Zero95 Wood Fire Pizza Bar, Melbourne 10-2015

I thought I'd heard from my dad that this pizza place had won a world pizza championship in Italy. I was a little disappointed to find they competed but didn't win - nonetheless that's a pretty incredible feat.

As the reputed home of pizza I remember my first (and only) trip to Naples back in 2005, where pizza was apparently born. We spent the whole time going from one pizza place to the next as recommended in the Lonely Planet. We barely ventured out at night due to safety issues but during the day I could appreciate the old buildings and the incredibly bad (or is it tactical?) car parking on the streets. One of the Zero95's pizza makers is from Naples and he even offered to allow me to come back sometime and make my own pizza... how exciting that would be.

But for this trip I remained solely on the eating side.

- Fried calamari - wickedly soft, tender and extremely well cooked without any hint of rubber;
- Pizze Frutti di Mare $24 - exceptional soft and chewy crust topped with cheese and good quality seafood. It's definitely better for presentation with the shells on but I'm not sure if I'd prefer to eat it without having the remove them;
- Calzone Buffalo (stracchino, prosciutto, rocket, yellow cherry tomatoes, black buffalo cheese) $27 - the typical calzone is filled (this with prosciutto and black buffalo cheese) but also this had a beautifully presented exterior to the toppings laid.

The ingredients are high quality, the dough is exceptionally good (could it be better than Franco Manca? - http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/franco-manca-london-10-2013) and the staff are so friendly and so passionately Italian. I adore it all and will be back to try each of the pizzas and calzones.

Zero95 Wood Fire Pizza Bar Menu Reviews Photos Location and Info - Zomato