Pizza Belga
PHOTOS BY TEIGUE JOHN BLOKPOEL
beer (VND80,000) from Furbrew brewery, and a glass of Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon (VND120,000). The wine list is short and easy to digest, offering a selection of new and old-world wines by the bottle ranging from VND700,000 to VND1.3 million. A glass of the house white or red cost VND110,000 and VND120,000 respectively. Next we ordered the Raffaello pizza (VND180,000), another whopper of a pizza, this time topped with tomato, mozzarella, spicy salami Calabrese piccante and a nice touch of red bell pepper. As with the earlier offering, each ingredient presented a strong flavour, and the spicy salami makes this a real treat for anyone who likes their food with a bit of a kick.
After this was the clams fettuccine pasta (VND180,000), made up of homemade pasta cooked al dente, a generous amount of clams, white wine and fresh parsley sauce, topped with extra-virgin olive oil. The clams were soft and their flavour balanced well with the parsley sauce and white wine present in the dish, and while they’re still in their shells, the extra elbow work is well worth it. The dish is a reasonably priced alternative to the pizzas (or a sizeable side for one, depending on how you look at things). For dessert we chose the dame blanche (VND70,000); homemade vanilla ice cream made from real vanilla beans, buried in fresh cream and presented with a jug of Belgian chocolate sauce.
“Often people come in here just to eat the ice cream,” says Kevin. “We use more cream than milk, and the ice-cream is denser than gelato.”
The Road Ahead Pizza Belga has already established a strong reputation for its food and service. With upcoming additions to the food and drinks menu, and plans to produce even more of their own ingredients, it looks like they could easily expand outside of Hanoi. — Billy Gray Pizza Belga is located at 225 Au Co, Tay Ho, Hanoi. Opening hours are 6pm to 11pm, Wednesday to Sunday.
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