D.O.C

D.O.C
295 Drummond St, Carlton
Telephone: 03 9347 2998


There's a song in my head...everytime I eat a pizza.

I'd like to tell you that it's a song I used to hear on the streets of Rome. A song which would play while I strolled the afternoons away in an understated black dress - Valentino, of course -and as I strolled I would thoughtfully nibble a light pizza rustica, crafted from the most beautiful and earthy ingredients by a brilliant but lonely old chef whose artiste hands were destined to suffer a most untimely death by rheumatism.

Unfortunately, it's actually The Fast Food Song.

And as a consequence of having

1. Spent the first 18 years of my life eating many 'a-Pizza Hut' creation (to my knowledge, none of them are on the verge of disappearing from existence), and
2. Lived around the corner from Lygon for three years and thus suffered through many 'completely authentic and be-yooo-tiful pizzas',
   

I actually have great disdain for pizzas in general.

It's nothing personal. It's just business. Well actually, it isn't, I just wanted to say that (I really am annoying today). It's just taste really - you can only have so many bad pizzas before you want to run down Lygon shrieking "No I do not want to come in, and no I'd prefer not to accept your generous offer of a 20% discount for me and me only that's only valid tonight!"

If there's anything more embarrassing about being the first customer for dinner service, it's being the customer getting caught taking pictures of the prep for dinner service.


This is what you get at DOC - a mozarella and pizza bar (Yeah I spell it m-o-z-z-a-r-e-l-l-a too but I'm guessing Matt Preston knows better?) that does what it does well.

Small, but seating is squeezed together so it's not usually hard to get a table. It does get hard for the waiters to squeeze around you though!

I wonder if Sicilian salt tastes any different to Australian.

As you may observe, we decided to take our pizzas away (there's something a little eerie about being the only customers in a restaurant - all eyes are literally on you).

This Pizza al Porcini (with wild mushrooms and truffle oil(!)) is my absolute favourite pizza here, and probably one of the only savoury meals I have ever voluntarily opted to have that doesn't incorporate some kind of meat/fish (terribly sorry vegetarians!):


The pungency of this pizza is quite incredible, and I can't help comparing it to my other recent meal of melted-mushroom-with-cheese - I know it seems unfair to compare, but this definitely wins in the 'pure essence of mushroom' department. And of course a little truffle oil never hurt either.

Pizza Al Porcini ($22.50)

My beautiful and understated friend A had a beautiful and understated Pizza Margherita with Marzano tomato and fresh basil. And for a woman who is usually very careful with her figure, she finished the whole pizza by herself. If that isn't an advertisment, I don't know what is.

Pizza Margherita ($14.50)

I've also had the Pizza San Daniele (with San Daniele Prosciutto) and the Pizza Tiger Prawns on previous visits - the latter runs a close second on my favourites list but that's just personal choice, both are quite fantastic!

Here is part of the menu for your perusal.


And finally, I snapped this picture of a really gorgeous hollowed-out cheese. I'm sure the more knowledgeable of you can tell me - what is the name and origin of this handsome hunk? I googled 'huge cheese that looks like a melon' and nothing came up! Fancy that. Google failed me.


I'd like to add a little last note about the service here. I've read complaints that it can be less-than-friendly, to say the least. My two cents? It's not the 'warmest' place in town, and it's definitely not somewhere I'd take my parents because I don't think they'd be too comfortable with the too-cool-for-school buzz, but it is somewhere I would go again and again with friends. And I've heard stories of slow kitchen output as well, but to be fair I've been here quite a few times and they're always pretty efficient! In short, the service is adequate, but only perfunctory.

Oh and in case you were reading The Age's review, D.O.C no longer has a no-bookings policy! Now let's see Cumulus Inc follow suit, please.