly ate bits of it =/

And it wasn't just mine that was like that - B's Sopresso - san marzano tomato, fior di latte, gorgonzola, mild casalingo sopresso, basil & chillies $22 was also like that - wet and soft on the inside as well, must be the tomatos =( Though I quite liked the gorgonzola on her pizza =)

It's quite a large pizza, and I was actually getting full after half of it! I wanted to take the rest home but because it was so wet I thought it'd be best that I don't doggy box it so stuffed myself with it. Which meant I had no room for dessert =(

The others tried the firechief tiramisu - w coffee jelly, genois sponge, vanilla bean custard, creamed ricotta, toasted almonds & khalua $14

A different take on the traditional tiramisu - it's more like a custard/liquid tiramisu as opposed to an actual cake. Layer upon layer of deliciousness - best eaten all together especially with the strong coffee jelly on the bottom. Next time I'm here I'm definitely having one of these by myself! =)

Food~

6/10 - for a restaurant so hyped up for their awesome pizzas, little disappointing they couldn't get their toppings right so they wouldn't make the pizza sloppy =( Maybe next time I'll try one of their other types of pizzas (twin deck or conveyer oven)

Atmosphere~

2/5 - nice family restaurant, would have been nice if they had pulled the blinds down earlier though so we didn't need to wear sunnies indoors during the meal =P

Service~

3/5 - service was good and fast given it was such a busy night!

C.

xo