Pizze at Ladro on a dark and stormy night

Just looked back over the blog and realised that three days ago was Melbourne Gastronome's 1st birthday - and I completely overlooked it! Ah well. I've very much enjoyed my first year of blogging, thanks for reading and an extra special thanks to those who leave comments! :)

Ladro (Gertrude)
224 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy (map)
9415 7575


Prior to her move to Melbourne from Adelaide, G came over to stay with me for a few days so that she could go along to sharehouse housemate interviews. One cold and blustery Tuesday night we were meeting up for dinner and as she'd just been to an interview in Fitzroy, I decided to take her to Ladro.

Even though it was after 8:30pm on a Tuesday we STILL had to wait for a table, so we spent a rather unexciting 20 minutes shivering in front of the heat lamp out in the back courtyard.


Things definitely picked up once we'd moved back inside and the pizze had arrived. This is the Puttanesca ($17.50), topped with tomato, mozzarella, parmigiano, cherry tomatoes, anchovies, proper juicy black olives, fresh chilli, capers and basil. I always love the salty spiciness of Puttanesca, whether it's on pasta or on a pizza (damn, just thinking about it now makes me want to make a Pappardelle alla Puttanesca tomorrow night, so much for those salmon fillets!) - and the Ladro version is a particularly fine one.


The other pizza we shared was the Boscaiola ($18), topped with mozzarella (no tomato), porcini mushrooms, field mushrooms and thyme - another favourite. My one gripe would be that I don't think the plates our pizze were served on had been pre-heated: by the time we got down to the last slice of this one the pizza was cold.

We'd started the meal off with lofty ambitions of ordering a calzoncino or other sweet for dessert, but our eyes were bigger than our stomachs and there was no way we could fit in any more food. We did, however, make an exception for the hot chocolates ($4.50), if only to fortify us before once again facing the winter night. G had the regular, I had the white chocolate, and both were made with ganache (reminding me of the French style hot chocs at Cafe Vue). They were mmmmmmmmmmmmm!