Last Supper/Last Pizza @ I Carusi II

I Carusi II 231 Barkly Street, St Kilda

I Carusi II in Barkly Street is one of those places where I actually don’t care that the food is not as good as other places. 

I love everything else about it – the drinks (Sardinian beer Ichnusa and the quality wines served in simple Italian glasses), the service and kitchen (all with singing Italian accents) and the place (whether it’s sitting outside on Barkly Street on a beautiful St Kilda evening or inside in the tightly fitting and bustling main room).

There is often debate about the best pizza in Melbourne and the usual suspects are bandied about (Pizza E Birra, Ladro, Supermaxi).  They are all great places and very hard to falter.  In terms of pizza, I Carusi doesn't fall into this upper echelon but it certainly comes close and it definitely tops its rivals when it comes to the venue, ambience and unpretentiousness. 

Sitting around the old wooden table, and following some heated debate about selections, we ordered.  Highlights were the broccoli pizza (broccoli, pecorino and chili), pizza for a friend (roast pumpkin, goats cheese and rocket) and the Napolitano (tomato sugo, anchovies and mozzarella).  The other 2 were not as memorable (one so heavily loaded with the tomato sugo it could not be lifted off the plate).  Also worth noting was the dessert pizza covered in strawberries and chocolate served with vanilla ice-cream – outstanding!

Overall I love this place – it reminds me of travelling through Italy and being in Sienna where my backpacking companion and I treated ourselves to a night at a local restaurant in which scores of Italian families were sitting around tables (talking, gesticulating, arguing) in a setting that did not look too dissimilar to I Carusi. 

So what a way to farewell Melbourne then by sitting with family and friends, enjoying a great meal at I Carusi.  '

Apart from the above, my top 5 pizza places in Melbourne (no particular order) are:

1.  Pizza E Birra (60 Fitzroy St St Kilda)

2.  Supermaxi (305 St Georges Rd Fitzroy North)

3.  Ladro (125 Greville St Prahran)

4.  Oskar (1 Errol Street North Melbourne)

5.  Little Havana Pizza (279 Carlise St St Kilda) Highly recommend for a non-gourmet, Sunday night special.