Could the recent cropping up of pizza joints in Tianjin be correlated to the local popularity of that other circular staple, the jianbing? Who knows. One thing’s for sure: with two downtown branches and a third slated to open later this year, maverick pizza joint Scugnizzo (loosely translated as ‘hoodlum’) seems to be going for a slice of the action. We visit the new Hebei Lu location, where we’re greeted by a portrait of none other than Mona Lisa.
Scugnizzo’s main pull is its price: with the exception of the Margherita and vegetable pizzas (both at RMB29), the 13-inch pies are all RMB68, and come with sides like roast potatoes (RMB18), plus a solid selection of salads and pastas. But the price doesn’t sacrifice quality: Owners Liu Xiaolong and David Lee, former colleagues in Tianjin’s hotel industry, spent four months creating the perfect dough. The result is a tasty, pillowy crust, redolent of Neapolitan-style pies you’d find in culinary hotbeds anywhere else in the world. The pizzas are made in an imported wood oven, but due to fire regulations, gas is used instead of actual wood.
The Genova Pesto Turkey Pizza is a bestseller, and more experimental menu items include the surprisingly scrumptious brusselssprouts-and-Pancetta pizza and the Malais pizza with curry sauce and chicken leg. Luckily, culinary mongrels such as cheesy crust and durian toppings are absent from the menu, but there are Chinese crowd pleasers as well (the Osaka Octopus Pizza would likely make a Neapolitan wag their rolling pins in a rage).
Drinks are also dangerously priced, with the usual suspects like Negroni, Godfather and Moscow Mule all for RMB28. Staple Italian palate cleansers like Liquirizia (RMB10), Crema al Melone (RMB12) and Limoncello (RMB15) are welcome meal-enders, and go well with the luscious but light tiramisu made with Kahlua (RMB28).
Granted, there’s room for improvement here. The unimpressive cold cuts platter (RMB58) consists mainly of prepackaged meats and generic mozzarella, and the slapdash interior is culturally… confused. But all in all, Scugnizzo proves that it’s possible to get a decent pie in this city without the vetting of a native Italian chef, or having to fork out too much dough for, well, dough.
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